Chapter 2
The cab driver keeps looking at me in the rearview mirror, I get it. I climbed into his car looking like someone's overworked wife having the worst day of her life,now I'm sitting up straighter, my voice sounds different, and the address I gave him probably pays his rent for a year.
"Are you really going to the Sinclair Estate?" He asks like he's confirming I didn't make a mistake.
"Yes I am,any problem"
"You work there or something?"
"I own the place for your information"
I watched as he stopped slouching and stops asking questions after that.The drive takes twenty minutes. Twenty minutes to cross from one version of New York to another. I watch the neighborhoods shift through the window.
Graffiti-tagged bodegas become artisanal coffee shops. Laundromats turn into private banks with brass fixtures. The streets get cleaner and the trees get taller.My phone won't stop buzzing against my thigh.
I ignore everything except the call I need to make.Thomas Ashford picks up on the second ring. "Thomas Ashford's office-"
"It's Isabelle."
The other end was silent for a while
"Miss Sinclair, Jesus Christ, where have you..."
"I need divorce papers and I need them fast. I want this done in seventy-two hours."
"Isabelle, are you safe? Where have you been? Your grandmother's been-"
"I've been exactly where I said I'd be. Playing house with a man who just called me useless." My voice doesn't crack. "Can you handle it or should I call someone else?"
"I'll handle it, but on what grounds?"
"Adultery, I caught him today on our bed."
"I'll need details for-"
"You'll get them,right now I need you to do something else for me."
"Just name it."
" Find out everything there is to know about Daniel Crawford,where he works, who holds his apartment lease, what he owes. Every single pressure point you can find." I watch as my old neighborhood disappear behind us. "And then destroy him piece by piece."
Thomas goes quiet for a minute. When he speaks again, there's something almost proud in his voice.
"Your grandmother taught you well."
" I'll see you tomorrow."I hang up before he can say anything else.The cab turns onto my street, except it's not really a street—it's more like a statement. The trees here are older than most countries. While the houses don't have prices, just histories.
It's the kind of block where people say they live "in the city" but mean something entirely different.The Sinclair Estate sits at the end like a magnificent castle.
God, I've missed it.
"Do I drop you here?" The driver sounds uncertain.
"Yes,here,"I pay him with a hundred from my real wallet and tell him to keep it. His eyes go wide, but he doesn't say anything. Just takes the money and drives off probably wondering what the hell just happened.
The gate recognizes my fingerprint, after all this time, the system still remembers me.It swings open and I walk up the driveway without limping, without pretending, without playing a part, every step feels like taking off a costume.
Catherine opens the door before I can reach for the handle.She's been managing this house since before I was born-elegant in that effortless way that I secretly admired. When she sees me, her face does something I've never seen before,it cracks.
"Miss Isabelle."
"Hi, Catherine."
"Your grandmother is in the garden room." Her voice wavers. "We've all been waiting."
"I know, I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize,just come inside."
The foyer hits me like a memory I've been trying to forget. Marble floors and the chandelier my great-grandmother bought in Paris after the war welcome me. There are fresh peonies in the crystal vase because my grandmother refuses to use anything else.
Catherine doesn't say anything as we walk through the house, but I catch glimpses of my old life in every room. The painting I bought at auction when I was nineteen and thought I knew everything.
The Steinway I learned on but never mastered. Family photos where I'm smiling, polished, wearing clothes that cost more than most people's cars.Nothing like the woman I've been pretending to be.
The garden room is full of flowers and my grandmother sits in her usual chair with a book in her lap. Eleanor Sinclair, seventy-eight and sharper than most people half her age.
She turned inherited real estate into a tech investment empire. Forbes calls her a titan.I just call her granmy.She looks up when I walk in.For a moment, we just stare at each other.Then she closes her book and stands.
"Isabelle."she called out in a soft tone
I cross the room as she opens her arms. I break down in her embrace.
"I'm sorry," I whisper into her shoulder.
"Hush my love,you're home now."
"I was so stupid to have thought..."
"Shhh, don't talk like that,you were hopeful." She pulls back, holds me at arm's length, studies my face like she's checking for damage. "Did he hurt you?"
"Only my pride."I muttered.
"Good, because if he'd touched you, I'd bury him in litigation so deep his grandchildren would still be paying lawyers." She guides me to sit. "Tell me what happened."
I told her everything, letting myself be vulnerable and Grandmother listens without interrupting. When I finish, she's quiet for exactly six seconds."You're better off."
"I know,but I really loved him"
"Hopefully you would stand by your decision because you're going to doubt yourself tomorrow,next week. You'll wonder if you gave up too fast.
