บททั้งหมดของ The Wife He Chose Too Late: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

Claire's POVDamien's words settled over the room with all the force of a collapsing building. "We will need to discuss the divorce arrangements this week."For a moment, I wasn't sure I had heard him correctly. The candles flickered softly between us. The meal I had spent hours preparing filled the penthouse with the scent of garlic and rosemary. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, Manhattan glittered beneath the darkening sky.Everything looked exactly as it had thirty seconds ago and yet somehow everything felt different. I stared at my husband.My husband.The phrase suddenly felt fragile and temporary like something that was already slipping through my fingers. Damien seemed completely unaware of the damage he had done. He was watching me carefully, but not because he knew he had hurt me. He was simply waiting for a response, waiting for a practical conversation, waiting to discuss lawyers and paperwork and financial settlements and waiting to discuss the end of our marriage.I

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. There was something reassuring about watching the city continue its restless movement no matter what was happening in my own life. Tonight, however, I barely noticed it.My attention remained fixed on the message Damien had sent.Dinner tonight. We need to discuss what happens after the divorce.The words were simple enough. There was nothing cruel about them. Damien had always been direct, and if there was one thing I could never accuse him of, it was dishonesty. Four years ago, when he had first proposed our arrangement, he had made the terms perfectly clear. The marriage would last four years. At the end of those four years, we would go our separate ways.The problem was not that Damien had

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't fear for myself, and it wasn't even fear of the divorce.It was fear that I had waited too long.I stood in the foyer for several moments without moving. Rainwater dripped from the hem of my coat onto the marble floor. My hair clung damply to my shoulders, and my shoes were soaked through.Normally, Damien would have complained if I tracked water into the penthouse, not because he cared about the floor, but because he cared about routines.He liked things where they belonged, he liked order, structure, and predictability.For four years, I had fit neatly into that structure, but now, for the first time, I wasn't sure where I belonged anymore.The realization followed me as I hung my coat

Claire's POVI barely slept again but the difference was that this time I wasn't staring at an empty side of the bed. Damien had eventually come upstairs sometime after midnight. I knew because I heard him moving quietly through the bedroom while he assumed I was asleep.Neither of us had spoken and neither of us had attempted to continue the conversation and somehow that felt worse because no matter how many times I replayed yesterday's discussion in my head, I kept arriving at the same conclusion.Tiffany Morgan was coming to Laurent Group not as a visitor and not as someone passing through but as an employee.The thought followed me all the way to work.By the time my car pulled into the underground parking garage I had already spent nearly an hour trying to convince myself I wasn't bothered by it.Tiffany needed help that was what Damien had said. Tiffany needed a job that was what Damien had said. Nothing was happening between them that was what Damien had said too.The frustrati

Claire's POVThe problem with Tiffany Morgan was that she never did anything obvious because if she had openly flirted with Damien, I could have been angry if she had insulted me in front of other people, I could have defended myself and if she had behaved like the villain I wanted her to be, at least I would have known where I stood.Instead, she smiled, she complimented people, she remembered names and she thanked assistants and held doors open and laughed at exactly the right moments.By the end of her second day at Laurent Group, half the executive floor seemed to adore her and I was beginning to understand just how dangerous she really was.The morning started with a strategy meeting in one of the larger conference rooms overlooking Midtown.I arrived twenty minutes early, as I always did.Years of working beside Damien had taught me that preparation solved most problems before they had the opportunity to become problems.The presentation was already loaded onto the screen. The f