The Scent of Betrayal, A New Path

afe, sending me pictures from a cruise ship in the Caribbean. The

s that I usually avoided. I just needed to be somewhere other than that empty house. I was nursin

he told me my code was 'elegant.

age, all of them looking like they' d just cashed their first big check. He was

. "She' s a titan, a legend. And she' s into me. She' s setting me up w

, you' re whipped. What' s the cat

s married. To some old-money Wall Street loser. Can you imagine? Being married to her and not recognizing the genius right i

jab. Wall Street loser. Comfortable. He was painting a picture of my life, of my marriage, fo

shed over me, colder and more te

way of a coffee spill by him just last week. But more importantly, he clearly didn' t know who Isabe

c story. He didn' t realize he was a pawn. And pawns, once they are

she do if he let her name slip? The Isabella I knew from my first life would not tolerate such a risk. She would eliminate it. And

over there and warn him. To tell him to s

ould put me back on Isabella' s radar right when I had finally gotten off it. Confron

ound out I was here, that I' d heard this... what would she think? That I was stalking them? That

, flashed in my mind. I couldn't risk it. I couldn't

hest. I got in my car and drove, my knuckles white on the steering wheel

o hear the

Liam! Honey, you won' t believe the sunset we saw in Barbados. Your f

n anymore. The carefully constructed walls I had built a

This trip is the best gi

lent. "I' m getting a divorce, Mom.

. But about the lies, the betrayal, the house that felt like a tomb. I t

her silence a comforting

voice full of a mother' s pain for

stay right where you are. You finish that cruise. You have the time of your live

mply disappear was not enough. I had to be smarter. I had to be more careful.