Chapter 2 - The Morning Ruby Came Home Early
Six hours earlier, Ruby had returned from Columbus one day ahead of schedule.
She had spent the week helping her father recover from surgery.
Jameson knew she planned to return Friday evening.
Instead, she arrived Thursday morning.
Their daughter slept in the back seat.
Ruby expected an empty house.
She noticed Brooke’s car parked two streets away.
That was strange.
Brooke was Jameson’s former college girlfriend.
He claimed they had not spoken in years.
Ruby carried the baby through the garage.
Music played inside.
The kitchen smelled like expensive coffee.
A woman laughed in the upstairs bedroom.
Ruby stopped at the bottom of the staircase.
Jameson’s voice answered.
“Mom said she’ll keep Ruby busy when she gets back.”
Brooke laughed again.
“And after she signs?”
“She leaves.”
Ruby’s arms tightened around her daughter.
She did not climb the stairs.
She did not scream.
She quietly returned to the garage and placed the baby back in the car.
Then she opened the home security application on her phone.
Months earlier, she had installed cameras after packages began disappearing and Eliana repeatedly entered the house without permission.
The bedroom camera was disabled.
The hallway camera was not.
Ruby watched Jameson leave the bedroom wearing only jeans.
Brooke followed in Ruby’s emerald robe.
Jameson carried a thick manila envelope.
Inside the living room, Eliana waited with a bottle of champagne.
“You finally got the papers?” she asked.
Jameson dropped the envelope onto the table.
“Everything’s ready.”
Brooke sat on the arm of his chair.
“What if Ruby refuses?”
Eliana smiled.
“She won’t. She thinks the one hundred fifty thousand dollars came from Jameson.”
Ruby’s pulse slowed.
Not quickened.
Slowed.
The amount was familiar.
Three years earlier, shortly before they bought the house, Jameson told her his family was giving them $150,000 for the down payment.
Ruby had always believed it was a gift from Eliana.
Now Eliana spoke as though the money had another origin.
Jameson lifted his glass.
“Once she signs the divorce settlement, she gives up any claim to the house.”
Brooke kissed his cheek.
“And then I move in?”
“You already have.”
Ruby stared at the phone.
She felt no desire to run upstairs and confront them.
She wanted to understand the entire plan.
So she drove away before anyone saw her.
Then she called the attorney she had secretly consulted two months earlier.
May you like
“Rachel,” Ruby said, “I need you to tell me exactly whose house I’ve been paying for.”
👉 Ruby had already suspected Jameson was hiding money—but what her attorney found made the affair seem almost insignificant.
