Chapter 2 - The Art of the Trap
Gavin came home at 2:15 in the morning. I was sitting in the dark living room, a cup of cold tea in my hands, listening to the heavy, frantic thud of his footsteps. The front door slammed shut. He didn't check on Mia. He marched directly into the living room, flipping on the harsh overhead chandelier.
He looked terrible. His tie was ripped off, his designer suit wrinkled, and his face was pale with absolute panic. The arrogant, untouchable CEO I had seen on the laptop screen hours ago was completely gone.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Gavin shouted, pacing across the Persian rug. He was actually trying to blame me. "The entire executive branch was on that call, Nora! Thirty people! Someone screen-recorded it. It’s already circulating in the company group chats. My phone hasn't stopped ringing for five hours!"
"I didn't leave the camera on, Gavin," I said, my voice eerily calm.
"You shouldn't have been there!" he snapped, running a hand through his hair. "You don't understand the corporate optics of this. The board of directors is furious. A CEO caught in a compromising position on a company feed? It’s a PR nightmare. They are calling an emergency shareholder meeting for Friday to discuss my termination."
He finally stopped pacing and looked at me. His eyes narrowed, assessing how much he could still manipulate the woman he thought he had successfully broken. He walked over, dropping to his knees in front of my chair, completely shifting his tactic. He reached for my hands. I let him take them, hiding the absolute revulsion churning in my stomach.
"Nora, please," he begged, his voice dripping with manufactured desperation. "I was an idiot. Camila meant nothing to me. It was a stupid, meaningless distraction because of the stress of providing for this family. But if they fire me, we lose everything. We lose this house. Mia loses her future. We will have nothing."
He was using our daughter as a human shield for his infidelity.
"What do you want me to do?" I asked quietly, playing the role of the terrified, dependent wife flawlessly.
"I need you at that board meeting," Gavin said, his eyes wild with desperate hope. "I need you to stand by my side. I’m going to tell the board that we are working through a private marital issue, that you have forgiven me, and that my personal life will not affect my leadership. If the loving, supportive wife publicly stands by her husband, the board won't have the ammunition to fire me over a morality clause. You have to save us, Nora."
I looked down at the man who had stolen my father's legacy, drained my financial independence, and bought his mistress a diamond necklace with my money. I thought about the folder safely hidden under my mattress upstairs.
"Okay, Gavin," I whispered, forcing a single tear to fall down my cheek. "I'll be there. I'll tell them exactly what they need to hear."
May you like
He exhaled a massive sigh of relief, kissing my knuckles. "Thank you. Thank you. I promise, after this is over, things will change."
He was right. Things were about to change forever. As soon as he left the room to take a shower, I pulled out my phone and dialed the personal cell number of Marcus Sterling, my father’s former estate attorney—a man Gavin had strictly forbidden me from speaking to for three years.
