Chapter 2 - The Mistress’s True Colors
I stumbled out of Robert’s office feeling like the ground was crumbling beneath my feet. I was no longer a wealthy, powerful executive. I was a man standing on the edge of a federal indictment, completely at the mercy of the woman I had spent the last six months betraying.
I needed to think. I needed comfort. I drove straight to the Upper East Side luxury apartment I had leased for Vanessa.
When I unlocked the door, the apartment was in a state of chaotic disarray. Designer clothes were thrown across the velvet sofa, and two massive Louis Vuitton suitcases lay open on the floor. Vanessa was standing in the kitchen, frantically shoving jewelry into a velvet pouch.
“Vanessa? What are you doing?”
She spun around, her beautiful face hardening the second she saw me. “David. Good. I was going to leave the keys on the counter.”
“Leave?” I stepped forward, completely bewildered. “Where are you going? I need you right now. Claire found out. She took the baby, and she found the offshore accounts. My lawyer says my assets are going to be frozen by tomorrow morning.”
Vanessa didn’t offer a sympathetic embrace. She didn't tell me we would get through it together. Instead, she zipped her suitcase and let out a harsh, mocking laugh.
“I know your assets are frozen, David. My black card declined an hour ago when I tried to book a flight to Paris,” she said coldly.
“You tried to leave the country?”
“I’m not going down with a sinking ship,” she snapped, slipping on her designer coat—a coat I had bought her with stolen money. “I signed up for a rich, successful venture capitalist. I didn't sign up to play prison wife to a broke fraudster. Claire already called me this morning.”
My jaw dropped. “Claire called you?”
“She told me exactly what you did. She told me the feds were probably going to raid this apartment by the weekend.” Vanessa picked up her bags, stepping around me as if I were nothing more than a piece of trash on the sidewalk. “You’re broke, David. And you’re going to jail. Lose my number.”
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The door slammed shut. I stood alone in the empty, quiet apartment, the scent of her expensive perfume lingering in the air, exactly as it had in my empty nursery hours ago.
I had traded my devoted wife, my beautiful newborn son, and my entire future for a woman who didn't even hesitate to abandon me the second my wallet ran dry.
