The Price Of His Double Life

After seven years, my fiancé Elias and I were a month away from our wedding. I' d just been laid off from my architecture firm, but he promised to take care of me, calling me his queen. He was my rock, my future.

Then, a single Instagram post shattered my world: a picture of a man's hand with a bandage exactly like the one Elias had, holding the hand of an influencer bragging about her rich, married "sugar daddy."

The more I scrolled, the worse it got. He hadn't just cheated; he had orchestrated my firing, calling it "budget cuts," so his mistress could take my place. He even used the engagement party invitations I helped design for their future.

He called me his "plain Jane architect," a boring fiancée he was escaping from. For six months, he had been living a double life, all while planning our wedding and systematically destroying mine.

So at our lavish engagement party, when he abandoned me mid-celebration for his mistress's fake emergency, I didn't cry.

I took the microphone, canceled the wedding, and played every single screenshot of his betrayal on the ballroom's giant screen for our hundreds of guests to see.

Chapter 1

Elise POV:

My world fell apart with a single scroll, a picture of a distinctive hand injury, and a name I knew too well.

I was huddled on my small couch, the one Elias and I had picked out together seven years ago. The architecture firm had laid me off last week. "Budget cuts," they said, but the phrase felt hollow, ringing with a vague dismissiveness I couldn't quite place. I'd been trying to find new openings online, scrolling through endless job boards, the dull glow of my laptop reflecting the dull ache in my chest. My fingers were cold, despite the heating being on. The apartment felt too quiet, too large without the usual buzz of my work.

My thumb paused over a brightly colored Instagram post. The account belonged to Krystal Guzman, or "PeachyKeen" as her handle proclaimed. She was one of those influencers, all glossy lips and perfect angles. I usually scrolled past her, but this post had an unusual caption. It detailed how she' d just received a new designer bag, a "little treat from Daddy" after a very successful "business trip" to Miami. Miami. Elias had just returned from a "business trip" there. My stomach tightened. It was probably nothing. Elias traveled for his tech startup all the time.

Then I saw a comment. Someone had asked, "Girl, what's your secret? How do you live this life?"

Krystal, or PeachyKeen, replied with a string of laughing emojis. "Just found myself a sugar daddy who knows how to treat a girl right. He' s obsessed."

My breath hitched. My chest felt tight. I told myself to keep scrolling. This wasn't my business. This was internet noise. But my fingers wouldn't move.

Another user asked, "Spill! Is he hot? Rich? Tell us everything!"

Krystal's reply came