But memories pressed in, relentless. Flashback, Victor’s penthouse. The first night she stayed over.
City lights glittered through the glass walls. He poured her wine, watching her with eyes. She mistook for tenderness.
She doesn’t understand me, Nadia, he whispered. You do. Nadia, twenty-four and hopelessly in love, believed him that he touched her cheek, slow, deliberate.
I’m trapped in that marriage. With you. I can’t.
Breathe. She remembered the exact words. The way he said them.
The way they had felt like truth. Now, she heard them differently. Another flashback.
Her first modeling job cancelled after Victor saw the photos. You don’t need them anymore, he told her. Let me take care of you.
She’d smiled but she’d believed that was love. I in the restroom. Nadia squeezed her eyes shut, hating herself for the memory.
How long had she been a replacement? A placeholder? Had she been his rebellion against Evelyn? Or his insurance policy? The worst thought of all crept in, cold and slow. Maybe I was never anything. Tears blurred her vision as her fingers dug into her skin.
She thought back to Victor’s. Promises. How he spoke of Evelyn as if she were ice.
Controlling. Distant. But the woman she saw today wasn’t cold.
She was strong. And Victor? He had looked smaller than she’d ever seen him that a sound made Nadia jumped out a knock at the restroom door. Her entire body flinched.
Miss? Are you okay? A cleaner’s voice. Nadia’s voice cracked when she answered. I just need a minute.
Footsteps faded. She breathed again. But her pulse raced.
What now? She had no answer. Victor wouldn’t protect her. Not anymore.
He hadn’t even looked for her in the chaos. Not after Evelyn appeared. Because the moment his wife arrived, she no longer existed.
Her gaze drifted down to her phone. Dozens of messages. Friends.
Strangers. Reporters. Her name was trending.
Her photos leaked. Headlines screamed, Victor Monroe’s mistress identified. She wasn’t a secret anymore.
She was the scandal. Suddenly, the walls felt suffocating. She staggered to her feet.
Fumbling to the sink. Splashing cold water on her face. Hoping it would numb the burning shame.
But water couldn’t cleanse what she felt that upon. That’s all she had ever been that a tool in Victor Monroe’s war against a woman she never really knew. That a war she never agreed to fight.
Her phone buzzed again. Another. Notification.
Another headline. She dropped it. Letting it clatter to the floor.
When she finally looked back up at the mirror. She saw it. The end of the illusioned.
N-O-Glamoured. N-O-Futured. N-O-M.
Only Nadia. And her mistake. A single thought echoed in her mind.
That I have to get out. Not just from this restroom. From the city.
From the story. From him. She reached for her phone with.
Shaking hands. And opened her last rideshare app. One destination came to mind.
Somewhere he’d never look for her.a-s. She stepped out of the restroom. Pushing through the crowd of waiting passengers. She realized something darker.
She wasn’t running from Evelyn. She was running from herself. The safe house wasn’t much.
Bare walls. Blackout curtains. Two bedrooms.
Security cameras covered every angle outside. For Evelyn Monroe, it was more. Home than the mansion she once shared with Victor.
She sat at the edge of a plain leather couch. Back straight. Quadruplets asleep in the next room.
Her lawyer. Rachel Lynn. Sat across from her.
Silent. Waiting. Evelyn didn’t speak immediately.
She watched the steam rise from her untouched tea. Finally, she asked without looking up, Do you think I’m weak, Rachel? Rachel hesitated. No, Evelyn’s.
Lips tightened. Victor does. A pause.
Then Evelyn began. At first, it wasn’t obvious. He made me feel lucky.
Special, even. I believed him when he said no one else understood his world. He’d bring me roses one night, and silence.
Me the next. Rachel listened, her tablet idle in her lap. When I got pregnant, everything changed.
He said it was too soon. Said the timing would damage his image. I wasn’t allowed at events.
No baby showers. No public photos. I carried our children in silence, while he carried on with his empire.
Her voice didn’t crack. It was. Too numb for that.
I found out about the first mistress when I was six months pregnant. Not Nadia. Someone before her.
When I confronted him, he said I misunderstood. He made me think I was paranoid. Hormonal.
He locked down my accounts after that argument. Rachel’s jaw tightened. She’d heard stories like this before.
But Evelyn’s restraint unsettled her more than tears would have. The twins were. Born premature.
Emergency c-section. I was unconscious. When I woke up, Victor wasn’t there.
Evelyn’s hands curled into fists in her lap. I asked the nurse why he wasn’t holding them. She told me.
He never came. A long silence got Rachel’s throat tightened. Not even once.
Evelyn shook her head slowly. Not even once. She turned her eyes to Rachel for the first time.
The world thinks he’s some distant father. Cold maybe. But they don’t know the truth.
Rachel’s voice softened. Tell me. Evelyn inhaled carefully.