Lahat ng Kabanata ng THE DIVORCE AND HIS BETRAYAL, MY REVENGE: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

James drove me to a small apartment on the other side of the city, a place he said was safe, a place he said no one knew about, a place where we could talk without worrying about Vance's people listening. I sat in the passenger seat with my hand on my stomach and my mind racing, thinking about the photograph on my phone and the text message that had followed it."Ask him about David Chen. Ask him why his partner really died."The apartment was bare, just a couch and a table and a few chairs, and James gestured for me to sit while he locked the door behind us. "You have questions.""I have nothing but questions." I sat down on the couch, my eyes on his. "Start with David Chen."James sat across from me, his hands folded in his lap. "David was my partner, my best friend, the closest thing I had to family. We started investigating the Circle together, seven years ago, and we made a lot of progress in the first few years.""What happened?""We got too close. David found something, a conne

The hospital room was white and cold and smelled like antiseptic, and I sat on the edge of the bed with my hand on my stomach and my heart pounding, waiting for the doctor to come back with the test results. James was in the hallway talking to Sarah, their voices low and urgent, and I could hear snippets of their conversation, "too much stress," "she needs to rest," "if she keeps going like this."I already knew what they were saying, because I had been feeling it for weeks, the exhaustion and the pain and the fear that something was wrong with my baby.The doctor came in with a clipboard and a grim expression, and I felt my stomach drop. "Mrs. Cole, we need to talk about your pregnancy.""Is the baby okay?""The baby is stable, but you're not. Your blood pressure is too high, your stress levels are through the roof, and you've lost weight you can't afford to lose." He sat down across from me, his eyes serious. "If you don't slow down, if you don't start taking care of yourself, you'r

The days after Merald's confession were a blur of tension and silence, of James watching him from across the room and Sarah trying to keep the peace and me sitting in the middle of it all, trying to figure out who to trust and who to believe and who to push away before they could hurt me again.Merald wanted me to forgive him, wanted me to believe that he had changed, wanted me to let him back into my heart and my life and my bed. James wanted me to cut him loose, to focus on the investigation, to stop letting my emotions get in the way of what needed to be done.And I wanted them both to leave me alone."You need to choose," Merald said one morning, standing in the kitchen with his arms crossed and his jaw tight. "You can't keep going like this, Debbie. It's tearing you apart.""I'm not choosing anything.""Then you're choosing him."I looked at him, at the man who had lied to me for years, who had let me believe our marriage was a sham, who had let me mourn my brother alone while he

I didn't sleep after reading the note, couldn't close my eyes without seeing those words burned into my memory. "Subject must not remember," and I sat on the edge of my bed with the file in my lap and my hand on my stomach. The sun rose and set and rose again, and I didn't move, didn't eat, didn't speak to anyone who knocked on my door, because every time I tried to think about my past, about my childhood, about the moments I had treasured for so long, I couldn't tell which ones were real.Sarah came and went, her footsteps soft and hesitant, and James stood guard in the hallway, his shadow visible beneath the door.Merald sat outside my room like a dog waiting for his master to come home, but I couldn't face them, couldn't face anyone, because I didn't know who I was anymore and I didn't know how to pretend that everything was okay when nothing had ever been real. My marriage to Merald, had it been real or just another part of the plan? My love for my brother, had that been genui

The morning started like any other, with coffee and plans and the constant hum of danger that had become my normal. Mr. Lawson called at eight to say he was on his way to the office, that he had found something important in the old files, something that might finally give us the evidence we needed to put Vance away for good. His voice was excited, hopeful, and I remember thinking that I hadn't heard him sound like that in weeks, not since the safe house raid and the deaths and the constant fear that someone we loved would be next."I'll be there in an hour," he said. "Don't start the meeting without me.""I wouldn't dream of it."He laughed, and the sound was warm and familiar, and I hung up the phone with a smile on my face that didn't last long.The explosion happened at nine-fifteen, a blast so loud that I felt it in my chest even from across the city. Sarah ran to the window, her face pale, and James was already on his phone, calling his contacts, trying to find out what had happe