Chapter 5 - The Mistress Who Was Never Chosen
Lily Brooks came to the hospital without an appointment.
She wore oversized sunglasses, a wool coat, and the same polished confidence she had displayed in the Paris photographs. But when she was told Claire would not meet her, she waited in the lobby for nearly two hours.
Eventually, Abigail went downstairs.
“What do you want?” Abigail asked.
Lily removed her glasses.
Her eyes were swollen.
“I need to talk to Claire.”
“She doesn’t need to talk to you.”
“I didn’t know she was in labor.”
“You knew she was pregnant.”
Lily flinched.
Abigail crossed her arms.
“You knew Julian was married. You knew he lied about Paris. And you walked into a relationship with a man who had a wife on medical bed rest.”
Lily looked away.
“He told me they were already over.”
“They lived in the same house.”
“He said Claire had stopped loving him.”
Abigail laughed bitterly.
“And you believed that?”
Lily’s face crumpled.
“I believed he would choose me.”
The sentence was so small that Abigail almost pitied her.
Almost.
“He never chose you,” Abigail said. “He chose whatever made him feel powerful in the moment.”
Lily remained silent.
Then she pulled a flash drive from her handbag.
“Julian asked me to sign things,” she said. “I thought they were marketing contracts. But after the accounts froze, I had my lawyer look at them.”
Abigail took the drive.
“There are messages,” Lily continued. “Transfers. Voice recordings. He said Claire was too soft to fight him. He said after the baby came, she would be too tired to understand what he was doing.”
Abigail’s expression hardened.
“Why give this to us?”
“Because he stopped answering my calls. Because he told his lawyers I manipulated him.” Lily swallowed. “Because I finally understand that he was going to leave me the way he left her.”
Claire listened to the recordings that evening.
Julian’s voice filled the hospital room.
Claire will accept the settlement. She always does what keeps the peace.
Another recording followed.
Once she has the baby, she will be too distracted to deal with the company.
Claire closed her eyes.
She had loved this man.
Not a version of him.
Not an idea.
The real man whose voice was now calmly describing how he planned to use her motherhood against her.
When the recording ended, Claire looked at Abigail.
“Send it to Martin.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“What about Lily?”
Claire thought for a moment.
“Tell her she should hire her own attorney.”
Abigail nodded.
“You’re not going to forgive her?”
Claire looked toward Eliana’s bassinet.
“Forgiveness is not the same as rescue,” she said. “She can tell the truth and face what she did.”
For the first time, Claire did not feel rage toward Lily.
She felt clarity.
Lily had been cruel.
May you like
But Julian had built the lie that made cruelty feel acceptable.
And now, every person he had used was beginning to see who he really was.
