Chapter 16 Convenient Option
I can't speak. Can't move. Can't do anything except stare at that photo on her phone.
Caius and Vanessa together, looking happy. Looking comfortable. Looking like they belong together.
My mind is spinning. Racing through possibilities. Trying to make sense of this.
Maybe it's not what it looks like. Maybe they were just having dinner as friends. Maybe the photo is taken out of context. Maybe—
But I can see it in the photo. The way he's looking at her. The way they're sitting so close.
That's not how friends sit together.
That's how people who are together sit. People who know each other. People who have history.
"I..." I start, but my voice fails me. I clear my throat and try again. "I don't understand."
Vanessa's smile widens. She's enjoying this. She's enjoying every second of my confusion and pain.
"Don't you?" she asks. She slides her phone back into her expensive bag slowly like she's savoring this moment.
Then she walks past me and sits down on the couch.
"Sit down, Lia," she says. "Let's have a conversation. A real one. Just us girls."
I glance at Leo.
He's still standing near the wall, clutching his toy car. Watching us with those wide, frightened eyes.
He shouldn't be here for this. Whatever this is about to become, he shouldn't have to witness it.
"Leo, sweetie," I say, keeping my voice calm. "Why don't you go play in your room for a bit? I'll come check on you in a few minutes, okay?"
Leo doesn't move.
His eyes dart from me to Vanessa and back again.
"It's okay," I assure him. "Everything's fine. I just need to talk to Miss Vanessa for a little while."
"Mummy... Don't... Like her," Leo says quietly.
"I know, sweetheart," I say. "But sometimes we have to talk to people even when we don't particularly like them. That's what grown-ups do."
I crouch down to his level, ignoring Vanessa watching us.
"Can you be a brave boy and go play with your cars?" I ask. "Maybe you can build me a really cool race track. And when I'm done talking, I'll come see it. Deal?"
Leo looks uncertain.
But finally, he nods.
"Okay... Mummy," he whispers.
I reach out and squeeze his small shoulder gently.
"Good boy," I say. "Now go on. I'll be there soon."
Leo gives Vanessa one more suspicious look, then turns and walks away, toward his room.
I watch until he disappears. Only then do I straighten up and turn back to Vanessa.
She's watching me with a bewildered expression.
"He's attached to you," she states. "That's interesting."
I don't respond.
I walk over to the armchair across from her and sit down.
"So," Vanessa says, settling back more comfortably into the couch. "Let me tell you about Caius. The real Caius. Not the version you think you know."
"Caius and I met at a charity gala," she begins. "One of those insufferably boring events where rich people throw money at causes they don't actually care about just so they can feel good about themselves."
She smiles at the memory.
"He was different then. Younger and less... hardened. His father had just died. He'd just taken over the company. He was drowning in responsibility and grief and he had no idea what he was doing."
Her voice goes soft.
"I helped him," she continues. "Taught him how to navigate that world. How to deal with the board members who thought he was too young. How to handle the press. How to be the CEO everyone expected him to be."
She pauses.
"We fell in love. Or at least, I thought we did."
I'm listening despite not wanting to hear this. Despite knowing she's probably telling me this just to hurt me.
But I need to know.
I need to understand who Caius really is.
Because she's right. I don't know him. Not really.
I've worked for him for two years, but I only know Boss Caius. CEO Caius. The man who demands perfection and accepts nothing less.
I don't know the man who fell in love with the woman sitting across from me.
"We were together for five years," Vanessa says. "Five years of dinners and charity events and weekends in the Hamptons. Five years of him promising that someday we'd get married. Someday we'd start a family. Someday."
"But someday never came," she continues. "There was always something more important. A merger. An acquisition. A crisis at the company. Something that took priority over us. Over me."
She looks directly at me.
"Do you know what it's like to be in love with someone who loves their company more than they love you?"
I don't answer.
Because I don't know. I've never been in love with Caius. This marriage isn't about love.
But I'm starting to wonder if maybe Caius isn't capable of love at all.
"A year ago, I'd had enough," Vanessa says. "I gave him an ultimatum. Marry me or I'm leaving."
She laughs bitterly.
"He chose the company. So I left. Moved to Paris. Tried to move on with my life."
"Then why are you back?" I ask.
Vanessa's smile returns.
"One month ago, Caius called me," she starts. "Out of the blue. Said he'd made a mistake. Said he wanted to talk. Said maybe we could try again."
My stomach drops.
"So I flew back," she continues. "We had dinner at our favorite restaurant. The one we went to on our first date. The one where he first told me he loved me."
"We talked for hours," she says. "About us. About what went wrong. About whether we could fix it."
"And?" I manage to ask.
"And he told me he missed me," Vanessa says. "That he'd been miserable without me. That he wanted to work things out."
She leans forward slightly.
"Then now, he married you," she says. "A woman I've never heard of. A woman he's never mentioned."
I press my lips together.
"So you can understand my confusion, Lia," she continues. "One day he's telling me he wants to get back together. The next few weeks he's married to someone else. It doesn't make sense."
She's right.
It doesn't make sense.
Unless...
