Part 1The Woman He Couldn't Afford

This was the third time I’d sued my husband's mistress.

And this time, he was finally angry.

He didn't come home to plead with me to drop the lawsuit, not like the first two times. Instead, my phone buzzed with the full force of his fury.

"Three years, Bianca. A new lawsuit every year. Don't you think you've made your point?"

His voice was a low growl, stripped of any warmth it once held for me.

"You have no idea what I'm capable of. If it weren't for you, for what we were, I have a million ways to make life hell for anyone who messes with Jaz. I'm warning you. This is the last time."

The implication was clear: his restraint was a gift. My last gift. Any more trouble, and that restraint would vanish.

A cold laugh escaped my lips. "Is that a threat, Ethan? Go on. Try and ruin me."

He wanted a quiet life with his little lover, a neat little happily-ever-after.

I would give him a war instead.

He hung up, the silence on the line as violent as his words.

In turn, I called my lawyer and filed an injunction to freeze all our marital assets.

* * *

We were married for five years. For three of them, Ethan had treated me like a ghost.

We met in college, the kind of couple everyone pointed to as proof that true love existed. We were the campus sweethearts, the ones destined to make it. It took us five years to get from that campus to the altar.

It took him two years to cheat on me.

She was his new assistant. Jasmine.

I found them. Not in a motel, not in some sordid apartment, but in our home. He had her tucked under his arm, shielding her as if I were the threat.

"Bianca, don't blame her," he said, his voice firm. "This is on me. I started it."

"Why?" The word was a shard of glass in my throat. Seven years of my life, undone by a girl who couldn't have been more than twenty-two.

"We were out with clients. Someone slipped something in my drink. If Jaz hadn't been there… I could have lost everything." His eyes softened as he looked down at her, a wave of tenderness washing over his face. "She's just a kid, Bianca. An innocent girl. She's with me now. I have to protect her. I can't let her get hurt."

His words hit me like a physical blow.

Ethan was a self-made man, his success built on a mountain of networking events and schmoozing dinners. I was there for all of it. To help him secure funding, I’d sat through countless dinners with lecherous investors, their hands lingering too long on my arm, their eyes crawling over my skin. I’d smiled through it all, for him. For us.

An innocent girl. Can't let her get hurt.

Was that it? Was I no longer clean in his eyes? Was I tainted by the very world I’d helped him conquer? Was that his excuse to find solace in the arms of his wide-eyed assistant?

Then what were all my sacrifices for? What was I?