Chapter 6 - THE MISTRESS'S SECOND LIE
Khloe admitted it the next morning.
“The relationship started fourteen months ago.”
I stared at her through my laptop.
“You said eight.”
“I panicked.”
“So your first instinct while asking me to trust you was lying?”
“Yes.”
At least she didn’t decorate it.
Sophie left the room before she said something that would permanently damage international relations.
Khloe continued:
“The first six months weren’t physical.”
I laughed.
“You’re explaining categories of betrayal to the wrong woman.”
She looked down.
“You’re right.”
The earlier Dubai hotel charge had been from a corporate conference where Vance and Khloe first crossed the line emotionally.
Separate rooms.
According to her.
I no longer cared enough to investigate.
“What matters,” she said, “is that Vance used Sophie’s account to pay company travel.”
“He used my daughter’s stolen identity to fund trips with you.”
“I didn’t know.”
“That sentence must be comforting.”
“It isn’t.”
Good.
Khloe had booked a flight home.
Without Vance.
She planned to cooperate with investigators.
Before ending the call, she forwarded twelve months of messages between them.
I did not want to read them.
Then I did.
Not the romantic ones.
Those were almost embarrassingly ordinary.
Complaints.
Flirting.
Hotel plans.
Promises.
The financial messages mattered.
Vance:
Monday closes everything. Once Mara’s line funds, we stabilize Sterling Strategic.
Khloe:
And then you tell her?
Vance:
After. I can’t risk her freezing the house before financing.
Khloe:
Does she know the house is collateral?
Vance:
She doesn’t follow business details.
My entire body went quiet.
There it was.
Fifteen years of marriage condensed into one arrogant sentence.
She doesn’t follow business details.
I had followed mortgage rates.
Insurance renewals.
College tuition.
Property taxes.
Medical bills.
Groceries.
Contractors.
His parents’ anniversary gifts.
The landscaping invoice he texted from Dubai.
What I had not followed was the business he deliberately excluded me from.
That afternoon, the bank’s fraud investigator called.
They had confirmed my signature was digitally inserted into the home-equity application.
Funding was canceled.
Sophie’s accounts were frozen and flagged for identity theft.
Good news.
Then came the problem.
Howard Pierce had disappeared.
His office was empty.
Phone off.
Car abandoned at O’Hare.
And before leaving, he transferred $310,000 from Sterling Strategic Ventures into an offshore account.
“He stole from Vance too?” Sophie asked.
Dana nodded.
“Looks that way.”
For one ridiculous second, I almost felt sorry for my husband.
Then I remembered he had forged my financial life to keep his company breathing.
Being betrayed did not make him innocent.
At 4:52, Vance texted.
Coming home tonight.
I stared at the message.
Then another arrived.
We need to talk before lawyers make this worse.
I typed:
My lawyer is the reason it isn’t worse.
He called.
I declined.
Twenty minutes later, Khloe sent one final screenshot.
A message Vance had written to Howard three months earlier:
Once the Dubai money clears, file for divorce. I’ll leave Mara the house and make sure she thinks she won.
I read it twice.
May you like
Vance had planned to walk away believing I would be grateful for keeping what had always belonged to me.
And now he was coming home early.
