Chapter 2

Alexandra Wright POV:

Three days later, I was sitting in my car across the street from The Gilded Cup, a trendy downtown coffee shop. The award Anthony was in town to receive was a week away. Time was a ticking clock, and every second was a beat in the drum of my new, cold purpose.

My phone vibrated with a text from him.

Anthony: Thinking of you. This afternoon' s panel is a drag. Wish I was home with you instead. Love you.

The words were a puff of smoke, meaningless and insulting. I watched as his sleek black sedan pulled up to the curb. He got out, impeccably dressed, a charming smile already fixed on his face as he spoke into his phone, his AirPods nestled in his ears.

I couldn' t hear his words, but I knew the tone. It was his public voice-confident, warm, engaging. He was probably talking to his business partner or a client.

Then I saw his expression shift. The public smile vanished, replaced by a look of impatient hunger. His voice, even from across the street, seemed to drop an octave, becoming more intimate, more urgent.

"I' m here. Where are you?" he said, his eyes scanning the street. "No, I told you, the back entrance. The one by the service alley. Just get here."

He snapped his phone shut and moved with a brisk, almost predatory stride, disappearing down the narrow alley beside the coffee shop. The alley led to the service entrance of The Atherton, the boutique hotel connected to the cafe. The same hotel mentioned in the text message.

My hands clenched the steering wheel, my knuckles white. A tremor ran through my body, a low-frequency hum of pure, unadulterated rage. This wasn' t grief. It was something harder, something sharper. It was the feeling of being forged into a weapon.

I got out of the car, my movements deliberate. I followed his path down the grimy alley, the stench of garbage and stale beer clinging to the air. I saw him swipe a key card and slip into a discreet side door of The Atherton. Room 207.

He didn't even have to check in. He had a key. This was a regular thing.

I didn't follow him in. Instead, I walked back to the front entrance of the hotel, my face a mask of polite indifference. I stood near the elevators, pretending to text on my phone.

Minutes turned into an eternity. Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Each minute was a fresh layer of filth coating my twenty-year marriage. I imagined what was happening in Room 207. The thought didn't bring tears. It brought a chilling, clarifying focus.

I would not be the weeping wife pounding on the door. I would not create a scene. My revenge would be cold, calculated, and public.

After forty-five minutes, I pulled out my phone and dialed his number.

He answered on the second ring, his voice breathless. "Hey, honey. Everything okay?"

The sound of his feigned concern, layered over his ragged breathing, was so profoundly disgusting it almost made me gag.

"Anthony," I said, my own voice a stranger' s-shaky, weak. I injected a note of panic into it. "Where are you? I... I don' t feel well."

"What? What' s wrong?" he asked, the practiced worry flowing effortlessly. "I' m just in a meeting, it' s about to wrap up. At the firm' s satellite office."

A lie. So easy. So smooth.

"I think... I think I' m having a panic attack," I whispered, letting my voice crack. "My chest hurts. I need you to come home. Please."

There was a beat of silence. I could almost hear the gears turning in his head, weighing his options. His sick wife versus his cheap thrill.

"Of course, honey. Of course. I' m leaving right now. I' ll be there in twenty minutes. Just breathe, okay? I' m on my way."

He hung up.

I flattened myself into a small alcove near the emergency exit, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs. Seconds later, the door to Room 207 flew open. Anthony stormed out, his face a mask of fury, his phone already to his ear.

"Something' s come up," he hissed into the phone. "My wife... she' s not feeling well. I have to go. No, I don' t know when. Just... go out the front. I' ll text you later."

He didn' t wait for a reply. He sprinted toward the elevators, jabbing the 'down' button repeatedly.

I held my breath, waiting. A moment later, the door to 207 opened again. A figure emerged, and the world tilted on its axis.

It was a woman. Young, maybe mid-twenties, with long, blonde hair and a trendy, expensive-looking dress that hugged her body. She stepped into the hallway, a pout on her perfectly glossed lips. She pulled on his arm.

"Don't go," she whined, her voice laced with a petulant entitlement. "She can wait."

He yanked his arm away, his face tight with irritation. "Katia, not now. I have to go."

He gave her a quick, rough kiss, a gesture devoid of any real affection. It was a dismissal. "I'll make it up to you," he murmured, before turning and rushing away.

She watched him go, a flicker of annoyance crossing her face before she composed herself, smoothing down her dress. And as she turned, her face came into the full light of the hotel corridor.

My blood ran cold.

I knew that face.

Every parent at Northwood High knew that face.

Katia Shepherd.

Jacob' s school counselor. The "cool" counselor, as my son had described her. The one who was "so much easier to talk to than, you know, adults."

The memory hit me with the force of a physical blow. Jacob, a few months ago, at the dinner table. "Ms. Shepherd is so cool. She actually gets it. She said I have an old soul, just like my dad."

Another memory. Jacob, scrolling through his phone, laughing. "Look at Ms. Shepherd' s TikTok. She' s hilarious."

He knew.

My son knew.

He wasn' t just aware of the affair; he was an admirer of the mistress. The "cool" upgrade to his "old and boring" mother. The pieces didn' t just click into place; they slammed together, forming a monstrous picture of betrayal so profound it stole the air from my lungs. This wasn't just Anthony's deception. It was a conspiracy. A conspiracy in my own home, with my own child as a willing participant.

The image of my husband and my son, two smiling vipers, rose in my mind. They had been laughing at me. For how long? Months? Years?

The pain was a physical thing, a white-hot agony that seared through my chest. For a moment, I couldn't breathe. I leaned against the wall, the rough texture of the wallpaper digging into my back. This was a betrayal on a cellular level. It was a poison that had been drip-fed into the heart of my family, and I had been blissfully, stupidly unaware.

The ice in my veins turned to fire.

I pushed myself off the wall, my movements steady again. The grief was gone, burned away by a pure, righteous fury. I walked out of the hotel, not back to my car, but down the street, my heels clicking a sharp, determined rhythm on the pavement.

I pulled out my phone. I didn't call a friend. I didn't call my mother.

I called my personal assistant, a ruthlessly efficient woman named Zara. "Zara, I need you to do something for me. I need everything you can find on a woman named Katia Shepherd. Social media, public records, everything. And I need it by morning."

Next, I dialed the number for LegalEagle88, the Reddit lawyer.

"It's me," I said when she answered. "The woman from the forum. I have proof. And I want to burn his world to the ground. But not yet. I want to do it on my own terms. And I have the perfect stage."