Chapter 3

Magpie's grip on the phone tightened.

The Cloudwater. That was her property. Bought before the marriage. Her name alone on the deed.

He certainly knew how to pick his locations.

Her reply into the phone was flat. "Noted."

She ended the call, pulled up the going rate for Tribeca penthouse rentals, and forwarded it to Damon.

If he was putting his mistress in her apartment, he could pay rent on it.

Damon didn't reply. But a bank notification arrived almost immediately. A sizable wire.

The next few days, Damon didn't appear. Magpie was relieved.

She didn't need to track what he was up to anymore. Didn't need to lose her mind to keep him.

She even picked up composition again, something she hadn't touched in two years. Pulled her attention off Damon entirely. Felt lighter than she'd felt in a long time.

She still saw traces of him through mutual acquaintances' social posts, though.

The night before, he'd been in the VIP lounge of the Monte Carlo Casino, throwing money away, Celine curled into his side, smiling for the cameras.

The night before that, a private yacht party. In the photo his arm was around Celine's waist. Fireworks over the water behind them.

The most recent post was from a known producer, on-set with some reality dating show.

Damon had personally shown up to visit Celine on set.

He sat easy by the monitors, eyes following her.

Interesting, after all these years, that this old flame hadn't just been brought back into favor. She could drag Damon out to visit her personally. The woman had skills, apparently.

Wren's birthday party was scheduled for the weekend. Manhattan's elite in attendance, satins and diamonds, champagne flowing.

Just before the dinner service, Magpie went to the kitchen one more time to double-check the menu. Her daughter's third birthday was not going to have a single thing go wrong.

When she stepped back into the ballroom, the first thing she saw was Eleanor's face, dark with displeasure.

Wren was in the center of a cluster of guests. A woman was crouched in front of her. Celine.

She had a diamond bracelet in her hand, expensive, glittering. She was smiling.

"Wren, sweetie. I brought this for your birthday. Do you like it? Let me put it on for you, okay?"

Wren looked startled. She instinctively shrank back. "No…" she mumbled.

Celine acted like she hadn't heard. She reached out and grabbed Wren's small wrist, trying to slide the bracelet on. Wren jerked her arm free on reflex.

Celine raised her eyes, damp and theatrical, and looked toward the man standing to the side.

"She doesn't seem to like me very much. I only wanted to make her happy…"

Magpie saw the whole tableau and the blood rushed straight to her head.

She crossed the floor in three strides, shoved Celine aside, and pulled her startled daughter firmly into her arms.

Ignoring Celine now sprawled on the floor, she looked straight at Damon.

"Damon. I told you not to bring your garbage into places where my daughter can see it."

The air congealed. Celine blinked at her from the floor, then her eyes rimmed with red.

She looked up at Damon, small and injured.

"Mr. Sterling… I was just following what you said. Bringing a gift for Wren…"

Damon's face went dark.

He glanced at Magpie first. Then he bent and helped Celine up off the floor.

"Did you hurt yourself?"

Celine used the leverage of his arm to stand, then sagged into the crook of his elbow and shook her head softly.

Damon finally lifted his eyes. They were flat with impatience.

"I thought you'd learned to behave lately. Thought you understood boundaries. My mistake."

"Celine is my new personal assistant. I brought her tonight so she could get familiar with Wren's preferences. So she could take better care of her going forward. You can't even give us that much?"

"Where's the dignity of Mrs. Sterling?"

Magpie closed her eyes for a moment.

Two years of catching him cheating, making scenes, smashing things. She'd done plenty that wasn't dignified.

Every time, Damon had just waited her out, soothed her with a few careless words, then sent the other woman away in front of her.

Now Celine had put her hands on her daughter. And he was asking her where her dignity was.

"You bring your mistress into a room, put her on display at your daughter's birthday party, and now you're talking to me about face?"

Damon's face went darker. It was Eleanor's sharp word from across the room that finally stopped what came next.

A carefully planned birthday party, ending on shame and quiet.

Guests made tactful excuses and drifted out, leaving only the wreckage and the awkwardness.

Wren, shaken, came down with a low-grade fever that night. Magpie sat up with her through the dark.

Once her daughter was asleep, she turned her attention to assets.

When she pulled up the family trust Richard Sterling had set aside specifically for Wren, something felt wrong.

A large sum had been drawn down recently. The authorizing signature was Damon's.

The number was huge. Nearly the entire principal.

How could he?

Ice ran up her spine.

She called him. No answer.

She hung up and drove straight to Sterling Industries headquarters.

On the top floor, outside the CEO suite, the secretary tried to block her. "Mrs. Sterling, Mr. Sterling is in the middle of…"

Magpie walked past her and went straight for the office door.

Her hand was on the handle when she heard the sounds inside. A woman's soft moans. A man breathing hard.