Codename: Prodigy (The Caldwells #1)

Prologue

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

"Home sweet home," Ellen murmured. She sounded like she wasn't really buying it herself.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a new message. Taylor had texted again, the fourth time today.

Ellen muttered, "Forget it," and deleted the message, a habit of hers for the past four weeks. She didn't care where her boots landed as she kicked them off, leaving them scattered in the hallway. She stared at her reflection in the mirror, and she couldn't believe it was really her.

How did she get into this fucking mess?

Caroline Gervais - 6:25 PM Start preparing dinner. I'm hungry. And I don't want to wait. Again.

Things had gotten worse in recent weeks with Caroline, even before her fight with her two sisters—whom she missed so much. But she refused to believe, even now, they could possibly be correct about Caroline's infidelity.

She was beginning to lose sight of the positives, even today, which was perhaps one of the most significant days of her career.

Her presentation on the 'Australian project' to the strategic committee went better than she could have ever hoped.

The pitch was precise, and she had answers for everything.

She presented the whole Australian expansion plan, beginning in Sydney, the location of the headquarters, then Melbourne, and finally Brisbane.

Ellen saw the way they had looked at her, their eyes narrowed with a cautious, assessing gaze.

Robert, her father, nodded once, slowly, and said she had done her homework, and the board would take it seriously.

She thanked them, smiled, closed her laptop, and walked out knowing she had delivered exactly what she had promised.

Robert was proud of his eldest. It should have had meaning, but nothing had meaning anymore.

Her phone buzzed again. She pulled it out and looked.

Incoming call: Robert Caldwell.

She hesitated, thumb over the green button, and answered before she had time to talk herself out of it. "Hey Dad!"

"So, tell me, did your presentation go as well as you'd hoped?" Robert started. "You really stood out and made a strong impression in that room, I'm telling you. The board saw you earned your spot, not just because of your last name."

After three years working with her father, Ellen got really good at guessing about his next steps. So, she figured this call wasn't about the 'Australian project' at all. "Cut the crap, what's going on? Problem at the office?"

"No, everything is fine on that front. I'm just worried about you."

"Of course you are. Taylor and Jessie asked you to talk to me again?"

"Nope, I'm doing all this on my own. It's evident you were exhausted today, Ellen, and I can do the math."

Frustration boiled over as Ellen snapped. "Has my productivity at the office seemed to dip?"

"Of course not, Ellen." She remained silent, avoiding answering.

"Look, I'm calling you as your father, not your CEO," he said.

"It's been weeks since you talked to your sisters.

You never went a day without talking to Taylor or even missing a single December 31st together.

You know how this tradition was important for her. "

Ellen's first thought was to scream at her dad, letting him know she was aware of everything and that he was completely mistaken if he believed she was happy about it.

She wanted to tell him how hurt she was and how much this situation was destroying her too—she felt like a part of herself had been amputated.

No, she would keep her thoughts to herself and wouldn't tell him a thing. She just said, "I know," adding nothing else.

"Help me understand because I am clueless."

"It's quite simple, Dad. Taylor and Jessie overstepped, as usual, when they went behind my back to accuse Caroline of cheating and made false claims. Caroline may have her faults, but she's not fooling me.

I'm not stupid. I know nobody liked her in the family, including you," she stated with a heavy heart.

"Come on, Ellen, you know they only wanted to protect you from her."

"Dad, you just don't get it."

"They wanted. To protect. You. From her," he repeated firmly and with a strong emphasis on punctuation.

Ellen stared at the dark window over the sink and sighed. "It sucks. No one, including you, trusts my judgment when it comes to Caroline," she said.

She had heard enough and didn't want to go in that direction anymore. "Look, Dad, I can't talk about this. Not tonight."

"Be honest with yourself if you can't be with me. You can, but you're choosing not to."

"I'm drained, Dad."

"And you're angry. I doubt that this anger is directed at your sisters, Ellen."

"I said, I'm drained. Please. Don't push. I don't want to hang up on you."

He let the silence stretch. When he spoke again, his voice was way softer. "Okay, fine. I am dropping it."

"But…"

"But… you're isolating yourself, and that's not who you are." Her throat tightened, and she swallowed it down. "Just remember you're not alone in this," he added, his voice steady and almost reaching her. "Your sisters and I will always be there for you."

