After Fifteen Years, I Learned I Was the Other Woman

When I found out Julian James had been keeping a woman on the side, I was calmer than I ever expected to be.

I tracked down her address and went straight to her apartment, ready to lay everything on the table.

But when I actually stood in her living room, I froze.

"This place cost one-point-six million. Julian paid cash, put it in my name." The woman's expression was perfectly composed, as though she'd been expecting me. She disappeared into the bedroom and came back with a marriage certificate, setting it down in front of me.

"Last month, Julian and I made it official."

She looked at me, her eyes dripping with contempt. "So legally speaking, you're the other woman."

The marriage certificate burned my eyes.

Fifteen years. I'd been with Julian James for fifteen years.

Fifteen years, and I never got a marriage certificate. What I got instead was the word mistress.

——

"Maya Cobb." The woman pressed one manicured nail against Julian's name on the certificate, her tone dripping with disdain. "You have no right to be here, and you certainly have no standing to put on airs in front of me. Are we clear?"

She held that certificate like a trophy, standing there like a doll in a department store window.

I recognized the bracelet on her wrist. Last month, Julian and I had gone to an auction together. He'd won the bid and told me it was my fifteenth anniversary gift.

Then, the day before our anniversary, Julian came to me in a panic and said the bracelet was gone.

His eyes were full of guilt. So full that they turned red as he spoke.

"Babe, I'll get you something even better. I promise."

He ran his thumb across the calluses on my hands, and tears actually fell.

"You've had it so rough all these years, sticking with me through everything. Once the company goes public, let's get married. What do you say?"

"Babe." He pulled me into his arms. "I want to marry you. I want to build a real home with you."

And I believed him.

I thought we were finally going to take that step.

I told myself that all those years by Julian's side, building something from nothing, had been worth it. That I could look back on my life with no regrets and settle into something quiet and steady.

Now.

I stared at the diamonds on that bracelet, each one catching the light, each tiny sparkle like a needle finding its way into my chest. The pain nearly buckled my knees, but I kept my composure.

"So what?"

I plucked the marriage certificate from her hands. The name in the wife's column read: Lucille Fox. I looked up at her carefully made-up face, saw her obvious shock, and smiled.

"Are you trying to tell me that after fifteen years with Julian, it's finally my turn to step aside so you can live the good life?"

"Lucille." I traced my finger over her photo on the certificate and smiled again. "What makes you think I'd hand over everything I've poured my blood and sweat into?"

Lucille's composure cracked. She lunged for the certificate, but I sidestepped her. She stumbled, crashed into a cabinet, and let out a shriek.

"Maya Cobb!"

"Have you lost your mind?!"

The mask was off. Lucille Fox was screaming at me now, every pretense of elegance gone.

"What, are you going to destroy my marriage? You want to keep being the dirty little secret? Is that it?!"

"Have you no shame?!"

Before she could charge at me again, I'd already pulled out my phone, snapped a photo of the marriage certificate, and sent it to Julian with a message.

Julian.

I hear you got married.

How come I wasn't invited to the wedding?

"Babe!"

The call had already connected.

Julian's voice echoed through the living room.