Chapter 13
The next morning was gray and restless. Rain tapped against the windows like warning fingers, and Linsey had that same heavy feeling in her chest—the kind you get when you know something is coming, but you don’t know what.
She found Collin already dressed, sitting at the dining table, sipping black coffee. He looked calm on the outside, but there was a tightness in his jaw that gave him away.
“You didn’t sleep much,” she said gently, sliding into the seat across from him.
He didn’t answer right away. Then, finally, “There’s something I have to tell you.”
Linsey felt her heart pause. “Okay.”
Collin reached into the drawer beside him and pulled out a worn manila envelope.
“When I first met you,” he began slowly, “it wasn’t by chance.”
Her breath hitched.
He laid the envelope in front of her.
“I was working for someone,” he continued. “Five years ago, I was desperate. Buried in debt. Someone powerful offered to bail me out. All I had to do… was destroy someone.”
She stared at the envelope but didn’t open it.
“I was told to investigate you,” he said, voice quiet now. “You’d been offered a scholarship back then. You had people who believed in your potential. But the man I worked for wanted you out of the way. Said you were a threat to his daughter’s place. I didn’t understand why at first, but I didn’t care—I needed the money.”
Linsey’s fingers trembled slightly. “And then?”
“And then I met you,” he said. “You were sitting in that bookstore, reading like the world couldn’t touch you. You looked up, smiled… and I couldn’t do it.”
Tears burned her eyes.
“I walked away from the deal,” he said. “But I didn’t walk away from you. I kept checking in. From a distance. Always watching, hoping you were okay. And when I saw what happened with Felix… I didn’t hesitate.”
She finally looked up. “So when I married you…”
“It wasn’t random,” he admitted. “But it wasn’t a game, either. Not for me.”
Linsey was quiet. She picked up the envelope and opened it slowly.
Inside were reports—old surveillance photos, school transcripts, even her sealed record. Her past, laid bare on paper. But none of it felt as heavy as the ache in her chest.
“You knew,” she whispered. “All this time, you knew who I was.”
He reached for her hand. “Yes. And I still chose you.”
Her voice cracked. “But I didn’t choose you with the same truth. I thought you were a stranger. I thought I was running toward something new, not into the arms of someone who already knew my damage.”
“You weren’t just damage,” he said quickly. “You were light. Even then.”
Linsey stood up and walked to the window. The city was blurred by rain, the skyline fading in the storm.
“I don’t know what to feel,” she said.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me now,” he said. “I just couldn’t keep lying.”
She nodded once. “Good.”
But her heart was a storm of its own. She had trusted him—slowly, carefully, piece by piece. And now it felt like someone had shaken the foundation just as she was learning how to stand on it.
Collin stayed silent. He didn’t follow her. He gave her space.
And when she finally turned back to face him, her eyes were filled with something new—not hatred, not rage.
Just hurt.
“I need time,” she said.
He nodded.
“I won’t run,” she added. “But I need time to understand what this means.”
Collin’s chest rose with a deep breath. “I’ll wait.”
But neither of them saw the email being drafted across town—sent anonymously to every major news outlet in the country.
Subject line:
“The Zillionaire’s Marriage Is Built on a Lie.”
And attached to it… was a copy of the very same envelope.