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100. The Announcement
تاريخ النشر:
2026-09-16 19:23:40
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The Wife He Chose Too Late 107. The Woman Who Wanted Him
Damien's POV By the time the rain began tapping against the windows, most of the executive floor had emptied.I liked the office better after everyone left. During the day, there were too many voices, too many footsteps, too many people appearing beside my desk with questions they could have answered themselves if they had bothered to read the emails I sent them. At night, the glass walls reflected the lamps and the city lights until it became difficult to tell where the office ended and the darkness outside began.Damien was still working.His office door stood open, and every so often I could see him moving behind the glass. He had taken off his jacket and loosened his tie, and there was something almost painfully familiar about the sight of him like that. I had known him in expensive suits and formal dinners, under wedding lights, in airports and hotel rooms, in the quiet hours after arguments when neither of us knew what to say next.I had known him before Claire or at least, I h
The Wife He Chose Too Late 106. The Assistant
Damien's POV I waited until the penthouse was quiet before opening Tiffany's employment file.Claire had gone to bed nearly an hour earlier. I could hear the faint movement from the bedroom whenever she turned over, followed by long stretches of silence. I had learned to recognize the difference between her sleeping peacefully and the restless nights that sometimes followed a difficult memory, and tonight she seemed calm.I wanted to leave it that way.The conversation we'd had earlier kept returning to me, particularly the detail she had remembered about Tiffany watching us across a room. Claire had been careful not to turn an incomplete memory into an accusation, and I respected that. She had told me exactly what she remembered and, just as importantly, what she didn't.That left me with something I could work with.Facts.I opened the personnel system on my laptop and pulled up Tiffany's employment record.Her file was shorter than I expected.I had appointed her myself.That fact
The Wife He Chose Too Late 105. The Memory of Tiffany
Claire's POV The memory came back while I was looking through the photographs Emma had left on the coffee table.I had been sorting through them without any particular purpose, pausing over faces I recognized and others that belonged to people whose names still meant nothing to me. The photographs had become strange little windows into a life I had once inhabited without thinking about it. Sometimes I could look at one and feel absolutely nothing. Other times, something as small as a dress, a room, or the expression on someone's face could pull at a thread buried somewhere in my mind.I turned over another photograph. Tiffany was standing in the background.My fingers stopped.I had seen her face before, in photographs from the gala and in the memories other people had given me, but this time something changed.The room around me seemed to fall away.I was somewhere else.I recognized Laurent Group immediately, although I couldn't remember the exact date. The reception area outside o
The Wife He Chose Too Late 104. The second report
Damien's POV The police report arrived just after nine in the morning, and I knew from the expression on Detective Reynolds's face that whatever was inside the folder had changed the investigation.He had asked to meet me at Laurent Group rather than discuss it over the phone. That alone was enough to make me cancel the meeting I had scheduled with two investors and ask my assistant to clear the next hour.When he entered my office, he carried a thin evidence folder beneath one arm and a tablet in the other. He didn't sit immediately. He stood beside the chair opposite my desk, looking toward the windows for a moment before turning back to me.“We received the technical analysis from the laboratory,” he said, setting the folder down. “The damage to the component wasn't consistent with an ordinary mechanical failure.”I leaned back in my chair.“We already knew someone interfered with it.”“We knew the component had been deliberately altered. We didn't yet know how precise the alterat
The Wife He Chose Too Late 103. A Family Dinner
Claire's POV By the time Olivia and Emma arrived, the dining table had already become the subject of an argument.It wasn't a serious argument, although Damien had the particular ability to make even harmless disagreements sound like matters requiring a board meeting. He was standing beside the table with one hand resting on the back of a chair, looking at the plates Maria had arranged while Olivia inspected the place settings with the suspicion of someone who had been personally offended by the number of forks.“You have four forks,” Olivia said.Damien glanced at the table. “I can count.”“I know you can count. I'm questioning why.”“For dinner.”Olivia looked at me. “You see what I have to deal with?”I laughed as I came into the room. “You invited yourself.”“I was invited.”“By me.”“Exactly. Which means you have excellent judgment.”Emma followed her into the dining room carrying a bottle of sparkling water and immediately looked at the table.“I think Olivia is upset about the
The Wife He Chose Too Late 102. The First Crack
Tiffany's POV By the time Damien returned to the office, the announcement had already changed the atmosphere inside Laurent Group. People were trying to behave as though nothing had happened, but their phones kept lighting up on desks, conversations stopped whenever someone important walked past, and every few minutes another employee found an excuse to mention Claire's name. I heard it from the reception area, from the assistants gathered near the elevators, and from two senior managers who were discussing the announcement in voices they probably believed were discreet. I kept my expression neutral while I worked through Damien's schedule. There were interviews requesting his comment, requests for photographs, questions from investors who wanted reassurance that the announcement would not affect the company, and invitations from news programs hoping he would appear on air. I sorted what needed his attention and sent the rest to communications, but I found myself staring at hi
The Wife He Chose Too Late 6. The Morning After
Claire's POVDamien wasn't home, of course he wasn't.I stepped inside anyway, but the apartment felt different. Larger somehow. Colder. The silence seemed to stretch endlessly through the empty rooms, and for the first time since discovering I was pregnant, fear settled heavily in my chest. It wasn
The Wife He Chose Too Late 5. The Woman Who Left Him
Claire's POVThe moment I saw the name on Damien's phone screen, something inside me went completely still.Tiffany Morgan.For a second, I wondered if I had imagined it. The restaurant seemed to fade around me, the soft glow of candlelight and the murmur of nearby conversations becoming distant an
The Wife He Chose Too Late 4. A Dinner for Two
Claire's POVThe message remained open on my phone long after I had finished reading it.Outside the penthouse windows, Manhattan glittered beneath the deepening evening sky, its countless lights stretching toward the horizon like stars scattered across black velvet. Normally I loved this view. The
The Wife He Chose Too Late 3. The Wife in Everything But Name
Claire's POVThe next morning, I left the penthouse before Damien not because I had an early meeting and not because my schedule demanded it but because I couldn't bear the thought of sitting across from him at breakfast while pretending his words from the night before hadn't lodged themselves bene
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