Chapter 2

The morning of Elena and Alexander's fourth wedding anniversary felt different to her.

Elena woke up earlier than usual, and the moment she opened her eyes, she remembered the date.

A smile spread across her face before she even realized it.

November fourth.

Four years had passed since the day she had become Alexander King's wife.

She reached for the bedside table and picked up her phone to check the date once more, even though she knew it by heart.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she looked around the room.

Almost every corner held a memory.

Alexander had chosen those curtains himself during the first year of their marriage.

The small vase on the table had been his gift to her on her first birthday after their wedding.

Even the painting hanging across from the bed was something he had bought for her during a short trip they had taken together outside New York.

Elena sighed contentedly.

Despite everything that had changed over the past two years, she still held on to the beautiful memories they had made together.

She got up and walked to her wardrobe, then took out an elegant dress in a soft, understated color that she had bought a few days earlier.

She didn't know whether Alexander had planned anything for the occasion.

But she had decided to surprise him herself.

She set her phone aside and began planning her day.

She would prepare a dinner he loved.

She would decorate the small garden at the mansion with little lights.

Perhaps she would even buy him a simple gift.

The gift itself wasn't what mattered to her.

She simply wanted to recapture a little of those days when she had felt that, in the entire world, Alexander saw no one but her.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Alexander was in his office.

A stack of files lay in front of him, but he wasn't reading a single one.

His phone rested on the desk, and several messages had arrived since morning.

He picked it up and glanced at the screen.

A message from Victoria.

"Don't forget what we agreed on for tonight."

He stared at the words for several seconds.

Then he locked his phone and set it aside.

He didn't think about his wedding anniversary.

Or perhaps he remembered it but simply didn't give it the importance Elena did.

Victoria had arranged everything days ago.

Tonight, he would spend the evening with her.

For the first time since his wedding, Alexander wouldn't return to the mansion on their anniversary.

The decision seemed simple to him.

Or so he convinced himself.

---

By evening, the mansion was quieter than usual.

Elena lit the little lights around the garden and arranged the table herself.

She placed Alexander's favorite flowers in the center, then lit a few candles.

Afterward, she went upstairs to her room and put on her dress.

She stood before the mirror for a few moments, then smiled.

"I hope he likes it."

She glanced at the clock.

Eight o'clock.

He hadn't arrived.

She wasn't worried.

Perhaps he had an urgent meeting.

Eight thirty.

She sent him a short message.

"Are you going to be late?"

She waited.

No reply came.

She set her phone aside and tried to distract herself by rearranging the table.

Nine o'clock.

The food had grown cold.

Elena sat alone at the table, staring at the empty chair across from her.

She tried calling him.

Once.

Then again.

No answer.

She slowly lowered her phone.

She wasn't angry.

There was only a strange feeling beginning to creep into her chest.

Perhaps it was something she had spent the past two years trying not to admit existed.

---

A little before midnight, Elena was in her room when her phone vibrated.

She glanced at the screen.

An unknown number.

She opened the message.

There was only one sentence.

"Your husband is cheating on you."

Her fingers froze.

She stared at the words, unable to process them.

Then a second message arrived.

"I know you won't believe me, so I'll leave you the proof."

A notification appeared, indicating that images were attached.

Elena hesitated for a long time before opening them.

The first picture was enough to make the world around her fall silent.

Alexander was asleep in a bed, with a woman beside him whose face wasn't clearly visible.

Elena's eyes widened.

She closed the picture immediately.

"No..."

She whispered the word as though trying to convince herself.

Perhaps the picture was old.

Perhaps there was an explanation.

Perhaps...

But her phone vibrated again.

A second picture.

Then a third.

Then another.

One after another.

Each image made the suspicion harder to deny.

Elena didn't want to look, but she couldn't stop herself.

She covered her mouth with one hand as tears began to fill her eyes.

She didn't scream.

She didn't break anything.

And she didn't call Alexander.

She simply sat on the edge of the bed, her phone clutched in her hands, trying to understand how the man she had loved for four years could be the same person in those pictures.

Then another message appeared.

"This isn't everything."

Her breath caught for a moment.

Seconds later, a video arrived.

Elena stared at the screen before pressing play hesitantly.

Alexander appeared in the video, his tone different from that of the man she had known throughout their marriage.

She heard him speak about her cruelly, belittling her as though the four years they had shared meant absolutely nothing to him.

Elena felt as though a fist were tightening around her heart.

Then another voice came from the end of the video.

A woman's voice.

A voice she knew very well.

Elena stopped breathing for a moment.

Victoria.

She didn't need to see her face.

She recognized her voice.

Alexander's business manager.

The woman she had occasionally seen at the company.

The woman Alexander trusted so much.

Elena stopped the video.

The phone remained in her hands as she stared into empty space.

The pictures were no longer just a possibility.

And this was no longer merely a suspicion she had spent the past two years trying to ignore.

Something real was happening behind her back.

Even so, she didn't call Alexander.

She didn't even send him a single message.

She raised her eyes toward the mirror and saw a pale face that bore no resemblance to the smiling woman she had been just hours earlier.

She slowly wiped away her tears, then placed her phone on the table.

She wouldn't ask him.

Not now.

If what she had seen was true, confronting him wouldn't give her the truth.

It would only give him a chance to lie.

And that night, Elena made a decision she didn't yet know would change her entire life.

She would remain calm.

She would act as though she hadn't seen anything.

But over the coming days, she would quietly begin preparing everything.

She wouldn't leave behind a scene of chaos.

She wouldn't demand an explanation from him.

And she wouldn't give him the chance to see just how much pain he had caused her.

She would simply wait for the right moment...

And then she would leave.