He Exiled Me for Five Years to Make Room for His Mistress Chapter 07

He Exiled Me for Five Years to Make Room for His Mistress Chapter 07

I organized all the evidence into a packet and made three copies.

One copy was sent anonymously to Shaw Group’s board.

One went to the state attorney general’s corporate fraud division.

One went to the investigative desks of the three largest news outlets in the city.

The day I mailed the packages, I stood outside the post office and stared at the blue drop box.

After doing all of that, I felt nothing.

I felt no satisfaction and no relief.

I felt only endless exhaustion.

A week later, explosive news took over every major headline.

“Prominent Tech Executive Accused of Faking Credentials, Stealing Research, and Having an Affair”

“Shaw Group Rocked by Internal Scandal as Executive’s Wife Is Exposed”

“Star Engineer Forced Out Five Years Ago: The Shocking Truth Behind Her Transfer”

Emily was fired from Shaw Group.

As her scandal spread online, the same people who had once attacked me began digging into what had happened years ago.

[Holy shit. So Claire was the victim all along?]

[Emily is disgusting. She stole another woman’s work and stole her man too?]

[Was Ethan blind? How could he want a woman like that?]

Public opinion began to turn.

I sat in my rented room and calmly read the news on my laptop.

My phone rang. It was an unknown number.

I didn’t answer.

It rang seven or eight more times.

I put it on silent.

Then Ethan started calling me obsessively.

More than a hundred times a day.

Every time I blocked one number, he used another.

In the end, I turned off my phone.

He started asking my old friends where I was. He even filed a missing-person report.

The police came by to verify the report. When they saw me sitting in my rented room alive and well, they gave him a warning and left.

A week later, Shaw Group’s board released a statement suspending Ethan from all duties pending an internal investigation.

Once the truth about my reassignment five years ago came to light, people inside the company began discussing whether he had abused his authority for personal retaliation.

His father flew back from overseas overnight and slammed his hand on the boardroom table, calling him useless.

“You ruined the company over a woman! How did I raise such an idiot?”

Karen told me all of this. She was still working at Shaw Group.

“Claire, you’re incredible,” she said over the phone. “Everyone at the company is saying you were the real technical powerhouse all along, and Emily was nothing but a fraud.”

I said nothing.

Emily fell apart completely.

She smashed things at home and screamed at Ethan.

“This is all your fault! You ruined me! If you hadn’t made me do this, how would I have ended up like this?”

Only then did Ethan realize that even he had been part of Emily’s plan.

From the beginning, she had used him to climb higher. The child belonged to her and Derek Caldwell, and she had only needed a man to pin the baby on.

Ethan’s mother found out where I lived.

I heard her crying through the door.

“Claire, I know we wronged you, but Ethan was deceived too. He’s been suffering for these five years.”

She knelt outside my door.

“I’m begging you. Please let our family go. Ethan’s father had a stroke from the stress, and he’s still in the hospital.”

I thought of my father’s face in his final moments.

I couldn’t say a single word.

I didn’t open the door.

The media began digging deeper into the story.

A reporter found out about my years at the Nevada high-desert project.

During those five years, I had led a team through three federally funded engineering breakthroughs and secured two international patents. Every one of those achievements had been stolen by Emily.

After that story came out, public opinion swung completely to my side.

People online started doxxing Emily and Ethan, digging up their addresses and phone numbers.

[Trash belongs with trash. Let them have each other.]

[Claire Harper is amazing. I support her fight for justice.]

[Shaw Group deserves to go under.]

I looked at the comments and only felt that they were loud.

That afternoon, I received an email.

It was from the federal high-desert energy research program.

They said the government was preparing a new energy project with major technical challenges, and they hoped I would return to lead it.

The last line of the email read, [Ms. Harper, we need you.]

I looked at the screen and smiled for the first time in months.