Betrayed by my Husband, Crowned as his Rival

​POV: Liora Vance

The only sound for a few seconds was the rattling of cutlery against plates and then Evelyn, Adrian’s mother, gave a loud sigh as she pressed a corner of her mouth with a silk napkin. She never looked at me, of course not during these family dinners, she only looked down at Adrian as if he were a god she had sculpted.

"It's just a pity that the gala photos will only have the two of you," Evelyn said, waving vaguely in my direction with her wine glass. "People still talk about your father, Liora, and that doesn’t enhance Adrian’s brand, when his wife appears to be hiding a secret in every paparazzi shot."

"I wasn’t hiding, Evelyn. I was just trying to get out of the way so Adrian could talk with the investors," I whispered, but my voice seemed too small for the room with its high ceilings.

Adrian’s little sister, Clara, emitted a harsh, derisive laugh and grasped for the crystal jug of water, "You stay out of the way because you have to, let’s face it, if the board found out about your family history, the stock would drop ten points by the end of the day, and Adrian put too much work into this new algorithm to have it tainted by association."

​“Clara, that’s enough,” said Adrian, though his voice was not defensive, but bored, as if he were telling off a puppy instead of defending his wife. ​

He didn't glance up at me either, his attention was on his phoneprobably checking live stats of the ‘Aegis’ launch that I had been working on for two days straight while he took a nap.

"I’m just talking about what the public thinks, brother,” Clara said, tilting her head back against the chair, “Elena would have never had that problem, she was born to be in front of the camera and she really knows the business world, unlike some who just stay at home all day long.”

"She's a professional strategist," Adrian said, at last raising his eyes, if only to gesture to the maid for more wine, "she’s helping us with the next stage of the expansion, and she’ll be coming over shortly to talk about the PR rollout for the new patch."

I felt that old compression in my chest, dull pain that had been there since the day we married and I understood his family considered me a stain they could never wash away. It had always been this way, from that very first Christmas when they insisted I eat at the children’s table to the time Evelyn demanded the staff pack away my father’s books because they were 'cluttering' the library with failure.

"Now, Adrian, speaking of the new patch," I began, trying to keep my voice steady, "I observed a minor lag in the predictive modeling when the data volume went beyond the baseline, it’s a tiny bug in the core logic that could bring the system down if left unpatched till the next update at midnight.

The table fell silent and Clara exchanged a look with her mother that was full of condescension.

Adrian laid his fork down with a loud bang, and at last his gaze met mine, but there was no warmth in his eyes, just a cold, piercing vexation that made me want to fade into my seat.

Liora, we’ve talked about this," he said, his voice dipping into that low, condescending tone he reserved for when he wanted to embarrass me, "you read a handful of your father’s ancient textbooks and all of a sudden you think you’re a systems architect, but you need to know your place. "I'm trying to help here," I said, "I saw the error in the logs and—"

"I don’t give a fuck what you think you saw," Adrian cut in, waving his hand dismissively like he was batting at a fly, "the Aegis system is my masterpiece, I designed it from the ground up while you were busy picking out curtains, so please, leave the thinking to the professionals and for once just focus on being a supportive wife."

“He’s right, darling,” added Evelyn, her voice slick and venomous, “it’s very humiliating when you attempt to speak about matters you know nothing of, makes you look like you’re desperately seeking attention, and Adrian has more than enough to deal with without you harassing him with make-believe problems."

“It's not imaginary, Adrian, if you would just let me show you the terminal—”

Adrian snapped, slamming his palm down on the table so hard the wine glasses trembled, “Liora, I said enough. You should consider yourself lucky that I didn't throw you out when the scandal involving your father came to light, and if you don't stop meddling in the affairs of my company, I'll begin to believe what my mother says about you being a liability."

I looked down at my plate, the costly steak tasting like ash in my mouth, and I felt the warm blush of shame burning up my neck as Clara and Evelyn resumed their conversation about Elena’s forthcoming visit as if I weren’t even there.

This was the guy I had poured everything into, the guy whose career I’d built with lines of code he couldn’t even read, and he was acting like I was some kind of indentured servant who had gotten above my station.

The dinner ended shortly after, and without even waiting for me to get up from my seat, Adrian was on his way to his study to meet with Elena, and I was left to face the icy glares of his family.

I walked toward the kitchen, wanting to get a glass of water, but I stopped when I heard voices coming from the hallway near the office.

​"She’s getting bolder, Adrian," Elena’s voice was unmistakable, sharp and confident, "if she starts poking around the servers, she might actually find something she isn't supposed to see."

​"She won't find anything, she doesn't have the clearance," Adrian replied, his voice sounding closer than I expected, "besides, she’s too timid to actually do anything, she knows she has nowhere else to go."

​"I wouldn't be so sure," Elena said, and I could hear the rustle of paper, "the investors are already asking questions about the leak, and we need a fall guy, someone the public will hate enough to stop looking at the board."

​I stood frozen in the shadows, my heart hammering against my ribs as the realization began to sink in.