Chapter 13 up
“I heard… she isn’t as clean as we thought.”
The sentence drifted quietly, almost like a breeze. But when it reached the wrong ears, it became a storm.
Selena stared at her phone screen with a faint smile she didn’t bother to fully hide. Messages poured in—group chats, whispered exchanges, fragments of sentences deliberately vague yet poisonous.
They say Nyla lives off wealthy men…
No wonder she left so easily…
If that weren’t true, why would Clark abandon her…
Selena set the phone down on the table and drew a slow breath. Her chest rose and fell—not from fear, but from satisfaction.
“Now you no longer look so pure,” she murmured softly.
She didn’t need to mention details. She only needed to plant a shadow. The world would do the rest.
The slander spread quickly. Too quickly.
At the small office where Nyla had started working temporarily, whispers followed her steps. Looks that were once warm turned cautious, judgmental—some openly contemptuous.
Nyla noticed.
She wasn’t foolish.
When she walked into the pantry, conversations stopped abruptly. When she smiled, the responses she received were stiff and brief.
“Did I do something wrong?” she asked a coworker one afternoon.
The woman smiled awkwardly. “No… it’s just… there are some strange stories.”
“Stories about what?” Nyla asked calmly.
The woman hesitated, then lowered her gaze. “About your past.”
Nyla nodded slowly. She had expected this.
That night, Nyla sat alone in her small apartment. Her phone vibrated—a message from an unknown number.
You should be ashamed.
Not every woman deserves to be called a wife.
Clark is far too good for you.
Nyla read the messages without expression. But her fingers trembled.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Anger began to surface—not blazing, but cold and precise.
Across the city, Selena sat in the living room with several women who had once mocked her. Now they listened with rapt attention.
“Poor Clark,” one of them said. “No wonder he left her.”
Selena sighed, feigning heaviness. “I really don’t want to talk about it. But I also don’t want others to get hurt by lies.”
“You’re a good woman,” another praised. “Protecting the family’s name.”
Selena smiled faintly. “I just don’t want a dark past to destroy my child’s future.”
The words sounded noble.
They were all lies.
When Clark came home that night, the atmosphere felt different. Selena greeted him with a gentle smile, though a flicker of unease flashed in her eyes.
“You look tired,” she said sweetly.
“Work’s been heavy,” Clark replied shortly.
Selena stepped closer, touching his arm. “I heard some strange things today.”
Clark frowned. “About what?”
“People are talking about Nyla,” Selena said carefully. “I don’t want to believe it… but they say her life after leaving you isn’t what you imagine.”
Clark stiffened. “What are they saying?”
Selena shook her head, pretending reluctance. “I don’t want to ruin your image of her. I’m just… worried.”
The concern sounded sincere.
But inside Clark, something resisted.
“Who started talking about her?” he asked quietly.
Selena smiled faintly. “I don’t know. Gossip spreads on its own.”
Clark fell silent.
That night, Clark received a message from an old colleague.
Have you heard about your wife?
Clark stared at the screen for a long moment. His chest throbbed uncomfortably.
He typed a short reply: I don’t believe gossip.
But doubt had already been injected.
In her apartment, Nyla stared at herself in the mirror. Her face looked the same—calm, composed, steady. But her eyes were sharper than before.
“So this is your way,” she murmured.
She picked up her phone and saved every message, every screenshot. She replied to none of them. She denied nothing.
She knew—fighting gossip with emotion would only feed it.
Meanwhile, Selena began to sense something unsettling.
Clark grew quieter. His gaze often drifted, his thoughts elsewhere. Tears and complaints no longer swayed him so easily.
“Do you believe all that?” Selena asked one night, feigning uncertainty.
Clark looked at her. “I don’t know.”
The answer made Selena’s heart beat uneasily.
“People can be cruel,” Clark continued. “Too quick to judge.”
Selena forced a smile. “But sometimes… gossip doesn’t appear without reason.”
Clark stared at her sharply. “Or it appears because someone deliberately spreads it.”
The air tightened instantly.
Selena let out a soft laugh. “Are you accusing me?”
“I’m just thinking,” Clark replied coldly.