Chapter 5
The hangover from Soren’s party wasn't physical; it was a spiritual sickness, a nausea born of clarity. I sat on the floor of my studio apartment, surrounded not by empty bottles, but by the glowing screens of my laptop and tablet. The succulent Soren had given me cast a long, spiky shadow across the floorboards as the morning sun struggled through the grime of the window.
I wasn't crying. I was working.
Journalism is about patterns. It’s about following the money, the silence, the things people try hardest to hide. Caleb was a CEO, a man used to delegating details to assistants, but he was sloppy with his personal life. He assumed I was too trusting, too "grateful," to ever look.
He was wrong.
I logged into our shared cloud account. He had changed the password, of course—*Elodie123* was too obvious to be a coincidence, yet there it was. My fingers flew across the keyboard, my breath hitching only once when the folder titled "Project E" opened.
It wasn't a business venture. It was an archive of betrayal.
Bank transfers dating back six months—rent payments for an apartment in Queen Anne that Elodie claimed she couldn't afford. Screenshots of texts that made my stomach turn over.
*"She’s suffocating me, El. Just wait until after the merger. I can’t spook the board with a divorce right now."*
*"I promise, baby. Once the timing is right, she’s gone. You’re the only one who really knows me."*
Six months. He had been planning to discard me like a depreciating asset long before the fire. The fire just gave him an excuse to accelerate the timeline. I printed everything—every damning text, every receipt, every lie. The printer hummed rhythmically, spitting out the autopsy of my marriage page by page.
***
I chose a public place for the execution.
Le Jardin was crowded, the clatter of silverware and the murmur of business lunches providing a layer of white noise. Caleb arrived ten minutes late, checking his watch, looking annoyed and impeccably handsome in a charcoal suit.
"Estelle," he said, sliding into the booth without kissing me. "I have a board meeting at two. Make this quick. If this is about the party—"
I didn't speak. I simply reached into my tote bag and pulled out the manila envelope. I slid it across the white tablecloth, knocking over the salt shaker.
"It’s not about the party, Caleb. It’s about 'Project E'."
He froze. His hand, reaching for the menu, stopped in mid-air. The blood drained from his face so fast it looked like a magic trick. He looked at the envelope, then at me, his eyes narrowing.
"You hacked my accounts," he whispered, the charm evaporating instantly.
"I looked at our shared cloud, Caleb. The one you were too arrogant to secure properly." I leaned forward, my voice low and hard. "I know about the rent. I know about the promises. I know you were planning to leave me before the smoke even cleared."
He ripped open the envelope. His eyes scanned the top page—a bank transfer for Elodie’s "medical expenses" dated three months ago. He let out a short, incredulous laugh.
"So? I helped a friend. Is that a crime?"
"Read the texts, Caleb. The ones where you call me a 'placeholder'. The ones where you promise her my life."
He shoved the papers back into the envelope, his movements jerky and violent. "You’re invading my privacy. This is illegal."
"It’s discovery," I corrected. "And it’s going to look great in court. Sign the papers, Caleb. I want a divorce. Today."
He stared at me, his chest heaving. Then, a dark, ugly smile twisted his lips. He picked up the envelope and tore it in half. Then in quarters. He dropped the confetti of our marriage onto his plate of untouched bread.
"You think a few printouts scare me?" he hissed, leaning across the table until I could smell the coffee on his breath. "I am Caleb Lewis. I have lawyers who cost more than your entire salary. If you try to divorce me, I will bury you. I will drag this out until you are bankrupt. I will ruin your reputation so thoroughly that no paper in this city will hire you to write obituaries."
"You wouldn't," I breathed, my hands trembling under the table.
"Try me," he snarled. "You’re nothing without me, Estelle. I made you. And I can unmake you."
He stood up, buttoning his jacket with aggressive precision. "Don't contact me until you’re ready to apologize for this invasion of privacy."
He walked out, leaving me shaking in the booth, the torn pieces of evidence scattered like debris from a crash.
***
Three days later, the rage was still a hot coal in my chest, but my body had other plans.
It was late. The newsroom was empty except for the cleaning crew and the hum of the servers. I was typing furiously, channeling my anger into an article about municipal corruption, when a sharp, twisting pain knifed through my lower abdomen.
I gasped, dropping my pen. It felt like something was tearing inside me.
I tried to stand, to reach for my water, but a wave of dizziness slammed into me. The room tilted. I gripped the edge of my desk, my knuckles white, as another spasm of agony bent me double.
Warmth. Wet, sticky warmth spreading between my legs.
I looked down. Blood. Bright red against the pale gray of the carpet.
Panic, cold and primal, washed over me. *No. Not now. Please, not now.* The realization hit me with the force of a physical blow—a missed period, the nausea I’d attributed to stress, the tenderness.
I was pregnant.
I collapsed onto the floor, curling into a ball as the pain blinded me. My phone was on the desk, buzzing just out of reach. I dragged myself toward it, my vision graying at the edges.
I dialed the only number my brain could summon in the haze of agony.
"Caleb," I choked out when the line connected. "Caleb, please... something’s wrong. I’m bleeding. Help me."
"Estelle?" His voice was distant, annoyed. I heard laughter in the background. Elodie’s laughter. "I told you not to call me unless you were apologizing. I’m busy."
"Caleb, please!" I screamed, the sound tearing from my throat. "I think... I think I’m losing a baby."
The line went silent. For a second, I thought he might have hung up. Then, his voice came back, cold and detached.
"Stop the drama, Estelle. You’re not pregnant. You’re just desperate for attention."
*Click.*
The dial tone hummed in my ear, a flatline sound that matched the darkness rushing up to meet me.
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