Chapter 3
I stood in the hallway, clutching the evidence in my trembling hands. James's note to Rebecca burned into my vision—words of love, of future plans, of a child they'd created together. Not through clinical insemination as he'd claimed, but through betrayal. My wedding ring felt suddenly heavy on my finger, a shackle rather than a symbol of love.
The study door was closed, but I could see light spilling from beneath it. James was in there, probably working, pretending everything was normal while my world collapsed around me. I took a deep breath, steadying myself before I knocked.
"Come in," his voice called, smooth and controlled as always.
I pushed open the door. James sat behind his massive mahogany desk, reading glasses perched on his nose, papers spread before him. He looked up, his expression shifting from mild annoyance at being interrupted to calculated concern when he saw my face.
"Sarah? What's wrong?"
Without speaking, I walked forward and dropped the evidence onto his desk—the pregnancy schedule, the photos of prenatal vitamins, his handwritten note to Rebecca. The items scattered across his pristine workspace like debris from an explosion.
"Explain this," I whispered, my voice surprisingly steady despite the hurricane raging inside me.
James glanced at the items, then up at me. There was no shock in his eyes, no guilt, just a cold calculation as he assessed the situation. He removed his glasses slowly, setting them aside with deliberate care.
"I see Rebecca has been... proactive," he said finally.
"That's all you have to say?" I pressed my palms against his desk, leaning forward. "You've been having an affair with your dead wife's sister, and that's all you have to say?"
James leaned back in his leather chair, creating distance between us. "It's complicated, Sarah."
"Then uncomplicate it for me," I demanded.
He sighed, as if I were a child who couldn't grasp a simple concept. "Rebecca reminds me of Victoria. Surely you can understand that?"
The casual cruelty of his words knocked the breath from my lungs. "Understand? You want me to understand that you married me while sleeping with your dead wife's sister because she reminds you of Victoria?"
"This isn't about you," he said, his voice hardening. "This is about my moral obligation to Victoria's family, to her memory."
"Your moral obligation?" I laughed, the sound brittle and sharp in the wood-paneled study. "There's nothing moral about what you've done, James."
He stood suddenly, his chair rolling back against the bookshelf. "You don't get to judge me, Sarah. You've never understood what I went through when Victoria died."
"Because you never let me!" I shouted, tears burning my eyes. "You kept me at arm's length for years, made me feel like I was competing with a ghost, and now I find out you've been sleeping with her sister?"
James's expression didn't change, but something cold and dangerous flickered in his eyes. "I don't have to explain myself to you."
I turned away, unable to look at him anymore. My gaze fell on the bookshelf behind his desk—leather-bound volumes, business awards, and a small section of personal items. Something caught my eye—a worn leather journal wedged between two books.
Without thinking, I moved toward it, pulling it free before James could stop me.
"That's private," he snapped, reaching for it, but I stepped back, clutching it to my chest.
"Like your affair was private?" I retorted.
The journal's cover was soft with age, the initials V.W. embossed in faded gold. Victoria's diary. I flipped it open, my eyes scanning the elegant handwriting as James lunged toward me.
"'Another night of pretending,'" I read aloud, my voice shaking. "'James doesn't love me. This marriage was a mistake. I feel trapped, suffocated by expectations...'"
James wrenched the diary from my hands, his face contorted with rage. "You have no right!"
But it was too late. In those few lines, I'd glimpsed the truth—Victoria had been as trapped as I was now, bound to a man incapable of genuine love.
"She wasn't happy either, was she?" I whispered. "The perfect wife you've been mourning... she was miserable with you too."
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