A tiny smile at the corner of her mouth, lasting less than a second, hidden from David and aimed precisely at me. There was no guilt in it. No discomfort.
Only triumph.
Something inside me became very still.
David leaned across her to pull the seat belt over her body. His hand lingered near her shoulder. He murmured something low. His fingers moved a strand of hair away from her face.
The doorman deliberately looked elsewhere.
A man in a gray coat stopped pretending he was not watching.
For twelve years I had stood beside David Sterling when he had nothing. I edited business proposals at two in the morning. I sold my mother’s emerald bracelet to cover payroll when a deal fell through. I entertained investors who barely acknowledged my existence while I sat across tables smiling through dinners where men praised him for decisions I had actually made. I had spent years making myself smaller so he could become larger.Now, before strangers, he reduced me to baggage.
I opened the rear door and climbed inside.
The leather felt cold beneath my soaked skirt. David slid behind the wheel. Cecilia leaned her seat slightly backward and turned toward the window, but I caught her reflection in the glass.
That smile again.
