The Uber ride to Queens felt like it took a lifetime.
Arianna sat in the back seat, staring blankly out the window as the car sped over the bridge. The sky was just beginning to turn a sickly shade of gray, the first hint of dawn bleeding into the night. She forced herself to keep her eyes open, refusing to look at her phone. The driver didn't speak, and she was grateful for the silence.
The car pulled up to a quiet row of townhouses in a neighborhood where the trees still had leaves clinging to their branches, brown and brittle.
Arianna grabbed her suitcase from the trunk and walked up the steps to Clara's porch. The paint on the railing was peeling slightly. She pressed the doorbell and waited. Every second felt like a physical weight pressing down on her chest.
The door swung open. Clara stood there in a flannel robe, her dark curls piled into a messy bun, bouncing her three-month-old baby against her shoulder. The baby was wrapped in a soft yellow blanket, tiny fists waving.
Clara's brown eyes widened at the sight of Arianna's pale, exhausted face. Without her usual makeup and pressed suits, Arianna looked like a ghost of herself.
Arianna tried to smile. Her lips just trembled. "Can I crash on your couch for a few days?" Her voice cracked on the last word.
Clara grabbed her arm and pulled her into the warm hallway. The house smelled like baby powder and fresh coffee. "Oh my god, Ari. What happened? Is it the company?"
Arianna let go of her suitcase. It tipped over onto the hardwood floor with a thud. She sank onto the living room sofa, a worn leather thing draped with crocheted blankets. Watching Clara gently rock the baby, the last thread of her tension finally snapped.
She told Clara everything. She repeated the words she heard on the terrace. Her voice was flat, devoid of emotion, like she was reading a quarterly earnings report.
Clara's face turned red, her jaw clenched so tight the muscles bulged. "That selfish, manipulative bastard," she hissed, careful not to wake the baby.
Meryl, Clara's mother-in-law, came down the stairs. She was a small woman with silver hair and sharp eyes that missed nothing. She took one look at the two women, gently took the sleeping baby from Clara's arms, and nodded toward the door. "Go. Take her out. Get some air."
Two hours later, they were walking through a high-end shopping mall in Manhattan. The atrium soared above them, all glass and steel, filled with the murmur of shoppers and the faint scent of perfume.
Arianna pushed the empty stroller they had brought along, letting the mindless hum of the mall wash over her. They walked into a luxury maternity boutique, past displays of impossibly soft onesies and designer diaper bags.
While Clara inspected a rack of onesies, Arianna pulled her phone from her pocket, mindlessly opening Instagram to distract herself. The first post on her feed was a new story from Cristy Kelly, the intern. It was a close-up video of her wrist, adorned with a sparkling, intricate diamond bracelet, captioned: Spoiled by the absolute best. Arianna frowned, feeling a strange, icy prickle at the back of her neck. She locked her phone and looked up.
She stared aimlessly at the people walking by.
Then, her eyes locked onto a figure inside the Cartier boutique directly across the walkway.
Her blood turned to ice.
Gregory was standing at the glass counter. He was supposed to be running the morning executive meeting. He was wearing the navy suit she had picked out for him last month, his posture relaxed, one hand in his pocket.
Standing right next to him, leaning her body against his arm, was Cristy Kelly. The new twenty-two-year-old intern from the art department. She was petite, with long auburn hair and wide green eyes that she batted constantly. She wore a tight white dress that was entirely inappropriate for office hours.
Cristy was holding a diamond necklace up to her collarbone, looking at herself in the mirror with a delighted smile.
Gregory smiled. He reached out and gently tucked a stray piece of hair behind Cristy's ear. The gesture was so natural, so intimately practiced, it made Arianna's stomach turn.
The air in Arianna's lungs vanished. An invisible hand squeezed her heart until it physically ached.
Clara walked up beside her. She followed Arianna's frozen stare. Her face went white, then flushed deep red with fury. She dropped the onesie she'd been holding onto the floor.
"Is that...?" Clara gasped. "I'm going to kill him. I'm going to walk right over there and rip his face off."
Clara started toward the door, her hands balled into fists.
Arianna's hand shot out. Her fingers clamped down on Clara's wrist like a steel vice. Her skin was freezing cold, her grip bruising.
"No," Arianna said. Her voice was terrifyingly calm.
She didn't look away from the window. She watched Gregory pull out his black Amex card to pay for the necklace. He wasn't just emotionally cheating with his stepsister. He was physically screwing the intern. He was buying her diamonds while Arianna handled his company's backend architecture.
Arianna reached into her coat pocket. She pulled out her phone and opened the camera app.
She zoomed in as far as the lens would go.
Her hands were shaking, but she forced them still. She pressed the shutter button. Click. Click. Click.
She captured his hand on Cristy's waist, the intimate way his fingers splayed against the white fabric. She captured the kiss he pressed to her cheek, his lips lingering too long.
She lowered the phone and slipped it back into her pocket. She turned around and grabbed the handle of the stroller.
"Let's go, Clara," she said, her tone completely flat.
Clara stared at her, her brow furrowed with concern. "Ari... are you okay? You're scaring me."
A cold, mocking smile touched the corner of Arianna's mouth.
"I'm fine," Arianna said. "In fact, I've never been more awake in my entire life."
They walked out the glass doors of the mall into the bright afternoon sun. The cold air hit Arianna's face, but she barely felt it.
The nine-year relationship was dead. Now, it was time to figure out how to extract her company shares and her patents before she burned his life to the ground.
