He stands and gestures to the desk. I move on autopilot and sit without meaning to.
A thick black folder is opened before me with a stack of Profiles that come into view.
Women catalogued like assets. Faces. Ages. Fertility statistics. Notes on compliance.Agreeable. Pliable.
I recognize them from events and galas. From...
And then I see it: I move the profiles aside and seeher.
The black-haired woman. The one Julian danced with. The one in his office. The one he was too busy to text me. The one who left his office, smirking.
My vision blurs.
Richard tosses another folder in front of me, with my name on it.
My stomach turns as I open it with shaky hands. Details I never shared with Julian. Medical history, details on my family and a list of my vulnerabilities.
I knew Rowan had investigated me.
I knew Julian knew things.
But this... this feels oily.Violating.
I feel sick.
“It was never personal,” Richard says calmly. “Just strategic. Even if he did choose wrong. I will give it to you. He got distracted for a time, but you have become too much, Lucy. Too much baggage, too many needs. He doesn't have time for a wife like you."
He steps even closer to me and places a hand on my shoulder. I immediately shrug it off and stand putting space between us, but he isn't done.
"At least he’s come to his senses before it was too late.”
He drops photos onto the desk.
Julian andher.
Too close. Too familiar. They aren't kissing or having sex, nothing erotic, but they do look intimate, moments with just the two of them sitting too close, Julian looking rumpled with his jacket off, sleeves rolled up, looking like someone was running their hands through his hair. Simone dressed far too revealingly for work. The pictures don't show him cheating explicitly, but there are so many. Taken over days... weeks. They are exposing in ways that don’t need to be explicit to devastate.
“Get out,” I whisper.
He scoffs. "I don't think..."
“I said get out!” I scream.
My voice breaks the room.
Richard leaves just as Rowan rushes in. “Lucy...”
I don’t answer.
I look once more at the wreckage on the desk. The profiled women who were catalogued for Julian's selection. The pictures of my husband, who was too busy to even send me a text message but has been happily spending his time with another woman.
Rowan takes a few steps closer, "Lucy, what happened? Are you ok?"
I wipe tears away that I hadn't realized had fallen and walk out of the office without responding to him.
I walk into my office and collect the folder Graham gave me. My mother’s records. My passport and essentials documents.
I walk out of my office and hear Rowan calling my name from Julian's office. I hear his footsteps behind me, but I know he will not follow me into my bedroom.
