Chapter 3 Nathan hadn't expected silence to feel this loud

Nathan hadn't expected silence to feel this loud.

He sat in his office, staring blankly at his monitor. Emails blinked unanswered. The steady hum of keyboards and phones surrounded him, but none of it registered.

All he could hear was the echo of Evelyn's last message.

Too late.

Two words that had never frightened him before. Evelyn had always been patient. Forgiving. Predictable. She was the type of woman who believed in fixing things, even when they were already broken. For years, he'd leaned on that certainty.

Now it terrified him.

He reached for his phone again, typing and deleting the same apology three times. He had told himself that once the truth came out, things would settle. That Evelyn would rage, cry, and eventually move on.

He never expected her silence.

And he never expected the consequences to begin so quickly.

His assistant knocked on the door. "Mr. Whitmore? HR wants to speak with you. Now."

His blood turned cold.

---

Clarisse paced across the cramped living room of the rented apartment they'd moved into the night before. It smelled like mildew and disappointment. This wasn't the life she envisioned when she imagined stealing Evelyn's husband.

She thought it would feel like a victory.

Instead, it felt like a downgrade.

Nathan had barely spoken to her since they left Evelyn's house. He was distracted, distant-caught up in the chaos Evelyn had begun unleashing with quiet precision.

Clarisse had underestimated her.

And now, she was starting to feel it.

Her phone buzzed. A message from an unknown number.

> "You didn't just lose a friend. You made an enemy."

Clarisse swallowed. No name. No threat. Just a reminder.

She deleted it, but her hands trembled.

---

Evelyn sat calmly across from her lawyer, her posture composed, voice steady.

"I don't want a clean break," she said. "I want full exposure. And I want everything he owes me. Financially, emotionally, legally-I want to take it all."

Her lawyer raised an eyebrow, impressed. "We can work with that."

"Good." Evelyn leaned back. "And I want to make sure the woman he cheated with gets dragged down with him. If she thinks she won, she hasn't seen the scoreboard."

There was no trace of the woman who once doubted her worth in Evelyn's eyes.

She had been humiliated, yes. But not destroyed.

And now, she was rebuilding herself from the ruins-with sharper edges.

---

That night, Nathan came home late to the apartment he already hated.

Clarisse was waiting.

"You didn't tell me you were being investigated," she snapped, arms crossed.

Nathan tossed his briefcase onto the couch. "It's not an investigation. It's a review."

"A review?" she laughed bitterly. "Because your wife sent your boss every receipt for every hotel and dinner you put on the company card. That's not a review, Nathan. That's a damn execution."

He looked at her, tired. "This wasn't supposed to happen like this."

Clarisse narrowed her eyes. "Then maybe you should've left your wife before you slept with me under her roof."

Nathan's expression darkened.

"Don't pin this on me," he muttered.

"Oh, really?" Clarisse shot back. "Because as far as I remember, you were the one crawling into my bed every night, telling me you'd leave her. That you loved me."

"I do," he said, but the words were empty now. Even to his own ears.

She laughed again-cold, sharp. "No. You loved the thrill. You loved cheating and getting away with it. But now? Now you're just watching everything fall apart."

And deep down, Nathan knew she was right.

---

The next morning, Evelyn arrived at the charity gala she had co-chaired for three years. Nathan had always stood beside her, smiling for cameras, shaking hands.

Tonight, she arrived alone.

And stronger for it.

She wore a crimson dress that turned heads the moment she entered the ballroom. Heads tilted. Whispers followed. But she didn't flinch. Let them whisper. Let them stare.

The chairwoman approached with a warm smile. "Evelyn. I heard... I mean, I wasn't sure if you'd still come."

"Why wouldn't I?" Evelyn smiled. "A marriage failed. I didn't."

It wasn't long before questions floated her way, wrapped in polite concern.

"What happened with Nathan?"

"I heard rumors..."

"Clarisse? Seriously?"

Evelyn never raised her voice. Never lashed out.

But her answers were knives hidden in silk.

"Yes, my husband and Clarisse are together now. Apparently betrayal is more fashionable than loyalty."

"She was staying with you, wasn't she?"

"Mm-hmm," Evelyn sipped her champagne. "Under my roof, in my guest room. I suppose it was convenient."

People didn't know whether to comfort her or fear her.

Which was exactly what she wanted.

---

Later that night, as she stepped outside for air, a voice called after her.

"Nathan's falling apart, you know."

Evelyn turned to find Adrian Cole-an old friend of Nathan's, someone who had always respected her more than he did Nathan.

"Oh?" she replied.

Adrian nodded. "Word is, HR's preparing a formal review. Might cost him his promotion. Maybe more."

Evelyn looked out over the city lights. "Good."

He hesitated. "You're not... broken by this?"

"I was," she said simply. "But now I'm just angry. And I intend to use that anger wisely."

He studied her for a moment. "You know, some people would have just walked away."

She turned to him, her smile razor-sharp.

"And some people were never meant to be stepped on."