PART 1<\/p>\n
\u201cDarling, you forgot to end the video call.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gavin Prescott spun around so fast in his chair that he almost knocked over his laptop. More than thirty windows from Summit Crest Group\u2019s monthly meeting were still open on the screen, which meant thirty employees were seeing exactly the same thing as me.<\/p>\n
Camila, his assistant, was sitting on his lap, her blouse buttoned incorrectly and a diamond necklace glimmering around her neck. I recognized the necklace immediately because two months earlier I had seen it in a jewelry store in Beacon Hill and told Gavin that I loved it, though it cost $110,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is crazy to spend that much,\u201d he had replied back then. \u201cYou do not work anymore, Nora, so why do you need something like that?\u201d<\/p>\n
That night we had plain soup for dinner because he insisted that we had to be careful with every single penny for the mortgage, but now that very necklace was wrapped around another woman\u2019s neck. Camila jumped off his legs in a panic.<\/p>\n
\u201cNora, it is not what it looks like,\u201d she stammered.<\/p>\n
Gavin slammed the computer shut and glared at me. \u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not ask if I was okay, nor did he apologize, but instead he got angry with me. I simply held up the thermal bag I was carrying in my hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said you would be out late tonight, so I brought you dinner,\u201d I said, setting the bag down by the door. \u201cI will go now.\u201d<\/p>\n
I walked toward the elevator, but Gavin caught up with me before the doors could close.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can explain everything,\u201d he pleaded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw your assistant sitting on top of you,\u201d I replied coldly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just an accident,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also saw the necklace,\u201d I added.<\/p>\n
His face changed instantly. \u201cIt was a company performance bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed at the absurdity of his statement. \u201cDoes Summit Crest Group give out $110,000 bonuses in the form of a high end diamond necklace?\u201d<\/p>\n
Camila appeared behind him, frantically trying to adjust her blouse. \u201cGavin and I are just boss and assistant, nothing more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs sitting on his lap also part of your official contract?\u201d I asked her.<\/p>\n
Gavin stepped between us to protect her. \u201cThat is enough, Nora, because you do not have to humiliate her like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
That single phrase hurt me far more than the scene itself because he was still protecting her over me.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long has this been going on?\u201d I asked as the elevator doors opened.<\/p>\n
No one answered me right away.<\/p>\n
\u201cGavin, tell me the truth,\u201d I demanded.<\/p>\n
He lowered his gaze to the floor. \u201cIt has been two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt the ground disappear beneath my feet because our daughter Mia was only three years old when it all started. That was the exact same year Gavin convinced me to quit my job at a financial consulting firm, telling me that he did not want a nanny to raise our daughter and promising to take care of me completely while I stayed home. Since then, he gave me $1800 a month for food, school expenses, transportation, clothing, and everything else Mia needed, forcing me to stretch every single bill to make ends meet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about Camila\u2019s apartment?\u201d I asked, realizing another painful truth.<\/p>\n
Gavin froze completely, and his silence was answer enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much do you pay for her place?\u201d I pressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is thirty two hundred dollars a month,\u201d he muttered.<\/p>\n
My throat closed up because I had spent three years feeling guilty every time I bought a cup of coffee outside, while she lived in an apartment that cost almost twice as much as everything he provided for his own wife and child.<\/p>\n
Gavin tried to grab my arm. \u201cLet us go home together so we can fix this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is something else you cannot fix,\u201d I said, stepping back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
I pointed to the laptop he had closed too late. \u201cThe meeting was still connected while you two were together.\u201d<\/p>\n
His face lost all its color. \u201cDid someone manage to record it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am sure someone did,\u201d I replied softly.<\/p>\n
Camila put her hand over her necklace in horror as thirty employees had just discovered in seven seconds what had taken me two long years to figure out. Alejandro believed that the video was the worst thing that could happen to him that evening, but he had no idea that later that night I would open a folder I had not touched in three years and discover that the dependent wife he treated like dirt had far more power than he ever imagined.<\/p>\n
I picked up Mia from her kindergarten in the Sunnyside neighborhood and said nothing about what happened. At five years old, she simply asked if her dad was going to have dinner with us tonight, and I told her he was busy, which was the final lie I ever told to protect his image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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