Chapter 4 - CHLOE
Chloe was not what I expected.
That annoyed me.
It would have been easier if she looked cruel.
Smug.
Triumphant.
Instead, she looked humiliated in seat 7B, staring at the photographs while her hands trembled in her lap.
“You told me she knew,” she whispered.
Julian kept his eyes on me.
“Chloe, not now.”
She flinched at his tone.
I recognized that flinch.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
The sudden realization that a man’s gentleness is conditional.
“She knew what?” I asked.
Chloe looked at me.
Her face was pale.
“That you were separated.”
I almost laughed.
“Did he say we lived separately?”
“He said you were staying in the house for appearances.”
“We had dinner together last night.”
Julian snapped, “Elena.”
I turned to him.
“No. Let her learn the schedule.”
Chloe’s mouth parted.
I continued.
“He kissed me goodbye this morning. Told me Chicago would be boring. Asked me to water the basil plant because he always forgets.”
Chloe looked like she might be sick.
Julian leaned closer.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“No.”
That answer came easily.
“I’m documenting it.”
Nearby, a man across the aisle pretended not to listen while absolutely listening.
A flight attendant paused, looked at our row, and kept moving.
I lowered my voice.
“Chloe, did he tell you he asked me to sign marital papers this week?”
Her eyes moved to him.
“No.”
“Did he tell you he’s still sleeping in our bed?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you he used my travel account to book this flight?”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
Chloe turned fully toward him.
“You said your assistant booked it.”
“She did.”
“Through your wife’s profile?”
He said nothing.
There it was.
Silence, the first honest thing he had given either of us.
I looked at Chloe then, really looked.
She was not innocent.
She had been involved with a married man.
But she had been lied to too.
Julian had created two realities.
In mine, he was a busy husband trying to protect our future.
In hers, he was a trapped man waiting for the right moment to leave.
May you like
The only person living comfortably in both versions was him.
And he had not expected those realities to sit side by side at thirty thousand feet.
