The Divorce He Asked For, The Empire I Took Away Chapter 06

The Divorce He Asked For, The Empire I Took Away Chapter 06

I reached the coffee shop at two the next afternoon. Before entering, I started the recorder and slipped my

phone into my coat pocket.

Vanessa was already seated. She wore light makeup with her hair tied back and looked far more put together than the previous day.

“Thank you for coming.”

I waited.

She stirred her coffee. “I know you hate me, but you need the truth.

Marcus and I didn’t start recently.”

The first time he invited her to dinner alone was the previous October.

She said she refused the first invitation, then the next three, before finally accepting the fourth.

After that, he contacted her every week to eat or talk. He told her our marriage had problems.

“What problems?”

“He said you had become cold and stopped caring about him. He said you hadn’t had a real conversation in

months.”

My husband had told another woman I was cold.

Vanessa continued. “I’m not excusing myself, but I wasn’t the first.”

My hand moved slightly under the table.

“Before me, there was another woman from his office. He ended that relationship before he pursued me.”

She took out her phone and showed me a screenshot of Marcus exchanging intimate messages with an unfamiliar profile the previous July.

The avatar meant nothing to me.

I photographed it. Vanessa did not object.

“Why are you telling me?”

She leaned forward. “You need to understand that he will always behave this way.

Even if you forgive me, there will be someone else.”

“So?”

“Leave him.

Something in her eyes wasn’t guilt. It was a quiet need for confirmation.

She was checking whether I would do exactly what she wanted.

Every revelation moved toward one conclusion: Marcus was hopeless, I should leave, and Vanessa should be understood as merely another woman he deceived.

Dana had been right. The photograph was not a confession or apology.

Vanessa was pushing me toward a public fight and a divorce. Once I left, she would stop being the other woman and become the friend who helped me discover the truth.

I lifted my water, drank, and set it down.

“I’ll remember what you told me. But I have a question.”

“What?”

“When will you repay the $4,600 Marcus gave you from our joint account?”

Her face froze.

I explained that marital funds belonged to both spouses and that I had not consented to the gifts.

“Marcus gave me that money voluntarily.”

“He did. I did not.”

She leaned back, voice rising. “You’re calculating money with me now?”

“Shouldn’t I?”

Her mouth tightened. Then she laughed, and the mask slipped.

“You’re unbelievable. Your husband doesn’t even want you, and you’re sitting here counting a few thousand

dollars?”

There it was.

Your husband doesn’t want you.

That was the sentence she had wanted to say all along.

I stood. “Thank you for today’s information.

The recording is saved.”

Her face went white. “You recorded me?”

Every sentence, including the one about my husband not wanting me.”

She shot to her feet and hinged for my pocket. I stepped back before she could touch me.

“Don’t touch me.”

“Delete it.”

“It has already synchronized to cloud storage.”

Her hands shook, and her chest rose and fell as she stared at me.

As I walked away, she shouted, “You think you won? Marcus won’t divorce you.

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Tonight he’ll beg you to come back, and then you’ll see which one of us he chooses.”

The cafe’s wind chime sounded as I opened the door.

Marcus called after I had gone about a dozen steps.

“Come home tonight. My parents will be there.

We’re settling this.”

It was not a request. It was an order.