Nothing but a Mirage

After sending the report to my advisor, I caught another glimpse of what Shane Holcroft had posted in the family group chat as I was exiting the app.

Besides the text messages, there was also a photo of him kissing Mira Sutton passionately.

I had no intention of torturing myself by studying it, yet just as I pressed the back button, my eyes widened in disbelief.

Only after zooming in as far as the photo would go could I barely make out our archaeology team's logo on the vehicle behind them.

Had Shane been following our team all along? Was he somewhere near me right now?

I pushed down the thousand thoughts racing through my mind and headed straight for Mira's RV without a second thought.

She had been placed on our team straight from overseas. Her professional skills were abysmal, and her need to be pampered was off the charts. Everyone else rode the bus, but she insisted on having an RV follow the team everywhere we went.

Now it looked like that RV had been doubling as a love nest.

The doors and windows of the RV were shut tight. I knocked for ten whole minutes before someone slowly opened the door.

Mira's face was flushed and her clothes were in disarray. The man behind her was bare-chested, and he met my eyes without a shred of shame.

That man was my husband, Shane.

I could not help taking a step back. Even though I had already suspected it, seeing it all with my own eyes still felt cruel.

"Be a good girl and go get some fresh air for a bit."

Shane turned to kiss Mira and watched her step out before he lazily lit a cigarette and looked at me. "If you've got something to say, say it. Don't give Mira a hard time."

The test results in my hand were nearly crushed, and the wound on the back of my head throbbed dully.

I thought back to that morning, when I had suddenly fainted and struck the back of my head on a sharp rock. My colleagues had all been terrified.

Yet the man who shared my bed had watched the whole thing from Mira's RV.

He had been completely indifferent and unmoved, without even the smallest trace of concern or care.

At this point, there was nothing left to talk about. I forced a stiff smile. "I'll have my lawyer send over the divorce—"

"Tsk."

Shane cut me off impatiently before I could finish. "I said if you've got something to say, say it. Stop threatening me with divorce every chance you get."

He thought it was a threat?

I turned the word over in my mind and found it both baffling and laughable.

If he had cared about this marriage even a little, he would never have used me so shamelessly.

Seeing my confusion, Shane stubbed out his cigarette and spoke flatly. "Leila, it's hard to find a Mrs. Holcroft who's easy to control.

"I went to a lot of trouble turning you into who you are now. All I need is for you to stay put in that role and keep quiet so Mira can be left in peace.

"Relax. As long as you don't make trouble, I won't be stingy with what you and the baby are owed."

The crumpled test results grew damp with the cold sweat in my palm, and I was trembling almost uncontrollably.

This was the truth behind our marriage all along.

Shane kept going. "Your family's investments have been going badly these past few years. That was my doing. Now the Danforths have no choice but to depend on the Holcrofts, and there's nothing you can do about it."