Five

“You will apologize to Chloe before you leave this office.”

Alexander stood beside my desk, speaking as though he were issuing instructions to an employee. Chloe sat behind him, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue, while Eleanor watched me with open impatience.

I looked at the ruined designs. “Did you ask her what happened?”

“I can see that she is upset.”

“That was not my question.”

Alexander’s jaw tightened. “Victoria, stop making everything difficult.”

I reached for the security tablet on my desk. The office cameras recorded the entire design floor, including the coffee incident. I had already asked the building manager to preserve the footage.

“Then let us watch what happened.”

I connected the tablet to the office screen. The recording showed Chloe approaching my desk, glancing toward the door, and deliberately tipping her cup across the drawings. It also showed her stepping back before the coffee touched her dress.

The room became silent.

Chloe’s face drained of colour. “The angle is misleading.”

“The camera is above the door,” I replied. “It has a very clear view.”

Eleanor recovered first. “Even if it was an accident, you should have been kinder. Chloe is young and nervous.”

I stared at her. “You watched her destroy my work and still expected me to apologize.”

Alexander rubbed his forehead. “This has gone too far. Chloe, you should go home.”

Chloe looked at him in disbelief. “But Alex—”

“Go.”

She left with Eleanor, both women avoiding my eyes. Alexander waited until the door closed before turning back to me.

“Why are you doing this?”

I laughed softly. “You are asking me that?”

“You know what I mean. You keep attacking Chloe, and you are making the whole company uncomfortable.”

“I have proof she framed me. What would you have done if I had been the one spilling coffee?”

He did not answer.

I opened my handbag and removed a second envelope. Inside were copies of the yacht photographs, the recording transcript, and the evidence of Chloe’s staged office incident.

“Your mother wants me to apologize,” I said. “I want twenty million dollars added to the divorce settlement.”

His eyes widened. “You are blackmailing my family?”

“I am giving your family the opportunity to settle this privately. If the affair becomes public, your company will have a much bigger problem than twenty million dollars.”

“You have changed.”

“No, Alexander. I have stopped accepting scraps and calling them love.”

His face hardened. “Do you remember what happened to your family? Your father lost everything, and your mother was never the same after his death. My family gave you a place when you had nowhere to go.”

The words struck a place I had spent years protecting. My father’s bankruptcy had destroyed his health and reputation. After his death, my mother’s grief had become so severe that she needed long-term psychiatric care. Alexander had once held me through those nights and promised I would never face another hardship alone.

Now he was using my worst memories to make me feel indebted.

I stood slowly. “Do not use my parents to excuse your betrayal.”

“I am reminding you where you came from.”

“And I am reminding you that I survived it before I became your wife.”

I picked up my bag and walked toward the door. Alexander did not follow.

That evening, I visited a property agent and viewed a small apartment across town. It was not as grand as the Sterling mansion, but the windows were wide, the rooms were bright, and nobody there would tell me to apologize for being hurt.

I paid the deposit from my own savings. I had enough to begin again, even if I had to be careful.

As I signed the lease, my phone buzzed with a message from Eleanor.

*Twenty million is excessive. We will discuss a reasonable figure.*

I typed back that I would wait for her final offer, then switched off my phone.

For the first time in months, I slept without listening for Alexander’s car.

The next morning, I returned to the old house to collect my remaining belongings. A moving van was already waiting outside.

But when I opened the bedroom door, I found Alexander standing beside my wardrobe, holding the divorce agreement.

“Tell me the truth,” he said. “Did you really mean to leave me?”