Chapter 3 - Two Heartbeats
The recording captured Selina saying six words.
“Phase one is finished. Prepare everything.”
That sentence changed the investigation.
Detective Maya Bennett stopped treating Selina as a manipulative ex-girlfriend caught inside a violent marriage.
She began treating her as someone executing a plan.
And Julian?
Julian became something far more complicated.
He had committed the unforgivable act.
But someone had spent months preparing him to do it.
That did not absolve him.
It made the truth uglier.
Maya returned the next morning.
“We checked Mrs. Cole’s phone records.”
“Selina isn't married.”
“She was.”
That surprised me.
“Her legal name is still Selina Cole?”
“Yes. But she was married briefly seven years ago.”
“To whom?”
“A financial consultant named Marcus Dane.”
I waited.
Maya placed a folder on the bedside table.
“Dane worked for Vance Global.”
My pulse quickened.
“When?”
“Until six years ago.”
“Why did he leave?”
“He was fired after an internal fraud investigation.”
I stared at her.
“Julian fired him?”
“Personally.”
Suddenly Selina’s return to Julian's life looked different.
Not romantic.
Strategic.
Maya continued.
“Dane disappeared from the financial industry afterward. But we found shell companies linked to him.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“We don't know yet.”
I thought about Selina.
Her perfectly timed emergencies.
Her gradual return.
The way she had isolated Julian from me without ever openly demanding he choose.
Maybe I had been looking at the wrong target.
Maybe Selina didn't merely want my husband.
Maybe she wanted his company.
That afternoon, Dr. Reed performed another ultrasound.
I watched the screen in terrified silence.
Two heartbeats.
Strong.
Steady.
“Both babies are holding on,” he said.
I cried.
Not loudly.
I had no energy for that.
I simply watched those tiny movements and understood something I hadn't understood three days earlier.
My future was no longer about Julian.
It was about surviving long enough to give my children one.
“You need calm,” Dr. Reed warned.
“I know.”
“No, Nora. I mean it. Your recovery is complicated. We’re monitoring you very closely.”
I rested my hand over my abdomen.
“I’ll do whatever you tell me.”
“Good.”
He hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Your husband has been sitting outside the restricted floor for six hours.”
I closed my eyes.
“Send him home.”
“He won't leave.”
“That sounds like Julian’s problem.”
Dr. Reed almost smiled.
For the first time, I liked him.
Julian stayed anyway.
The next day too.
On the third day, a nurse brought me an envelope.
No flowers.
No expensive jewelry.
Just handwriting.
Nora,
I have rewritten this letter fourteen times because every sentence sounds like an excuse.
There is no excuse.
I hurt you.
I nearly killed you.
I nearly killed our children.
Nothing Selina told me changes what my hands did.
I don't expect forgiveness.
I only need you to know that I am going to tell the police everything.
Julian.
I read it twice.
Then tore it in half.
Not because I hated him.
Hatred would have been easier.
I tore it because part of me still remembered the man who brought coffee at midnight.
And I couldn't afford to confuse memory with reality.
That evening, Maya returned with news.
Julian had voluntarily given a complete statement.
He admitted attacking me.
He also surrendered his phone and computers.
“He’s cooperating,” Maya said.
“Good.”
“He claims Selina spent months showing him messages supposedly sent by you.”
“What messages?”
“Threats. Anonymous emails. Photographs. She convinced him you were following her.”
I laughed bitterly.
“And he believed her.”
“Yes.”
“Without asking me.”
Maya didn't soften it.
“Yes.”
That was why I trusted her.
She didn't try to make Julian sympathetic.
She dealt in facts.
Then she slid several printed pages toward me.
I read the messages.
I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE.
JULIAN WILL NEVER BE YOURS.
STAY AWAY OR YOU’LL REGRET IT.
They looked crude.
But to a man already emotionally manipulated, perhaps they had been enough.
“I never wrote these.”
“We know.”
I looked up.
“You know?”
“Forensics traced two of them to a device purchased by Marcus Dane.”
There it was again.
Marcus.
“What exactly are they planning?”
Maya leaned back.
“We believe they wanted Julian compromised.”
“Why?”
“If the CEO of Vance Global were arrested for killing his wife, the company would face immediate instability.”
I understood.
“Stock.”
“Possibly.”
“Selina wanted Julian to attack me so Vance Global would collapse?”
“We're investigating.”
My stomach turned.
“And Julian gave her exactly what she wanted.”
Maya didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
The next morning, financial news channels began reporting that Vance Global shares had fallen sharply following rumors surrounding Julian’s “domestic incident.”
The board called an emergency meeting.
Julian temporarily stepped aside.
And someone began buying Vance Global shares through several offshore entities.
Marcus Dane.
Phase two.
That was what Selina had meant.
But Maya discovered something even more disturbing.
A security camera across the street from our home had captured Selina arriving that afternoon.
She had not arrived alone.
A black sedan dropped her two blocks away.
The driver waited.
After the ambulance eventually took me away, Selina returned to that same car.
Maya froze a frame from the footage.
The driver's face was partially visible.
Marcus Dane.
I stared at the image.
“This was planned.”
“Yes.”
“From the beginning.”
“It appears so.”
I thought of Selina’s scratch.
“She injured herself.”
“We believe so.”
“And walked into my home knowing exactly what Julian would do.”
Maya’s expression hardened.
“We need her to admit it.”
“Then let me help.”
“No.”
“She thinks I'm weak.”
“You are recovering from major surgery.”
“Exactly. She thinks I'm helpless.”
Maya studied me.
“What are you suggesting?”
“Selina wants something.”
“We believe so.”
“And she still doesn't know you recovered the recording.”
Maya’s eyes narrowed.
I continued.
“Let her believe I’m afraid.”
That night, I called Selina.
She answered after one ring.
“Nora?”
I made my voice tremble.
“I want this to end.”
A long pause.
“What do you mean?”
“I don't want a trial. I don't want reporters. I just want a divorce and enough money to disappear.”
Selina remained silent.
Then her voice became almost warm.
“That sounds sensible.”
“I need your help convincing Julian.”
“I can do that.”
I closed my eyes.
There was the trap.
She believed she was still in control.
“When can you come?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Come alone.”
Another pause.
“Of course.”
She hung up.
Maya, who had been listening from across the room, looked at me.
“She won't come alone.”
“I know.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Selina has never done anything alone.”
The following afternoon, Selina arrived.
But the hospital surveillance team immediately spotted something unexpected.
She wasn't carrying flowers.
She wasn't carrying a purse.
May you like
She was carrying a legal document.
And when she placed it in front of me, I finally discovered what this entire nightmare had really been designed to accomplish.
