Chapter 3

My assistant, Maya, came running out, catching up to me right at the elevator.

Her face was pale with anxiety.

"Evelyn, what is going on?"

"That Hailey girl was just guessing randomly! Why did you let her win?"

Let her win?

I had never been winning in the first place. How could I talk about losing?

Seeing my silence, she lowered her voice even more. "She's just a homewrecker. She’s loud-mouthed, and we don't even know if she's actually pregnant."

I pressed the elevator button. "Then you're giving her too much credit. She’s not even the third party."

I couldn't even count which number she was anymore.

After all, at least ten girls had come to find me directly.

As for the ones who hadn't? Who knew?

"Evelyn..." She took a step closer. "If you leave, then Carter—"

"He has Hailey now," I said simply.

In the future, this highly sought-after, exhausting position of Mrs. Sterling belonged to her.

The elevator doors slid open, and I stepped inside.

I closed my eyes, trying to fight off the suffocating waves of anxiety crashing over my chest.

I remembered the day he confessed his love to me seven years ago.

He had said, "Evelyn, I'm never letting you go. You're stuck with me for life."

Back then, he had jumped into a street fight with some thugs to protect me, ending up with a broken nose.

His face had been covered in blood.

I had been crying hysterically, screaming for help.

But even while lying on the dirty asphalt, he had smiled at me and whispered, "Don't cry, babe. I'm okay."

Our love had been a beautiful, consuming wildfire.

We dated, we got married, we built a business empire together from scratch.

But then, my parents were killed in a horrific car crash. On that exact day, I developed a severe psychological trauma response: Severe Codependency Disorder.

At my worst, my obsession with Carter was borderline pathological.

If he went on a three-day business trip, I would suffer from insomnia for three days straight.

If his phone died and I couldn't reach him, my anxiety would spiral so wildly that I would knock on his coworkers' doors in the middle of the night.

Whenever he didn't reply to my texts, I couldn't sit still. My mind would scream on a loop: He’s leaving you. He doesn’t want you anymore.

If he didn't come home, I would turn on every single light in the penthouse and sit on the couch, staring at the door until sunrise.

In those early days of the company, no matter how swamped he was, he would always text me to check in. He never spent a night away.

Even on business trips, he would catch a 2 AM flight just to come back and hold me.

He used to tell me, "Don't worry, Evelyn. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."

But later, I heard rumors about his beautiful new secretary, Ashley.

After she accompanied him on a few major project trips, the entire company started whispering about how "compatible" they were.

I heard she stayed late with him in his office every night, and they frequently went out for late-night dinners.

I heard he picked out expensive birthday gifts for her and took her to watch private firework displays.

Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore. I went to see the girl.

The very next day, Ashley jumped from the office roof.

Even though the police investigation cleared me of any wrongdoing, and even though I swore to Carter that I had only talked to her... the way Carter looked at me changed forever.

To please him, I begged him, "Let me be your secretary. I know the company better than anyone, and I know you."

He agreed.

I went to work with him every day and came home with him every night.

I followed him like a shadow.

Some people joked behind my back that I was like a leech, but I just smiled and ignored them.

But then, I found a receipt in his suit pocket.

A high-end jewelry boutique. A pair of diamond earrings. Eighty-three thousand dollars.

My ears weren't pierced.

The gift wasn't for me.

After days of agonizing, I chose not to ask. He chose not to mention it.

I knew that curing my dependency on him would be harder than trying to stop breathing.

And he had grown utterly exhausted of the eyes watching his every move.

One refused to let go, while the other desperately wanted to escape. We both pretended to be blind.

I thought keeping up the charade would save us.

But the women outside had been spoiled rotten by him. One after another, they began showing up at my office.

They sat across from me, throwing proof in my face.

Expensive gifts, wire transfer screenshots, promises of eternal love.

Everything they had, I didn't.

Everything I had, they got too.

My birthdays, our wedding anniversaries, holidays—the only thing he gave me was a rushed dinner before rushing off to his "meetings."

Those nights he claimed he was busy entertaining clients? They were spent in the arms of other women.

So, those girls all believed they were the ones truly loved. They would ask me when I was going to pack my bags.

My emotions went from rage, to terror, and finally, to complete numbness.

I learned to ask those three questions. I listened to their answers, and then I escorted them out.

I foolishly believed that as long as I got rid of them one by one, he would eventually come back to me for good.

But the women kept coming. Each one younger, prettier, and more entitled than the last.

Until Hailey.

In seven years, he had never personally accompanied a girl to face me.

He had finally brought his infidelity right out into the open.

In that single instant, I finally understood.

I wasn't protecting a marriage. I was just guarding an empty desk.