“You don’t get privacy anymore.”
Amber burst into tears.
Marcus took a step forward. “That’s enough.”
“No. I need to know exactly what’s been going on between you two.” I looked from Amber to Marcus. “Either the two of you destroyed our marriage because you wanted to, or there’s something you’re both still hiding.”
Nobody answered.
“Which is it?”
“There’s something you’re both still hiding.”
Amber’s grip on my arm tightened until I could feel her nails through the fabric.
“Please. Let’s talk upstairs. Just you and me. I can explain everything, I swear to you, I can explain it all.”
“Then explain it here,” I said. “You had no problem letting him into our home at night and buying our son’s silence with candy. Explain it here.”
Amber buried her face in her hands. “I didn’t want to betray you. I had no choice.”
“I swear to you, I can explain it all.”
Marcus interrupted sharply. “Amber.”
She looked at him.
Then she laughed.
It was an exhausted, bitter sound.
“It’s over, Marcus. And I’m not going to protect you anymore.”
Marcus’s face changed.
“I’m not going to protect you anymore.”
She looked around at her coworkers.
“He said if I wanted the promotion… if I wanted to keep advancing… I needed to prove I was loyal. And if I didn’t… he’d fire me.”
Nobody moved.
One of her coworkers whispered, “Oh my God…”
Amber wiped her face. “Every time I tried to end it, he reminded me who signed my performance reviews.”
“I needed to prove I was loyal.”
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Suddenly every conversation from the past year sounded different in my head.
Marcus recommending her.
Marcus asking her to stay late.
Marcus insisting she attend “networking dinners.”
Marcus deciding who advanced… and who didn’t.
I’d spent months admiring the man I should have been questioning.
Every conversation from the past year sounded different in my head.
Something inside me was breaking, but something else was hardening in its place.
Clarity. Cold, surgical clarity.
Noah tugged at the hem of my shirt.
