“Don't turn yourself into some bitter, nagging wife.”
The word nagging landed, and the last ripple of feeling inside me went still.
I looked at him and asked quietly：
“That was going too far?”
Lawrence blinked.
The next second.
I raised my hand and slapped Elise across the face as hard as I could.
The crack echoed through the entire lounge.
Elise's head snapped to the side, five red welts blooming instantly across her cheek.
I shook out my stinging hand.
“You want to see me go too far? I haven't even started.”
Lawrence finally lost it.
He lunged forward and shoved me.
My lower back slammed into the corner of the table. Pain exploded white-hot behind my eyes.
The prenatal exam report slipped from my hand and fluttered to the floor.
Lawrence didn't even glance at it.
He caught Elise first, pulling her into his arms.
“Pauline!”
“What the hell happened to you?”
His eyes were full of disappointment. Nothing else.
As if I were the one who had done something wrong.
“You used to be the kindest person I knew.”
“Elise had nothing growing up. You were the one who felt sorry for her, remember?”
“Now, just because she fell in love with me, you want to destroy her?”
A laugh almost escaped me.
He said I'd changed.
But Lawrence.
Who was the one who became disgusting first?
My mind drifted to a long time ago.
The first time Lawrence proposed, his hands shook so badly he couldn't even open the ring box.
He slid the ring onto my finger with red-rimmed eyes and said：
“Pauline, just getting to stand beside you is the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me.”
“No matter how high I climb, I'll never forget that you're the one who pulled me up.”
He was young then. Sincere. I was the only person in his eyes.
But now, the face that once held my hand and swore those vows.
And the face shielding Elise while demanding to know what had happened to me. Slowly, they merged into one.
All at once, I was calm.
I wasn't the one who had changed.
The man who promised he'd never make me cry.
He died the day he first betrayed me.
I didn't say another word.
I turned and walked out of the office.
Behind me, Elise was still sniffling.
“Lawrence, do you think Pauline will really ruin me?”
Lawrence lowered his voice to soothe her：
“She won't. I'm here. Nobody touches you.”
“But how are you going to thank me? Wear that outfit from last time. Remember what you called me?”
Elise's tears turned into a giggle. She swatted his chest playfully, her voice turning coy.
“Oh stop it, you're so bad……”
My steps didn't slow. I was already dialing the head of legal counsel.
“Notify the Board of Directors.”
“Suspend all of Lawrence James's authorizations within the company. Freeze every asset under his name.”
“Revoke every clearance under Elise Henson's name.”
A beat of silence on the other end.
“Ms. Swanson, Mr. James might……”
I rested my hand gently against my stomach.
“As of right now, there is no Mr. James at this company.”
That afternoon, every one of Lawrence's permissions was locked out of the system.
He couldn't sign a document, couldn't move a dollar.
He couldn't even badge into the executive conference room.
Elise had it worse.
When HR placed the termination notice in front of her, the color drained from her face.
Lawrence finally realized I wasn't throwing a tantrum.
He called me over a dozen times.
I didn't pick up once.
At eight that evening, I had just left the boardroom when the driver veered off the usual route home.
The car turned down an unfamiliar road.
I looked up at the front seat：“Where are we going?”
The driver wouldn't meet my eyes.
