Chapter 7 - The Unveiling
Months passed. The scandal eventually died down, replaced by the next cycle of city news. Ethan Vance was a forgotten name, a cautionary tale about ego and incompetence.
I had launched my company, Jensen Strategic Consulting. It was thriving. I was working with some of the city's top firms, helping them navigate the complexities of corporate restructuring and financial optimization. People respected me not because I was the "wife of," but because I was the one who could fix what everyone else deemed irreparable.
One afternoon, while I was grabbing coffee near the office, I ran into Rebecca. She looked gaunt, tired, and was wearing a coat that definitely wasn't designer. She started to walk past me, then stopped.
"You won," she said, her voice hollow.
"I didn't play a game, Rebecca," I said, taking a sip of my coffee. "I just protected my own interests."
"He was supposed to be successful," she muttered. "He told me he was the one who made the money. He told me you were just a burden."
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I smiled, a genuine, pitying smile. "He told you what you needed to hear to be his accomplice. You were both so arrogant that you didn't see the person standing right in front of you."
I left her there, standing in the middle of the crowded sidewalk, and walked back to my office. I felt no satisfaction, only a profound sense of closure.