Unless he never intended to get back together with her at all. Unless their reunion was about Leo. He was desperate enough to reach out to his ex.
Just because he needed a two parent household.
But maybe things didn't go as he planned.
And so, he found the most efficient solution to his problem.
Me.
The assistant who was already there. Already under his control. Already desperate enough to say yes.
The realization makes me sick.
I'm not his wife. I'm not even his choice.
I'm just the convenient option.
"So tell me, Lia," Vanessa says, and her voice has gone really cold now. "How did this really happen?"
I swallow hard.
"We fell in love."
Even to my own ears, it sounds unconvincing.
Vanessa laughs.
"Please," she says. "Don't insult my intelligence. Caius doesn't fall in love in weeks or days. Caius doesn't fall in love at all anymore. I spent years trying to get him to open his heart and I barely managed it."
She stands up and walks toward me.
"So I'll ask you again," she says, standing over me now. "What is this really about?"
I force myself to meet her eyes.
"It's about Leo," I say finally with a sigh. "The custody case. Caius needed to prove he could provide a stable home."
It's not a lie. But it's not the whole truth either.
Vanessa's eyes narrow.
"So you admit it," she says. "This marriage is fake."
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to."
She crosses her arms.
"Does the court know?" she asks. "Does the social worker know that you're just playing house? That this is all an arrangement?"
"It's not—"
"Because I wonder what would happen if someone told her," Vanessa interrupts. "If someone provided evidence that Caius's marriage is a sham. A fraud designed to manipulate the court system."
My blood runs cold.
She's threatening me.
Threatening us.
"You wouldn't," I whisper.
"Wouldn't I?"
Vanessa tilts her head.
"I've spent years of my life loving that man," she says. "Years waiting for him to choose me. To prioritize me. To marry me."
Her voice is shaking now.
"And then you, some nobody, waltz in and get everything I wanted in two weeks?"
She leans down close to me.
"No," she says. "I don't think so."
I force myself not to shrink back. Not to show fear.
"What do you want?" I ask.
Vanessa straightens up. A smile plays at her lips.
"I want you gone," she says simply. "I want you to step aside. Divorce him. Disappear. Whatever this arrangement is, I want it ended."
"I can't do that."
"Can't? Or won't?"
"Both."
I stand up, forcing her to take a step back.
"I signed a contract," I say. "I made a commitment to Caius and to Leo. And I'm not walking away just because you're jealous."
Vanessa's eyes flash.
"Jealous?" she repeats. "You think this is about jealousy?"
"Isn't it?"
"This is about what's mine," Vanessa says. "Caius is mine. He's always been mine. You're just a temporary inconvenience."
"Then why are you so threatened by me?" I ask.
Vanessa's perfect composure cracks just slightly.
"I'm not threatened," she says.
"Yes, you are," I say, and suddenly I can see it clearly. "You're terrified. Because you spent years trying to get him to marry you and he never did. But he married me in two weeks."
"Because you trapped him—"
"No," I interrupt. "Because he needed something I could give him. Something you couldn't or wouldn't."
Vanessa's face goes hard.
"You have no idea what you're talking about," she says coldly. "You don't know Caius. You don't know what he's capable of. You don't know what he really wants."
"And you do?"
"Yes," she says. "Because I've been there. I've seen him at his worst. I've seen him destroy people who got in his way. I've seen him use people and discard them when they're no longer useful."
She takes a step closer.
"Is that what you want to be, Lia? One of his discarded tools?"
"That's not..."
"That's what will happen," Vanessa continues. "He'll use you for as long as he needs you. For this custody case. For whatever game he's playing. And then when he's done, when he has what he wants, you'll be gone. Just like all the others."
Her words hit me hard.
Because isn't that exactly what this is? Isn't that exactly what our arrangement is?
He's using me to get custody of Leo. And when the six months are up, I'll be gone.
That was always the plan.
But somehow, hearing Vanessa say it out loud makes it feel worse somehow.
"Here's what's going to happen," Vanessa says. "You're going to leave quietly. You're going to divorce Caius. Tell the court whatever you need to tell them. Make up an excuse. Say you realized the marriage was a mistake. Say whatever."
"And if I don't?"
Vanessa smiles.
"Then I'll destroy everything," she says simply. "I'll go to Catherine. I'll go to the court. I'll tell them everything I know. Everything I suspect. I'll bring lawyers. I'll make sure Caius never gets custody of that little boy."
My hands clench into fists.
"You can't do that."
She reaches into her expensive leather bag again.
For a horrible moment, I think she's going to pull out more photos. More evidence of her and Caius together. More proof that I'm nothing. That I don't belong here. That this marriage is a joke.
But what she pulls out is worse.
So much worse.
Her phone.
The same phone she showed me the photo on just minutes ago.
She holds it up, screen facing me.
And I can see
it clearly now.
There's a recording app open on the screen.
The timer is running.
Twenty-three minutes and forty-seven seconds.
Twenty-three minutes and forty-eight seconds.
Twenty-three minutes and forty-nine seconds.
My blood turns to ice.
"Been recording," Vanessa says simply.