8. The Real Mistress

8. The Real Mistress

Tania found Caleb in his study that night. “I can’t live in the same house as your mistress.”

He didn’t even look up from his desk. “You’re the mistress here, Tania. Not her.”

“Excuse me?”

“Sophia has a child. A family. You have nothing to show for two years of marriage except a signature on a piece of paper.”

The words landed harder than she expected. She stood there a moment, letting them sink in, letting herself feel exactly how much they hurt before she answered.

“Then let me live somewhere else. Anywhere. I don’t care where, as long as it isn’t near her.”

“No.”

“Caleb—”

“I said no.” He finally looked up. “You stay where I can see you.”

 

• • •

 

Sophia fired Denise the next morning, no warning, no reason given, just a flat order to pack her things and leave.

“She stays,” Tania said, stepping between them. “This isn’t your house to hire and fire in.”

Sophia’s hand came up fast. Tania barely had time to flinch before the slap landed.

Then Sophia went down, twisting as she fell, the baby still in her arms, timing it so that Caleb, walking in from the hallway at that exact moment, saw only a falling woman and a screaming child.

Tania rushed forward and scooped the baby out of Sophia’s arms before either of them hit the ground fully.

Caleb crossed the room in three steps and took the baby from Tania’s hands without a word of thanks.

“She attacked me,” Sophia said from the floor, cradling her wrist like it had been broken. “I told you I can’t live in this house with her, Caleb. I can’t.”

Caleb looked between the two women for a long moment, the baby fussing against his shoulder.

“Pack your things,” he said.

Sophia smiled, already reaching for him.

“Not her.” Caleb’s eyes moved past Sophia entirely. “You. Get out.”

 

• • •

 

The jewelry company called Tania with an official contract two days later, along with an offer of company housing if she ever needed it. She said yes to the contract and politely declined the housing.

She went for her regular checkup that same week. Dr. Jeff didn’t sugarcoat the numbers this time.

“Four months,” he said quietly. “Maybe a little more if you rest. Less if you don’t.”

Tania nodded like the number didn’t mean anything, and went straight from the clinic to Jordan’s office, hoping he’d found something new about Millbrook.

She never made it past the lobby.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Dora stood in front of the elevator, arms crossed, blocking her path entirely.

“I’m here to see my cousin.”

“Your cousin,” Dora repeated, loud enough that heads turned across the lobby. “Is that what we’re calling it? You’ve got a husband at home and a lawyer on the side, and now you’re after my husband too?”

“That isn’t what’s happening, Dora, and you know it.”

Dora didn’t lower her voice. If anything, she raised it further, until half the lobby had stopped to watch. By the time security stepped in to separate them, Tania’s face burned with the weight of every stare.

Caleb hadn’t seen her in three days. He saw the footage that evening instead, forwarded to him by Sophia with a single line attached.

She’s trying to ruin my sister’s marriage too. Is there any home she won’t touch?

 

• • •

 

Tania dreamed of a rooftop restaurant that night, candlelight flickering over a table set for two. A man peeled shrimp across from her while she stared out at the city lights, wondering out loud what it would be like to have a child of their own.

“I’ll name her after my mother,” dream-Tania said.

The man smiled and agreed.

She woke up in a dark alley, the smell of garbage thick in the air, her body aching against cold concrete.

It came back to her slowly. Dora. The men Dora had paid to teach her a lesson.

Tania pushed herself up onto shaking legs and started walking, one hand braced against the wall. Footsteps echoed behind her a moment later, fast and closing in.

She ran. Her lungs burned, her heart stuttered painfully in her chest, and she stumbled out onto the main street directly into the path of an oncoming car.

Tires screamed. The car swerved and stopped inches from her.

Caleb was out of the driver’s seat before the engine even settled, his men pouring out behind him. Within seconds, the two men chasing her were on the ground.

Tania’s legs finally gave out. Caleb caught her before she hit the pavement, her whole body limp with exhaustion.

 

• • •

 

Tania woke up to Caleb’s voice, low and close. “When will you stop using fainting to gain my sympathy?”

“The day you finally stop pitying me,” she said.

“You always run to me anyway.”

“I don’t run to you. You just happen to always be there.”

He didn’t answer that. Instead, his voice went cold again. “Don’t forget what your mother did. I haven’t forgiven her. I won’t forgive you either.”

Tania got up without another word and walked to the window instead. The view stopped her cold. Water stretched out in every direction, the same blue as the island, waves rolling gently against a private stretch of sand below.

She hadn’t realized where they were. A new apartment, ocean views on every side, close enough to the memory of the island that her chest ached looking at it.

She thought of Gabriel’s laugh on that same kind of shore. Of Caleb building her an amusement park out of nothing but love, back before love turned into something else.

She stepped out onto the balcony to clear her head. Caleb joined her a moment later, his white shirt catching the same light as her pale dress, the two of them standing side by side like something out of an old photograph neither of them could quite remember taking.