Isla
The glass of water was cool in my hands when Rolin passed it to me. His fingers lingered against mine a second too long - not quite an accident, not quite on purpose. I took a slow sip, the water doing nothing to wash away the taste of revenge on my tongue.
Then I looked up and said the words that would change everything: "I'll marry you."
For three heartbeats, he didn't move. Didn't blink. Then he reached for his phone with that terrifying efficiency of his. "Jamie. Bring the documents. Now."
I nearly choked. "You can get a marriage license that fast?"
The corner of his mouth twitched. "When you're me? Yes."
Of course. Rolin McCarty didn't wait in lines or follow normal people's rules. The realization should have scared me. Instead, it sent an electric current down my spine.
"Keep it quiet," I warned. "If Alex catches wind of this-"
"Understood." Just like that. No arguments. No questions. As if he'd already considered every angle.
Then he blindsided me. "How's your Singapore operation?"
My fingers tightened around the glass. "You knew about that?"
"I make it my business to know things." His gaze never wavered. "Especially about you."
The air between us shifted. I took another sip to hide how my throat had gone dry. "It's fine. Mostly because Alex never found it."
"Good." That single word carried more approval than most people's standing ovations.
I couldn't stop the bitterness from leaking out. "He had it all planned out, you know. Take my shares. Leave me penniless. Probably expected me to beg for scraps." The glass trembled in my grip. "The bastard never imagined I'd fight back."
Rolin's eyes darkened. "Isla-"
The intercom buzzed, cutting him off. He pressed the button without looking away from me. "Send him in."
Jamie arrived like a ghost, depositing two thick files and an envelope that looked suspiciously like-
"Is that a marriage certificate?" My voice came out strangled.
Rolin's smile could have cut glass. "Consider it your first wedding present."
My pulse kicked hard against my ribs. "You really don't play by any rules, do you?"
That earned me a proper grin - the kind that made CEOs and criminals alike start sweating. "Where would be the fun in that?"
The files sat there like a loaded gun. I could feel their weight before I even touched them.
"What's this?" My fingers brushed the top folder, the paper rough like unpolished stone.
Rolin stretched back in his chair, the leather sighing under his weight. "Consider it... an engagement present."
Jamie disappeared without a sound, leaving us alone with the ghosts in those pages.
I flipped the first file open. The words blurred then sharpened with terrible clarity. Each line punched the air from my lungs.
Bank transfers. Secret meetings. Compromising photos. Every dirty secret Alex thought was buried.
My knuckles turned white around the edges. "How—"
"Please." Rolin's chuckle was dark velvet. "I breathe this air."
Typical. The man collected secrets like others collected art.
I kept reading, the room shrinking with every page. My ex-husband's life unfolded in damning detail:
The male intern he'd been fucking in conference rooms. The offshore accounts Jane knew nothing about. The tax fraud even his fancy lawyers couldn't explain away.
Rolin swirled his drink. "Pathetic, isn't it?"
Pathetic didn't cover it. This was a guided tour through a man's moral bankruptcy.
Then I turned the page.
The world stopped.
My vision tunneled to three words: "Termination of Eleanor Whitmore."
Nana.
The paper crinkled in my grip. A sound tore from my throat—half sob, half snarl.
"He killed her." The words tasted like blood. "That bastard killed my grandmother."
Suddenly, all those unexplained hospital visits made sense. The sudden downturn in her condition. The way Alex had insisted on handling everything.
Rolin went very still. Watching. Waiting.
The rage hit me like a freight train. Not the hot, messy kind. This was cold. Precise. Lethal.
I looked up, and for the first time, Rolin saw what Alex had truly created.
Not a victim.
A villain.