บททั้งหมดของ THE DIVORCE AND HIS BETRAYAL, MY REVENGE: บทที่ 41 - บทที่ 50

The boardroom looked the same as it had the first time I walked through those doors, all polished wood and expensive art and faces that had been carefully trained to show nothing, but I was not the same woman who had sat at the head of this table months ago, trembling and pregnant and desperate to prove herself. That woman was gone, replaced by someone who had watched her closest ally die in an explosion meant for her, someone who had stared into the eyes of her enemy and refused to blink, someone who had nothing left to lose."Mrs. Cole," Richard West said, his voice smooth and practiced, the same voice he had used when he tried to dismiss me as nothing more than a pregnant widow playing at business. "We're so glad you could join us. We were beginning to think you'd forgotten about us."I walked to the head of the table and sat down, my hands flat on the wood, my eyes scanning the faces of the twelve men and women who had been running my company while I was off fighting a war they d

I noticed the car on Monday morning, a gray sedan with tinted windows parked across the street from my house, and I felt a familiar chill run down my spine, the same chill I had felt every time I realized I was being watched. But this time, I didn't call Sarah or James or anyone else to handle it, because this time, I was done being the prey."James, there's a car outside," I said, standing by the window with my hand on my stomach. "Gray sedan, been there since dawn.""I see it." He came up beside me, his eyes scanning the street. "Same plates as last time?""Different plates, same car. They're not even trying to hide anymore.""Or they want you to know they're there."I turned to face him, my voice cold. "Then let's give them what they want."The plan came together over the next few hours, James coordinating with Sarah and her team while I sat at the kitchen table, going over every detail, every contingency, every way the operation could go wrong. We had done this before, set traps f

The days after Merald's ousting were strange and quiet, the kind of quiet that comes before a storm, and I spent most of them in my house, going over plans and waiting for the other shoe to drop. James and Sarah came and went, and Merald stayed in the guest room, a ghost in the corners of my vision, always there but never quite present.I could feel him watching me, the same way I had felt the Circle watching me, but this was different, softer, more complicated. He wanted to talk, wanted to explain, wanted to make me understand why he had done the things he had done, but I wasn't ready to listen, wasn't sure I would ever be ready."You can't avoid him forever," Sarah said one afternoon, finding me in the backyard with my hand on my stomach and my eyes on the sky."I'm not avoiding him. I'm prioritizing.""Prioritizing what?""Surviving."She sat down beside me, her hand on my arm. "Mrs. Debbie, I know this is hard, but you need to talk to him. If not for your sake, then for the baby's

The drive back from Connecticut was quiet, the kind of quiet that comes after a storm, and I sat in the passenger seat with my hand on my stomach and my mind racing, going over everything Shelie had told us. Her family, her role in the Circle, her connection to my brother's death, it was all pieces of a puzzle I had been trying to solve for months, and now, finally, I was starting to see the full picture.James glanced at me from the driver's seat. "You're thinking too loud.""I'm thinking about what she said, about Victor Vance being just a manager, not the real head of the Circle.""She's right. Vance is dangerous, but he's not the one calling the shots. That honor belongs to August Mercer.""Then why does everyone talk about Vance like he's the devil himself?""Because he's the face of the organization, the one who gets his hands dirty, the one who makes sure everyone knows what happens when you cross them. Mercer prefers to stay in the shadows."Merald leaned forward from the back

The safe house was small and cramped, nothing like my house or Merald's apartment or any of the places I had called home over the past few months, but it was safe, or at least safer than anywhere else. James had insisted on bringing me here after the crash, he argued with me for an hour about hospitals and police and the need for medical attention, but I had refused, because hospitals weren't safe and police weren't safe and the only person I trusted to keep me alive was myself.Merald arrived an hour after we did, his face pale and his hands shaking, I could see the fear in his eyes, the same fear I had seen the night I told him I was pregnant, the same fear I had seen when he held my hand in that hospital bed. But this was different, deeper, more desperate, and I realized that he was genuinely afraid for me, not for himself, not for the baby, but for me."Debbie, thank God," he said, pulling me into his arms before I could stop him. "I thought you were dead.""I'm not dead.""I k