He Left Me to Freeze, So I Burned His World Down Chapter 01

He Left Me to Freeze, So I Burned His World Down Chapter 01

My husband brought his mistress and their illegitimate son into our home.

So I smiled, raised my glass, and offered them a toast.

“Congratulations, Graham.”

I turned to the other woman. “And to you, Miss Piper. You’ve finally earned the Lockwood heir a seat at the main table.”

The room went dead silent.

Graham blanched.

He rushed to my side, hissing in my ear, “Ava, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Nothing was wrong with me.

I had simply seen the future—my future—while I lay unconscious after a fall from my horse.

In my last life, I had screamed. I had cried. I had thrown this luncheon into chaos.

And in the end, he had seized my family’s foundation, had my best friend crippled for testifying on my behalf, and staged my death as an accident, burning me alive.

Now, I was awake.

When I looked at his mistress weeping so delicately, all I felt was disgust.

The sight of him shielding that mother and child, a clumsy, brutish tableau, made me want to laugh.

I had my photographer capture it all.

Every frame was irrefutable evidence, enough to trigger the moral breach clause in our prenuptial agreement.

Proof that he had dug his own grave.

The game was just beginning.

I turned and left, dialing a number as I walked.

“Bennett, it’s me. Ava Hart.”

“I’ve decided to replace the co-chair of my foundation. Do you have time to talk?”

…

I had barely hung up when my phone lit up again with a text.

[Anytime. I’ll meet you outside the courthouse.]

The sender was Bennett Shaw.

I put my phone away and drove back to the Virginia estate where Graham and I had lived for five years. Our wedding photo still hung on the living room wall. He looked brilliant and ambitious; I was smiling as if I owned the world.

Our marriage had once been the darling of Virginia society—the Hart family fortune wed to Lockwood family ambition. I had thought it was love. Now, it looked more like a transaction.

If it hadn’t been for the fall, for the vision I had in my coma—of him moving Piper into a house just down the road while I was supposedly on my deathbed—I might have stayed asleep forever.

I pulled myself back to the present. Every object in this house seemed to mock the fool I’d been in my past life.

“Maria,” I called to the housekeeper, “take that photo down and throw it away.”

“Madam?” The elderly woman looked stunned. “But that’s your favorite…”

“Not anymore.” I pointed to the shelf above the fireplace. “And those equestrian trophies. The ones he gave me. Get rid of them, too.”

Maria didn’t move. After a moment, she said, “While you were unconscious, sir may have… but he never let anyone touch these things. He said that when you woke up, everything should be just as it was. Perhaps there’s still a chance for you two…”

“That won’t be necessary,” I cut in.

Just as Maria was about to obey, Graham came home.

He blew through the door and came right for me, grabbing my wrist so hard I thought the bone might splinter.

“Ava, you are a vicious bitch.” His eyes were bloodshot, his voice thick with fury.

“Humiliating me at the luncheon wasn’t enough? You sent someone to slash Piper’s tires? She was almost in an accident on the way home. Do you have any idea there was a child in that car?”

I looked at his furious face and calmly pulled my hand free.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re good,” he sneered. “Always playing the innocent. Who else would do something like that but you?”

“Graham,” I said, meeting his eyes, “if I wanted revenge, I wouldn’t resort to some clumsy trick that leaves a trail. I would have my lawyer dismantle your position in the Hart family trust, piece by piece.”

My calm seemed to enrage him more than any hysteria could have.

He didn’t believe me. In his eyes, I was just throwing a different kind of tantrum.

“So you still haven’t learned.” His voice went ice-cold. “You want to make a scene? Fine. I’ll give you a place to cool down.”

He glanced at the bodyguards behind him.

“Take her to the boathouse. Lock her in.”

My body went rigid.

Late autumn in Virginia meant the temperature by the lake could drop below freezing at night. I’d been frail, always sensitive to the cold, since I was a child. No one knew that better than Graham.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my voice finally trembling.

“Helping you clear your head.” His face was a mask. “You can come out when you understand what you did wrong.”

Two bodyguards seized me. Ignoring my struggles, they dragged me from the warm living room and into the frigid night.

The boathouse was pitch-black, damp, and freezing. The door slammed shut behind me, followed by the heavy clank of a lock.

The cold rushed in, piercing my thin dress. I started shaking uncontrollably, my teeth chattering.

I pounded on the cold iron door, my voice breaking.

“Graham! Open the door! You’ll kill me!”

His voice came from outside, cold as frost.

“Admit you slashed Piper’s tires, and I’ll let you out.”

“I didn’t do it!”

“Then stay in there until you’re ready to admit it.”

Time crawled by. The cold was like a thousand needles stabbing my skin. My consciousness began to blur, my limbs going numb. I curled up on the floor, feeling the life drain out of me.

The agony of being burned alive in my other life hadn’t even faded, and now I was going to freeze to death in this one?

With the last of my strength, I gripped the icy door handle. My lips were turning purple.

“It wasn’t… me…”

Graham’s cold snort cut through the door, thick with disappointment. Then came the sound of footsteps walking away.

Just before I sank into darkness, I heard a bodyguard’s panicked shout crackle over a walkie-talkie.

“Sir! Mrs. Lockwood is unconscious!”