Chapter 2
Back at my firm. I locked myself in my office.]
Called my partner Vivian right away.]
“Need a favor.” My voice was steady, ice–cold steady]
“Dig up everything on Nora Lopez–especially her communications with Marcus, any money transfers, the works.“]
“Also pull all of Sterling & Associates‘ recent cases, especially anything that conflicts with ours.“]]
Vivian went quiet for a moment, then her tone got serious.
This gets into private territory. You really want to go there?”
“Positive.“]
After I hung up, I sat there in the dark, mind spinning.
Didn’t take long for Marcus to call.]
“Harper, babe, don’t read into this.” He was doing his whole calm, reassuring thing.]
*Nora’s just a junior associate. I’m mentoring her, that’s all.“]
“You’re the only one I love, my sunshine.”
Sunshine–used to be my favorite nickname.]]
Now it just made me want to puke.]
Maybe I was his sunshine once, but he’d clearly drifted out of my orbit a long time ago.
I gave him some generic responses and hung up.]
Vivian works scary fast. Less than an hour later, I got her message.]
Clicked the link-
The cloud drive was full of Nora’s private IG posts, organized by date with photos and captions]
The latest post was a close up of that fountain pen, MY pen, with the caption:
[Using M’s pen to write our future. The sunshine is mine alone.]]]
My sunshine nickname, my custom pen–all turned into another woman’s trophies.]
I scrolled down, expressionless.
Next post showed two people holding hands with movie tickets to “Nobody 2“-dated on our anniversary, when he claimed to be on a business trip to Seattle.
I flipped to Valentine’s Day and almost dropped my phone.
The photo was taken in our bedroom. OUR bedroom! Nora was wearing MY silk robe, looking all sultry and satisfied.[]
I started shaking uncontrollably.
Don’t know how much time passed before a notification sound snapped me back to reality around midnight.]
Court filing system had sent me a document.
Evidence exchange and examination points for “Pacific Industries v. TH Corp—the case I was lead counsel on.]
Plaintiff’s attorney listed: Nora Lopez.
I opened the attachment and read through it line by line.]]
When I got to the witness examination outline, my blood turned to ice.]
Every single question, every psychological trap–it was identical to my confidential final draft that no one else had ever seen.
My secret weapon for destroying the other side in court.
I bolted to Marcus’s study.[]
On his desk was an open notebook.
In his messy handwriting, clear as day: analysis of our witnesses backgrounds and several brilliant interrogation angles that only an insider could know.
Title: “For Nora.”
He wasn’t just cheating on our marriage–he was personally destroying my career, using my own work to pave his mistress’s path to success.
I doubled over, hit by a wave of nausea so intense I had to grab the wall to stay upright.
Turns out when someone who knows you inside and out stabs you, it really does cut the deepest.]
