My Husband And His Wife

Chapter two

The sun rose the next morning with an insulting amount of cheerfulness. It filtered through the silk curtains of our master suite, casting golden streaks across the Egyptian cotton sheets. For a split second, as I blinked awake, I forgot. I reached out instinctively for the warmth of the man beside me.

Then, the memories of the day before hit me like a physical blow to the stomach.

Larry was there, sprawled out on his back, looking peaceful. He looked like the man I had fallen in love with-the man who whispered that I was his entire world. Looking at his sleeping face, it was impossible to reconcile this “saint” with the animal I had seen tangled with Anna only hours ago.

“The lawyers are moving the trust funds around”, his voice echoed in my head, cold and predatory.

My skin crawled. I wanted to scream. I wanted to grab the heavy glass carafe from the nightstand and shatter it over his lying head. But I didn’t move. Silence roared. I forced myself to keep my breathing slow and rhythmic.

If I moved now, I would be just a woman scorned. If I waited, I was a silent assassin.

The bed shifted. Larry groaned softly, stretching his arms before turning to me. I squeezed my eyes shut for a heartbeat, bracing myself, then opened them and plastered on the “Nara” he expected to see: soft, doting, and blissfully ignorant.

“Morning, beautiful”, he murmured, his voice thick with sleep. He reached out, his thumb grazing my cheek.

I didn’t flinch. I let him touch me, though every nerve ending in my body felt like it was being seared with acid.

“Good Morning. You’re up early. I thought your meeting ran late?”

“It did”, he sighed, leaning in to kiss my forehead. The smell of the cologne-the one I’d bought him for our one-month anniversary-made me want to gag. “I was finalizing that merger for the mid-west branch. It’s grueling, babe, but I’m doing it for us, for our future”.

For your future with Anna, I thought.

“You work too hard, Babe”, I said, my voice sweet as honey. I sat up, pulling the duvet with me to hide the trembling of my hands. “Why don’t you go jump in the shower? I’ll go downstairs and tell the cook to make those pancakes you like. You have a big day ahead, don’t you?”

“I do. I’m meeting with your father’s legal team at noon”. He nipped my ear playfully. “What would I do without you?”

“You’ll never have to find out”, I promised.

As soon as the bathroom clicked shut and the sound of the shower started, I bolted. I didn’t go to the kitchen. I slipped into my private study and locked the door.

My laptop felt heavy as I opened it. My fingers flew across the keys, bypassing the shared household accounts and diving into the encrypted files my father had insisted I keep “just in case”.

I wasn’t just the daughter of a CEO; I was a woman who had been raised to understand the architecture of power. If Larry wanted to move trust funds, he had to go through the Shiny Holdings’ primary server.

I looked at the recent logs. There it was. A request for a “diversification transfer” was initiated three days ago. Larry had already started the paperwork to bleed me dry.

“You’ve been busy, haven’t you, Larry?” I whispered to the empty room.

I didn’t cancel the transfer. If I cancelled it now, he’d know I was onto him. Instead, I picked up my phone and dialed a number I hadn’t called in years.

“Mr. Sterling?” I said when the line picked up. “This is Nara. I need a private investigator. Not the kind that follows cheating husbands to divorce court. I need the kind that digs up bodies. I want everything on Larry Vance and Anna Miller. From the day they were born to the day they met me. And Mr. Sterling? I want it as fast as possible”.

I hung up, my heart hammering against my ribs. The game was officially on.

The steam from the shower began to billow out from under the bathroom door, carrying the scent of sandalwood and cedar-the soap I had hand-selected for him. Everything in this house, from the art on the walls to the silk thread count of our sheets, bore my touch. I had built a sanctuary for a monster.

I sat at my vanity, staring at my reflection. I looked the same: pale skin, dark eyes, the soft curve of a jawline that Larry liked to trace with his thumb. But behind my eyes, the girl who believed in fairy tales was dead.

“Babe? You still here?”

Larry emerged from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist, droplets of water clinging to the hair on his chest. He looked like a god. It was sickening how well he wore the skin of a good man.

“Just getting ready for the day”, I said, my voice steady. I turned and forced a smile, the kind that didn’t quite reach my eyes but was enough to fool a man as arrogant as him. “You look refreshed”.

“I feel like a new man”, he said, stepping closer. He leaned down, pressing a damp kiss to my shoulder. “Though I’d feel even better if you didn’t have to go to the office today. We could stay in, just us”.