""I won't."I fired back
"You will." She says as she leans forward. "You tested him to see if he was worthy, and he failed but part of you will always wonder if the test was fair."
Her eyes pinned me in place. "So let me be clear, a man who truly loved you would have loved you in any circumstance.Be it rich, poor, healthy, sick, none of it would matter. Daniel loved having a grateful wife and when you stopped being convenient, he threw you away."
"He called me a burden."
"Because he's small." Her voice turns to ice. "And now the world will see exactly how small."
My phone buzzes. Then again. Then five more times in rapid succession.
"What the fuck is going on?"I asked as I opened it
"Ah," Grandmother looks almost apologetic. "I may have made a call while you were in the cab."
"What kind of call?"
"To our publicist,to share the good news and it's breaking right now."
I stare at her.
"What news?"
"That Isabel Crawford, the disabled woman who married Daniel Crawford, is actually Isabelle Sinclair, heiress and a multi billionaire also newly single.
"My stomach drops. "Grammy,you didn't have to..."
"You wanted him to lose everything, well, the best way to do that is make sure everyone knows what he lost."
She holds up her phone to show Financial Times breaking news alert. It reads
SINCLAIR HEIRESS EMERGES AFTER YEARS IN HIDING.Isabelle Sinclair, missing heir to Sinclair Holdings, has been living in disguise as a disabled woman in Brooklyn. Sources confirm she married marketing manager Daniel Crawford, who was unaware of her identity. The couple is divorcing following Crawford's alleged infidelity.
"It's already trending," Grandmother says mildly. "People love good gossip, this is number three trending topic on Twittok."
My phone explodes as text messages, emails ,instarblog notifications flood in. My account-private for years-now has thousands of follow requests.
Then I see the names.
Marcus Chen: I'm on the next flight from Singapore. Don't do anything until I get there.
Alexander Rothschild: I knew you'd come back. I'll be at the estate tomorrow morning. We need to talk.
A couple of unknown numbers but the messages are familiar enough.Is it really you?I never stopped thinking about you.Can we meet?"
They're circling back," Grandmother observes. "Like sharks smelling blood."
"Who?"I asked still strolling my phone
"Every man who ever wanted you. Every man who thought he missed his chance when you ran off to play Cinderella." She smiles, and it's not kind. "Now they all know you're available again."
My phone rings, it's Daniel Crawford, I decline it.It rings again immediately.
"He's seen the news," Grandmother says.
"I don't care about him anymore."
"He'll come here, probably tomorrow, they always come crawling back."
I silence the phone entirely. "Let all of them come."
Grandmother's smile widens. "There's my girl."
There's asoft knock and Catherine appears in the doorway."Miss Isabelle, your mother is en route. She'll arrive within the hour. Also..." She glances at a tablet in her hand. "You have seventeen calls holding, six reporters at the gate, and Mr. Chen's assistant called. His jet lands at nine tonight and he's requested a meeting tomorrow morning at ten."
"A meeting huh," I asked."
"His assistant said 'audience,' actually."she said with a smile.
Grandmother laughs. "Marcus always did have a flair for drama. Tell his people that Miss Sinclair will see him at ten in a formal sitting room."
"Should I prepare for additional visitors?" Catherine asks.
"Absolutely. I expect we'll have quite the crowd by week's end."Catherine nods and disappears.
I turn to my grandmother. "This is insane."
"This is your life, darling,welcome back."My phone buzzes one more time. I almost ignore it, but the name catches my eye.
Unknown: Saw the news. Always wondered where you disappeared to. Glad you're okay. If you need anything and I mean anything,I'm here. - James.
James Mitchell,my college boyfriend. The one my family hated because he came from nowhere. The one who became a surgeon anyway, probably just to prove a point.
"They're all coming back," I say quietly.
Grandmother walks to the window overlooking the gardens. "You wanted to know if you could be loved without your money,now you get to see if any of them can love you with it."
I join her at the window. The gardens look like something from a magazine. Perfectly trimmed hedges and the fountain running clear. Everything exactly as I left it except I'm different now.I'm not the girl who thought love could exist in a vacuum. I'm not the wife who accepted cruelty as the price of loyalty.I'm Isabelle Sinclair and I'm done pretending to be someone else.
"Grandmother?"I called out
"Yes, darling?"
"I want a new wardrobe,I want to look like I never left."
"I'll call the stylist tonight."
"Also I want to host something, a gala next month. Something public."
"Consider it done my child."
"And Daniel..."
"Will be destroyed by Friday,you have my word."