chapter 1: The wife

Evelyn’s POV

The campaign office went silent when I threw the coffee in Julia’s face.

Very hot black coffee still steaming.

She gasped, her hands flying up too late while brown liquid dripped down her cheeks, stained her white blouse, pooled on the desk where Alfred’s phone sat unlocked.

“What the hell…” someone said outside the room

The office door burst open. Three staffers crowded in the doorway, eyes wide, mouths open. Sarah from communications. Two volunteers whose names I’d never learned. They stared at Julia dripping coffee, at me standing there with the empty cup still in my hand, at Alfred’s phone on the desk.

“Mrs. Cole…” Lawson badged in after he had been chasing me since he saw me walked into the office. His face pale. “What’s going on?”

More people appeared behind Lawson. Someone pulled out their phone. I heard a camera click.

“Put that away,” Lawson snapped at whoever it was. “Everyone back to your desks… and you , you’re fired “ He said pointing at the girl who took the picture.

“Mrs. Cole, you don’t have to do this here”

“Shut up.” I kept my eyes on Julia. Twenty-two years old, blonde who I had just found out not less than twelve hours ago was sleeping with my husband.

I’d found out last night. Alfred came home late, exhausted, fell asleep on the couch still in his suit. His phone buzzed on the coffee table. A text notification lit up the screen.

Julia: “Can’t stop thinking about earlier. You’re incredible.”

I picked up his phone. No password he’d never thought he needed one. I scrolled back. Days of messages. Weeks. “Meet me at the hotel.” “Your wife doesn’t suspect anything.” “I love the way you taste.”

Photos, videos and transaction receipts from hotels charged to our joint account.

I’d sat there for an hour reading every word while he snored ten feet away, completely oblivious that his entire life was about to implode.

“You’re fired” I said my eyes glaring on her

Alfred’s office door slammed open. “Evelyn, what the hell are you doing?”

He pushed through the crowd in the doorway, face red, tie loosened like he’d been in a meeting. His eyes went from me to Julia to the coffee dripping onto his desk.

“Firing your secretary .”

Julia wiped at her face with shaking hands. “I didn’t …this isn’t…”

“Pack your things and leave. Take it as a favour from me to you.”

“Mr. Cole ?” Julia turned to him, mascara running, voice breaking thinking he would come to her rescue but he disappointed her like he always does

He stood there in his perfect suit, jaw tight, calculating how this would look if anyone talked. The other staffers pretended to work, eyes glued to their screens, but I knew they were listening to every word.

“ Evelyn you need to go home we will talk about this at home” he said voice low trying to calm the situation.

“No.” I picked up his phone from the desk. His messages were still open. Her name at the top. I had walked in on Julia sitting on his desk her blouse loosened at the top his phone in her hand. She was alone but it looked like he was just with her and probably stepped out before I walked in.

“We’re done discussing things privately.”

“Give me the phone.”

“Come get it.”

He moved toward me. I stepped back, held the phone higher.

“Everyone out,” Alfred said, not taking his eyes off me. Nobody moved.

“Now.”

Chairs scraped. Bags zipped. Within thirty seconds the office emptied except for Julia, still frozen by the desk, and Lawson hovering near the door like he might need to call security.

“You too,” he told Lawson his campaign manager and trusted friend

“Alfred, I think…”

“Out.” He instructed again

Lawson left. The door clicked shut.

Julia stood up, coffee dripping onto the floor. “Mrs. Cole, I can explain…”

“Explain what? That my husband’s dick has been in your mouth? That you’re fucking him in hotels on my credit card?”

I turned to Alfred. “Or should she explain why your phone has three hundred texts to her that you thought you deleted?”

“Evelyn…”

“I recovered them. All of them. The photos, the videos, the hotel reservations.” I held up the phone. “Want me to read some out loud? Or should we just skip to the part where I send them to every reporter in the state?”

Alfred’s face went white. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

Julia grabbed her purse on the desk and ran out sobbing. The door slammed. Alfred and I stood there in silence, three feet apart, a lifetime of lies between us.

“That was unnecessary,” he said finally, voice still low like he was negotiating a contract. “Julia is young. Naive. She misunderstood our working relationship.”

I laughed. Actually laughed. “Misunderstood? I have videos, Alfred. Of you fucking her in the back of your car.”

His jaw tightened. “You’re being emotional. Let’s discuss this at home where we can…”

“I’m not being emotional. I’m being very, very clear.” I took a step toward him. “How many, Alfred? How many Julias have there been?”

He didn’t answer. He never did.

Twenty-two years I have been married to Alfred and in all those years he never missed a day whoring around. I thought it would end, thought I was the problem if I fixed my body or my hair or went to Pilates five times a week and lost weight he would choose me.

I bought lingerie he never saw me wear. Made reservations at restaurants we never went to. Pretended not to notice when he came home smelling like someone else’s perfume.

I’d spent two decades making myself smaller so he could feel bigger. And for what? So he could fuck his secretary on his desk while I cleaned up his messes.

And now standing across the room from him watching him embarrass me made me realize that just maybe he was beyond fixing.

My eyes were teary at that realization not for him but for myself and for how stupid I had been all along hoping he would change .

He walked towards me closing the gab between us

“Evie…”

“Don’t!” I said, turned my face away and grabbed my purse from the floor where it fell after I stormed in and dragged Julia off his desk.

He tried to stop me by the door before I walked out but I payed no attention to him and by the time I did the walk of shame back to my car all his staff eyes were on me. I didn’t care if they saw me as a mad woman.

Alfred made me mad.