The irony was a bitter pill to swallow. Just us. He meant just me and the man who was planning to rob me blind while his mistress, his sister, waited in the wings.

“I wish I could”, I lied, patting his cheek. “But my dad expects me at the board meeting. You know how he is about the quarterly projections”.

“Right. The ‘Old man’ and his numbers”. Larry’s eyes flashed with hunger; he couldn’t quite hide when I mentioned my father. “Tell him I’m looking forward to our lunch. I have some ideas for the trust diversification that I think he’ll really appreciate”.

“I’ll be sure to tell him”, I said, standing up. I needed to get out of the room before the walls closed in on me.

I descended the grand staircase, my heels clicking rhythmically against the marble. In the kitchen, the smell of fresh coffee and sizzling bacon usually felt like home. Today, it felt like a stage set.

“Good morning, Mrs. Vance”, our cook, Martha, said with a bright smile. She had been with my family since I was a child. She had no idea she was serving breakfast to a traitor.

Good morning, Martha. Larry wants the protein pancakes today”.

I sat at the breakfast nook, pulling out my phone. My heart was pounding, but my fingers were cold as ice. I opened my contacts and scrolled to ‘Anna.’

I hit the dial.

The phone rang three times. Every ring was a heartbeat. Finally, she picked up.

“Hello?” Anna's voice was raspy, perfectly mimicking the sound of someone with a cold. The same voice I heard moaning his name some hours ago.

“Anna! I’m so sorry to call so early. I just wanted to see how you were feeling. I was going to drop by last night with some soup and a gift for Leo, but the office kept me late, and I figured you’d be asleep.

I watched Larry walk into the kitchen, now dressed in a sharp navy suit. He froze for a fraction of a second when he heard me say her name, his hand hovering over the coffee pot. He recovered instantly, but I saw it. The crack in the armor.

“Oh… Nara”, Anna coughed, a dry, forced sound. “That’s so sweet of you. I’m still feeling pretty under the weather, just a nasty bug. Leo is at a friend’s house for a play date, so I could get some rest”.

“Poor thing”, I said, my voice dripping with fake sympathy.

Larry walked over, sliding into the seat opposite me. He reached across the table, taking my free hands in his. His touch felt like a burn.

“You’re too good to her, babe”, he mouthed silently.

“I have to go, Anna”, I said into the phone. “Drink plenty of fluids. I’ll call you later tonight to check in”.

“Thanks, Nara. You’re the best friend I could ask for”.

I hung up and set the phone on the table. Larry was watching me, his expression unreadable.

“She sounds terrible”, he said, picking up his fork. “It’s a good thing you didn’t go over there last night. You might have caught whatever she has.

“You’re right”, I said, picking up my coffee cup. My hands were perfectly still. “I wouldn’t want to catch anything…unexpected.

The Shiny Holdings headquarters was a glass-and-steel monolith that overlooked the city. It was a monument to my father’s legacy-and my future. As I walked through the lobby, the staff bowed their heads in respect.

I didn’t go to my office. I went straight to the top floor.

My father, Arthur Franklin, was a man built of granite and old-money discipline. He looked up from his desk as I entered, his eyes knitting together. He has always been able to read me better than anyone.

“Nara. You’re early. And you look like you haven’t slept a wink”.

I closed the door and locked it. The sound of the bolt clicking home felt like the start of a war.

“Father”, I said, my voice finally cracking for the first time. “I need you to listen to me, and I need you not to call the police. Not yet”.

He stood up, his face hardening. “What has he done?”

“He hasn’t done it yet”, I said, walking towards his desk. “But he’s trying. Larry is having an affair with Anna, and Leo… Leo isn’t his nephew, father. He’s his son”.

The silence in the room was deafening. My father didn’t explode. He didn’t yell; he simply sat back down, his eyes turning into cold flints of steel.

“I told you the boy was too polished”, he whispered. “I told you no man is that perfect without a reason”.

“I know”, I said, leaning over the desk. “And I’m going to make him pay for every lie. But I need you to play along. He’s coming here at noon to talk about the trust funds. I want you to give him exactly what he wants. Or at least, I want him to think you are”.

My father looked at me, a slow, grim smile spreading across his face. “You want to bait the trap.”

“No”, I corrected him. “I want to build a cage. And I want to be the one who locks the door”.