Chapter 3

Isaac moved fast and soon came back to me with news. An encrypted file landed in my private inbox just three days later.

I leaned back in my office chair and scrolled through the photos and records that he sent me.

The specific events began in March of this year.

On March 14, Noelle and her childhood best friend, Howard Pearce, were seen in a photo eating at a restaurant together. They were sitting in the seats right next to each other, with Howard's arm draped intimately over her shoulder. There was also an open gift box on the table, showing two bottles of fragrances from a his-and-hers pair.

That day, I had been in a conference room negotiating Series B financing with Ford Finances, one of my potential investors. And after negotiating with them for a record 14 consecutive hours with only a five-minute break in between for a sandwich and getting home at 2:00 am, Noelle grumbled lightly under the blankets, telling me to keep it down so as not to disturb her sleep.

On April 2, Noelle's driving logs and phone GPS data showed that she went to Bluebell Cove in the west of the city at 2:00 pm and stayed there till 5:00 pm. That was where Howard lived, and apparently, she went there every single day at the exact same time.

That day, I had just come out of a hospital checkup, with the report indicating a suspected lesion on my liver, and I'd needed a follow-up exam for further investigation. I hadn't been able to sleep well at night ever since, thinking about the worst-case scenario every time I closed my eyes.

Noelle had held my hand and said, "It'll turn out fine, honey. But I'm really busy lately and don't have time to accompany you to the hospital for your checkup."

As it turned out, she'd just been busy keeping Howard company after all.

The final photo was from the night when Noelle made a huge fuss at my company and slapped my general manager, Lacey Torres, screaming and insisting that I was cheating on her with Lacey. She'd stormed off afterward, and I quickly apologized to Lacey before rushing out to find Noelle all night long.

But now, I finally knew that Noelle had been in Howard's car, deeply locked in a passionate kiss at that time.

On top of that, Noelle had also consecutively made transfers to Howard's corporate account using three different payment platforms, with the sum of the transfers totalling 670 thousand dollars.

Isaac even included a footnote at the bottom of the transfer document. He said, "The tech company newly registered under Mr. Howard Pearce's name currently exists only as a shell corporation.

"Over the past three months, they have been engaging with several headhunter agencies to approach key technical staff at Weaver Group. Ms. Noelle Ramsey's relationship with him has been going on for at least a year."

I felt a heavy and stifling weight in my chest. To think that the person I'd loved for so many years had been plotting against me with her lover all along and scheming to squeeze me out of every penny I had, leaving me with nothing in the end.

I had long sensed that something was off about Howard.

Whenever the three of us went out for dinner, Noelle would sit between him and me, and she would naturally incline her body toward him. And whenever we discussed travel plans, she would always take his side and suggest visiting the places that only Howard wanted to go to.

Her repeated favoritism toward him bred some sort of resentment in me. Yet, she would say, "Honey, you know that Howard and I both grew up together, and I only treat him as nothing more than an elder brother.

"If there were ever going to be anything between us, it would have happened ages ago. Can't you stop being so jealous and petty over this?"

I chose to believe Noelle then, but I never thought that she'd actually deceived me for such a long time!

I suppressed the anger in my chest and called my divorce lawyer, Nathan Carter. "Mr. Carter, please draft a divorce agreement that will leave Noelle with nothing. I will be sending all evidence of her cheating on me to your inbox shortly."

I'd only just hung up when my office door was suddenly kicked wide open. Noelle then marched into my office and slapped me hard on the face again.

Before I could even find out what was going on, she smacked a whole stack of photographs onto my desk and screamed, "You told me that you weren't cheating on me, Derek, and I believed you. So, explain these photos to me!"

The photographs showed me locked in a passionate embrace and heated kiss with Amanda Hopkins from the technical department.

Howard, who had barged into my office with Noelle, stood by her side and demanded, "How could you do this to Elle?"

The other employees had gathered outside my office to gawk. A couple of them even began gossiping among each other.

"Damn, I never knew that Amanda was sleeping with the boss…"

"No wonder Amanda's projects have always been so smooth-sailing! It's because she's got connections!"

I looked at the photographs and frowned. "These are all photoshopped. There's nothing going on between the two of us—"

"Nothing going on?" Noelle sneered before grabbing Amanda's arm and yanking her forward. "Tell him! Do you have anything going on with my husband or not?"

Amanda looked at me with an aggrieved expression on her face and said, "But M-Mr. Weaver… Didn't you promise that you'd make things official with me?"