Chapter 5 - THE FIRST CLASS FALLOUT
The news of the flight incident spread through our social circle like a wildfire in a dry forest.
By the time I flew back to Boston three days later,
the narrative had been set.
I didn't have to say a word.
The flight attendant had told her friends.
The passengers had posted on social media.
"Ops Director catches cheating husband in First Class" was the talk of the Charles River district.
I walked into my sister’s house,
where I was staying temporarily.
“He’s been calling me every ten minutes,”
my sister,
Beth,
said,
handing me a cup of tea.
“He’s staying at a cheap motel near the airport.”
“Chloe’s parents refused to take them in.”
I sat at the kitchen table,
feeling the weight of the last seventy-two hours.
“Has legal reached out?”
I asked.
Beth nodded.
“Your lawyer,
Evelyn,
has already filed the papers.”
“She’s citing 'fraudulent use of marital assets' and 'irreconcilable differences'.”
“But there’s more.”
“Ryan’s company is suing him for the travel expenses he billed over the last year.”
“They’re claiming it’s over eighty thousand dollars.”
I felt a grim smile touch my lips.
Marcus didn't play around.
Ryan thought he was getting a free ride on his secretary.
Instead,
he was getting a bill he could never pay.
“He wants to meet,”
Beth said,
her voice hesitant.
“He says he has 'information' you need.”
“Information?”
I scoffed.
“What could he possibly have?”
“He’s desperate,
Claire.”
“He’s lost his job,
his car,
and his reputation.”
“He’s realizing that Chloe was a luxury he couldn't afford.”
I looked out the window at the gray Boston sky.
“Tell him I’ll meet him at the office.”
“Public place.”
“Daylight.”
“I want him to see me in my element.”
“I want him to see the woman who actually builds things,
while he only knows how to tear them down.”
That afternoon,
I walked into my office at the construction firm.
My staff stood a little straighter as I passed.
The air was thick with a new kind of respect.
Ryan was waiting in the lobby,
looking like a ghost of the man I had married.
His suit was wrinkled.
His hair was messy.
The "charming executive" had been replaced by a man who looked like he had been sleeping in his clothes.
I didn't invite him into my private office.
I spoke to him right there in the glass-walled reception area.
“You have five minutes,
Ryan.”
He looked at me,
his eyes sunken.
“Claire,
please.”
“I made a mistake.”
“Chloe… she’s nothing.”
“She was just a distraction.”
“A distraction that cost you eighty thousand dollars and your career,”
I reminded him.
“I’m broke,”
he whispered,
his voice cracking.
“They took the car.”
“The bank locked the accounts.”
“I don’t even have enough for a lawyer.”
“Then you should have thought about that before you ordered the champagne in First Class,”
I said,
my voice cold as ice.
“What was the information you had?”
He looked around nervously.
“I know about the Denver supplier.”
“I know you bypassed the bidding process.”
I laughed,
a sharp,
genuine sound of amusement.
“Ryan,
I didn't bypass the process.”
“I am the process.”
“Everything I did was documented and approved by the board.”
“You think you can blackmail me?”
“You,
the man who is currently under investigation for corporate embezzlement?”
He slumped back in the chair,
the last of his bravado vanishing.
“I have nowhere to go,”
he said.
“Then I suggest you start walking,”
I replied.
“Because your five minutes are up.”
I turned and walked away,
the sound of my heels on the marble floor a final,
rhythmic goodbye.
May you like
The structure of our marriage was gone.
And I was the only one who knew how to clear the site.
