At the class reunion, the president poured water for every single classmate. Everyone except me.
I figured she'd just overlooked me, so I reached for a cup myself.
A hand pressed down over mine before I could touch it.
"This is expensive vintage wine I brought. A broke man's wife doesn't get to drink it."
The bag I'd grabbed on my way out that morning was worth ten million. I blinked, lost, and pointed at myself.
"A broke man's wife? Me?"
"Carrying a cheap knockoff, and still trying to pass yourself off as some rich wife?"
Muriel Sanchez, who'd always looked down on me, pulled out a video with a smirk.
"If I hadn't happened to run into you and your husband the other day, I'd have actually fallen for that pretty little life you post about online."
In the video I was bare-faced, in a gray set of house clothes.
And the husband strolling beside me was in a plain pair of cargo shorts, flip-flops on his feet.
That was all it took. The room broke into jeers.
"Yeah, that's a broke guy if I ever saw one. Dresses like a homeless man."
"Daniela Henson, honestly, if you hadn't been our campus beauty back in the day, we wouldn't have even bothered inviting you."
"Right? So she was pretty once, so she was the campus beauty, so what? She still didn't marry as well as Muriel."
"Muriel's husband built everything from nothing, and now he runs a huge company. That's what you call landing the best life there is."
The flattery kept coming.
And Muriel only grew more pleased with herself.
"Look at that broke husband of yours. Bet he can't even hold down a job, right?"
"Funny thing, my husband's company, Sheridan Group, is hiring security guards right now. How about it? For old times' sake, I could put in a word for him."
I frowned. Since when did the company I built with my own hands belong to her husband?
"What's your husband's name?"
Muriel practically glowed.
"Listen closely. My husband is the general manager of Sheridan Group. Russell Henson."
Russell Henson?
Wasn't that the employee my husband mentioned a few days ago, the one he called reasonably hardworking and diligent?
The subordinate who only made general manager after I gave the nod?
——
Then again, Sheridan Group was huge, more than five thousand employees.
I wasn't sure the one just promoted to general manager was really named Russell Henson, so I sent my husband a text to check.
A moment later, Austin Delgado replied instantly.
"Yeah, honey, that's Russell Henson."
"You never ask about the people working under you. What's got you so interested in this guy today?"
I could feel the jealousy spike through the screen.
"Don't tell me you've taken a liking to him?"
I couldn't help rolling my eyes.
But to them, that little gesture looked like guilt.
Muriel's mocking voice came again, smug as ever.
"Daniela Henson, why'd you go quiet? Don't tell me I hit the nail on the head?"
"Back then you were Ashford University's cold, aloof campus beauty. Too good for everyone, big eyes and no follow-through."
"All these years later, I thought for sure you'd have married some tycoon. Never expected you'd fall for a poor nobody like that."
"Or maybe none of those guys chasing you ever measured up,"
"so you dragged it out until you were too old, couldn't get married at all, and finally got so desperate you just grabbed the worst option you could find."
The second Muriel said it, laughter erupted all around.
They looked at me with every kind of amused, needling stare.
As if one line from Muriel had settled it for all of them, that I'd sunk so low the only man I could marry was a broke slob.
"No wonder you've all been throwing barbs since the second I walked in. So this is what you were waiting here for."