"I know," she said, because it was all she could say. "Dad?"

"Yes?"

"How are they doing?"

"As you know your sisters in such situations."

Ellen's heart sank knowing Taylor was losing it and Jess was pretending as if nothing was wrong to protect Taylor. Ellen could well imagine her sisters' distress, but it was too painful to agree with them at that moment.

When she thought about it, this was perhaps the most beautiful proof of love from them, and it left a warm feeling in Ellen's chest, but also guilt.

"I love you, Ellen. Never doubt it, okay?"

Though he was AtMedias' CEO and Ellen's boss, he always made it a point to be Ellen, Taylor, and Jess' father first. He consistently treated Ellen with the same respect as himself. He always kept his cool with Ellen and her sisters, except for once on December 24, 2005, with her.

The Caldwells'd been waiting for hours for Jess and her parents, but they never arrived.

Ellen's mother was on the phone with the police, panicked, and Ellen was insisting on knowing what was going on.

Robert's angry shout, "GO TO YOUR ROOM!" replayed in his mind, and the guilt still lingered, even now, eighteen years later.

"Dad, I love you too. I always have, and I always will." That last remark was undoubtedly the most heartfelt and honest thing Ellen had said in weeks, because none of the resentment she harboured toward her sisters was natural or genuine.

Ellen heard her father swallow his emotions, just before the CEO came back. "And once things have calmed down a bit, we'll need to have a proper chat about your unused holiday entitlement," he said, trying to divert the subject.

She ended the call by promising her father she would keep in touch and reconsider her position toward her sisters, even though, at that moment, she didn't have the strength to do so.

Maybe Robert was right and her sisters just wanted to protect her.

The truth was, she knew, but it was more than she could handle.

Her body craved the comfort of a bath, but she suppressed the desire and resigned herself to cooking dinner, per Caroline's instructions. All Ellen wanted was to be loved by her partner. Was that too much to ask?

Ellen had her head in the fridge, taking out the ingredients for their one-pot cheeseburger pasta recipe, when suddenly the sound of a notification disrupted Ellen's thoughts—and the rest of her life.

Ellen turned her head and saw Caroline's iPad carelessly left charging in the living room and displaying a new message. Although hesitant at first, Ellen was unable to resist reading it. She had a feeling it was going to be important.

Hugo (Coach Spinning) - 6:24 PM Gonna miss you. I love you -xxx-

The dots appeared immediately underneath. Caroline answered via her iPhone.

Caroline Gervais - 6:25 PM Love you too -xxx- (I will ask her when her next business trip is when I reach home.)

Her? Like she didn't have a name?

In that instant, Ellen felt a sharp, internal crack as her heart splintered into countless fragments.

Dropping the iPad onto the sofa as if it were burning hot, she rushed back into the kitchen, but its magnetic pull was too powerful to ignore.

She returned to the living room, took hold of the iPad, and began to scroll through its contents.

Each upward swipe felt like a knife to Ellen's heart. The evidence was irrefutable: Caroline'd been cheating on Ellen for over three years with her spinning instructor, the incredibly handsome Hugo.

The conversation was intimate and quite explicit, but it wasn't what hurt her the most: it was seeing how completely different Caroline was from Ellen in their own relationship. The more Ellen went, the more she found out about her partner's secret life.

Everything was now making sense in Ellen's mind. Their texts showed everything, from quick check-ins to deep feelings, and they'd been at it for ages, longer than Ellen thought. It was weeks and months, but she stopped scrolling before reaching the end.

Caroline sent him a revealing picture of herself, an image far more explicit than anything Ellen had received from her in the past five years.

Hugo (Coach Spinning) – 12:04 AM God babe. I can't stop thinking about last night. You can do real magic.

Caroline even sent him the address of a seldom-used Caldwell family chalet located at the bottom of the Mont Tremblant ski slopes. Looking at the shared calendar for that weekend, Ellen noted that it indicated Caroline was meant to be at an interior design conference in Vancouver.

Caroline Gervais - 4:15 PM Are you in? All expenses paid by my stupid girlfriend. Just wait and see the place. I was the one who created the design. They spent a ton of cash, but they were never around. Which means actual peace.

Hugo (Coach Spinning) - 4:18 PM Maybe you could ask her for the place if you finally were to leave her.