He Was Sleeping with My Assistant

That night, Julian had explained that he had given a pregnant woman and her friend a ride to the hospital because they couldn’t find a cab.

I had been a little suspicious. In the end, though, happiness had gone to my head.

I chose to believe him.

“Stella’s missing. I’ve been busy looking for her.” Julian brushed off Anna’s complaint, then caught the scent of her perfume. He frowned. “Didn’t I tell you to stop wearing that? Stella has a good nose. She notices scents.”

So he had been lying that night.

“Oh, come on. She’s not here, is she?” Anna clung to his arm, pressing her breasts against him. “Since when are you so timid, Julian? You certainly aren’t like that in bed. Remember last time? A month ago, right here in this house? My legs were shaking, and you still wouldn’t let me leave. Stella almost caught us.”

Her sweet, coaxing voice made my head spin.

A month ago.

The night he proposed.

Before I came home, he had been in this very house, fucking another woman.

Details I had ignored came rushing back with painful clarity.

Anna had called in sick that day. Said she needed to stay home and rest.

Yet on my way back, I had seen her car at an intersection. Seen her profile flash past through the window.

And late that same night, she had sent me a message.

“Stella, I’ve met a man I really like. But there’s a pretty big difference in our social standing. Would you support me?”

I had actually been happy for her.

I told her to be brave.

Every memory made me sicker.

“How could you do this to me?” I screamed.

“Julian, Stella isn’t coming back, is she? Because…” Anna leaned toward his ear, her breath warm against his skin. Her fingers curled around his tie as she looked up at him through her lashes. “She’s dead.”

“Shut up.”

His face darkened instantly.

He pulled her off him.

“Stella is missing. That’s all. She’ll come back when she’s ready.”

I knew exactly why he was angry. Anna had touched the truth, and he was frightened.

But to her, it looked as though he was defending me.

Her smile faded. Resentment and jealousy took its place.

“I’ve worked for Stella for three years. I know her. She doesn’t play games with her work. She’s spent months pouring everything into tomorrow’s tender. If she wasn’t dead, she’d crawl back to be there.”

If I could crawl back from the dead, the first thing I’d do was tear both their lying faces apart.

Julian gave her a cold look.

“I’ve treated you well, Anna. Keep your mouth shut at the office.”

He opened the front door.

“Get out. And don’t come here again unless I say you can.”

Anna was furious, but she was also afraid of truly angering him and ending up with nothing. She stalked out in her heels.

I couldn’t bear another look at Julian.

Even the house I had lived in for years felt filthy now.

I couldn’t stop wondering how many other women he had brought here while I was gone.

Who had he been sleeping with while he told me he loved me?

People either didn’t cheat, or they kept doing it. It never stopped at once.

But my spirit was trapped beside him.

No matter how disgusting he was, I couldn’t leave.

On the morning of the tender, Julian got up early to dress carefully.

Blue shirt. White suit.

The man in the mirror looked gentle and refined. His face, his bearing, everything about him was handsome enough to make women look twice.

Before leaving, he put on cologne.

That familiar ambergris.

It reminded me of the fact I still couldn’t explain: two years ago, he had risked his life to rescue me.

I looked at him beside me, my feelings tangled beyond understanding.

And it wasn’t just the kidnapping.

When I was eighteen and almost died in a fire, Julian had risked his life to save me then too.

Could even those things have been an act?