Semua Bab The Governor’s Wife, His beautiful ruin: Bab 81 - Bab 90

Evelyn I pulled into the driveway just after four, my head still spinning from everything Santos had said. The house looked the same as it always did, perfect lawn and perfect paint, a perfect facade hiding all the rot underneath. I sat in the car for a minute with my hands on the steering wheel, trying to prepare myself for whatever was waiting inside. Grace was probably in the living room sipping tea and judging everything, Nathan was probably still locked in his room refusing to speak to me, Clara was God knows where, and Alfred was probably at another meeting or fundraiser or event where he could smile and shake hands and pretend his life wasn’t crumbling. I got out and walked to the front door, pushed it open. Alfred’s voice hit me before I even got inside. “Where the hell have you been?” He was standing in the foyer, still in his suit with his tie loose around his neck, looking at me like I’d committed some unforgivable sin by leaving the house. I closed the door b

Evelyn “We need your unwavering support now more than ever!” Alfred’s voice boomed through the speakers and the crowd roared back, thousands of people packed into the convention center waving signs with his name on them. I stood off to the side of the stage with Grace and the kids, smiling and clapping at all the right moments, playing my role “Together we will build a future that works for everyone, not just the privileged few!” More cheers erupted and I felt bile rise in my throat. The hypocrisy of it was suffocating, listening to him stand up there and talk about fairness and justice while his campaign was being bankrolled by a drug lord, while he threw me to the wolves to save his precious image, while he let his mother treat me like dirt in my own house. Nathan stood next to me looking miserable in his suit, tie crooked and face pale because he was barely recovered from the fever. He still wasn’t speaking to me, hadn’t said more than two words since I’d tried to bring hi

THEO Theo heard the knock and knew before he even opened the door that it was going to be trouble. Mira stood on his porch with her arms crossed, eyes red and swollen like she’d been crying for hours, and the second she saw him her face twisted with anger. “You’re in love with her.” Not a question, but accusation. Theo stepped back to let her in but she didn’t move, just stood there glaring at him. “Mira…” “Don’t, I don’t want to hear excuses, I want to hear the truth, are you in love with your boss’s wife?” He could lie, could try to deflect or make it sound less serious than it was, but he was tired of lying and tired of pretending. “Yes.” The word hung between them and Mira’s face crumpled. “I can’t help it,” he added quietly. “I didn’t plan for this to happen but it did and I can’t change how I feel.” “You left me for her, you broke up with me so you could be with some married woman old enough to be your mother.” “She’s not old enough to be my mother and I d

Evelyn I drove to the liquor store three blocks from Harper’s apartment and bought a bottle of wine, the expensive kind then I sat in my car in the parking lot and opened it because I didn’t want eyes staring at me and appearing in blogs by the next day. I didn’t bother with a glass, just drank straight from the bottle, letting the wine burn down my throat and settle hot in my stomach. I drank until the edges of everything went soft and blurry, until the anger buzzing under my skin turned into something I could barely control. Alfred had another family, another daughter, another woman he was still fucking while coming home to me every night. Thirteen years of lies stacked on top of twenty-two years of lies and I was supposed to just keep smiling and playing the devoted wife. Sam had known and lied about all of it. I wished I killed him myself at this point I finished half the bottle before I started the car drove across town to Theo’s house, parked crooked in his driveway an

Evelyn I was halfway across the cafe parking lot when my phone started buzzing in my purse. I dug it out while fumbling for my car keys, saw Alfred’s name flash across the screen for the third time in ten minutes, and sent it straight to voicemail. The notification icon showed seven missed calls. All him. I got in the car and locked the doors before I let myself breathe. The leather seats were cold, the air inside stale from sitting in the sun all afternoon. I sat there for a moment with my hands on the steering wheel, staring at nothing, Santos’s words still echoing in my head. My phone buzzed again. Another voicemail. I opened the app and saw them lined up like little grenades, one after another, timestamped over the last two hours. I pressed play on the first one. “Evelyn, where the hell are you?” Alfred’s voice was tight. “You can’t just disappear like this. We need to talk. Call me back.” Delete. Second message, twenty minutes later: “Eve, I know you’re upset but