Chapter 4

Sid sent me a message.

【Babe, work's crazy right now with a project on a deadline. I have to fly out for it, last minute.】

To make me believe him,

Sid sent the flight details.

【If you miss me, just come find me.】

Then he sent the hotel address.

【For your husband, there's always time for his wife.】

There was a time when I'd watch Sid account for everything, down to what he ate and drank each day and who he'd seen, all of it laid out for me. I used to laugh at him for it, like a kid who'd never grown up, the head of Gilbert Corp and still this clingy.

Sid never minded. He'd only tell me,

"Making my wife feel safe is my job." He corrected me, serious about it. "Besides, being a foolish little kid in front of the person you love is its own kind of blessing."

Now.

Sid was certain I wouldn't come and interrupt his little date with Mavis.

But what he didn't know.

I was standing right at the hotel entrance, watching him wrap his arm around Mavis's waist, listening to Mavis needle him. "Babe this, babe that. Why do you love your wife so much~"

"If you love her that much," Mavis pried his hand loose from her, "then why come out here with me~"

The second Mavis let go,

Sid caught her again and pulled her into his arms.

"The flower at home never smells as sweet as the wild one."

"Plain rice never measures up to the one who got away."

"So which is it," Sid leaned in close to Mavis. "The stain you can't scrub off, or the mark that stays under the skin?"

The two of them flirting and bickering, every second of it filmed.

The assistant couldn't stand it.

"What we have now is enough to leave Sid with nothing in the divorce."

"Not enough yet."

My voice was flat as I told her,

"Sid's always believed everything we have now came from the magic lamp, that heaven took pity on him, that this fortune was fated to be his. Not because of me."

"So." I remembered Grandma's words. "A man never remembers the woman who stood by him through the hard years. He only remembers the one who walked out on him when he had nothing."

"Men are base by nature. It's all about the conquest for them."

Now.

I checked the time.

"Just three days."

"I can wait."

For those three days, I trailed Sid and Mavis on their dates, watching Mavis drop hundreds of thousands on a handbag without a blink, watching her ring up a necklace worth over a million, then turn to Sid and say,

"This freebie they throw in, give it to your wife as a trip souvenir."

"No buying her anything new."

Mavis pouted.

"What's yours is mine."

Sid just laughed.

"Fine. Whatever you want."

There was a time Sid said he'd be my knight, that he'd never let me suffer a moment's hurt.

Now Sid held the umbrella over Mavis instead, and let me suffer every bit of it.

I called Sid, listening to him walk off to an empty patch of ground and lower his voice.

"Babe."

"Sid." I reminded him. "You've got an hour and a half left."

"There's time."

His tone was impatient.

"Stop nagging me."

"I already sent you my flight."

"I'll be there. I promise."

I hung up and looked at the countdown to the IPO bell-ringing, at the birthday party Sid had once arranged for me, and at Grandma seated in the place of honor. Through the surveillance feed, I heard Sid warning her.

"Don't say anything out of line."

Mavis followed along, reluctant.

"I got it~"

Sid laughed and gave her cheek a pinch, walked to the ballroom doors, smoothed himself over one more time, and the instant he pushed them open, the color drained from his face.