Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Knew Exactly What She Wanted
Sabrina Cole had not planned to fall for Ethan Mercer.
That was the story she told herself.
The truth was uglier.
She had noticed Ethan because he was useful.
Six months earlier, Sabrina had been told she was being considered for vice president of corporate development.
One obstacle stood between her and the promotion.
Northstar Systems.
If the acquisition succeeded at the right price, Sabrina would become the obvious choice.
But the valuation depended heavily on operational assumptions controlled by Ethan’s department.
She needed information.
Ethan had it.
At first, she approached professionally.
Coffee.
Lunch.
Late meetings.
Then she noticed how easily he responded to praise.
“Your team is the only one keeping this deal realistic.”
“You see problems nobody else sees.”
“Richard doesn’t appreciate how much you carry.”
Ethan liked hearing those things.
Especially during a year when Grace’s pregnancy had changed everything at home.
Grace was tired.
Nauseated.
Focused on doctor visits, nursery furniture and preparing for motherhood.
Sabrina was focused entirely on Ethan.
He mistook attention for connection.
She mistook access for opportunity.
Then one evening they kissed.
After that, business and betrayal tangled together.
Sabrina did develop feelings.
Just not enough to stop using him.
Compliance discovered the emailed files within twenty-four hours.
One contained confidential labor-cost projections.
Another included a negotiation threshold that could influence Northstar’s sale price.
Worse, Sabrina had forwarded one file from her personal account to a consultant named Victor Dane.
Victor worked for an investment fund quietly accumulating Northstar stock.
The implications were severe.
Corporate investigators called federal authorities.
Ethan was interviewed.
He told the truth.
Every humiliating piece of it.
He admitted the affair.
He admitted letting Sabrina use his laptop.
He denied knowingly giving her files.
Digital records supported him.
The emails were sent while Ethan had been away from the device.
He was reckless.
Unfaithful.
But investigators found no evidence he knowingly participated in the data transfer.
Grace learned about all of this from Linda.
She was sitting beside Sophie’s incubator.
Her daughter had a tiny knit cap and a breathing tube.
Grace touched one finger through the opening.
“Your father is apparently an idiot in several industries.”
Linda almost laughed.
“Sweetheart.”
“I’m serious.”
Grace looked toward her mother.
“First adultery. Now corporate espionage.”
“They don’t think he knew.”
“That almost makes it worse.”
“How?”
Grace sighed.
“He blew up his marriage for a woman who may have been using him.”
Linda sat beside her.
“That doesn’t erase what he did.”
“I know.”
Grace looked at Sophie.
“That’s the problem.”
Part of her wanted Sabrina to be entirely responsible.
A villain.
A manipulator.
Someone who had trapped Ethan.
But Ethan had made choices.
Seven times.
He had lied every time he came home.
He had kissed Grace while carrying another woman’s perfume.
No amount of manipulation changed that.
Three days after Sophie’s birth, Mark Cole came to the hospital.
Grace was surprised when a nurse said a Dr. Cole wanted to see her.
She assumed he was part of Sophie’s team.
Then Mark entered.
He was tall, tired, and wearing a dark coat.
“You’re Sabrina’s husband.”
“Yes.”
Grace’s shoulders tightened.
“What do you want?”
“Five minutes.”
She considered asking him to leave.
Instead she nodded.
Mark sat.
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t sleep with my husband.”
“No.”
He looked down.
“But I think we both deserve the truth.”
Grace waited.
“I found messages.”
Her stomach turned.
“I don’t want details.”
“Not intimate messages.”
He pulled out his phone.
“Financial ones.”
Sabrina had been moving money.
Large amounts.
Some transfers connected to Victor Dane.
Others went into an account Mark had never seen.
“She told me she was investing for us,” Mark said.
“Was she?”
“I don’t know.”
Grace looked at him.
“Why tell me?”
“Because one message mentions Ethan.”
He showed her.
Sabrina had written to Victor:
Mercer is easier than expected. He wants to feel important. I can get the operating assumptions.
Grace felt nauseated.
Another message:
Once he trusts me, he won’t ask questions.
Grace handed the phone back.
“She used him.”
Mark nodded.
“At first.”
“At first?”
Mark hesitated.
“There are later messages where she tells Victor she wants out.”
Grace frowned.
“She said Ethan was getting too attached?”
“No.”
Mark looked toward the window.
“She said she was.”
That complicated things in a way Grace did not want.
Sabrina had used Ethan.
Then perhaps fallen for him.
Ethan had betrayed Grace willingly.
Both truths could exist.
Mark rubbed his hands together.
“I filed for divorce.”
Grace looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
He smiled sadly.
“I spent years thinking a stable marriage meant a quiet one.”
That sentence stayed with her.
“How long were you unhappy?”
“Long enough that I stopped asking.”
Grace thought about Ethan’s late nights.
His distance.
Her own assumption that marriage could survive on trust without attention.
Again, she refused to blame herself for his affair.
But she began seeing the marriage more clearly.
“What are you going to do?” Mark asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t have to.”
He stood.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think Ethan knew about the files.”
Grace nodded.
“That doesn’t make him innocent.”
“No.”
Mark looked at her.
“But it may help you decide what kind of guilty he is.”
After he left, Grace stared at Sophie for a long time.
That evening, Ethan arrived at the NICU.
Grace had allowed him to visit their daughter whenever he wanted.
She had not allowed him into her apartment.
He sat beside the incubator.
“How is she?”
“Gained an ounce.”
He smiled.
“That’s my girl.”
Grace watched him.
“I met Mark.”
Ethan’s face changed.
“He showed me Sabrina’s messages.”
Ethan looked down.
“I’m sorry.”
“For being used?”
“For being stupid enough to let any of this happen.”
Grace folded her arms.
“Did you love her?”
He answered more quickly than she expected.
“No.”
“Did you think you did?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Grace nodded.
“That’s worse.”
“I know.”
“Because that means when you came home to me, you were emotionally somewhere else.”
“I know.”
She looked at Sophie.
“Stop saying you know.”
Ethan swallowed.
“I don’t know what else to say.”
“Then say something true.”
He thought.
Finally:
“I liked who I was around her.”
Grace looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“She admired me.”
“I admired you.”
“You needed me.”
Grace’s expression hardened.
Ethan immediately corrected himself.
“That sounded horrible.”
“Yes.”
“I mean… you were my wife. We had bills. Appointments. Real life. Sabrina made me feel like there were no consequences.”
Grace almost laughed.
“And now?”
He looked at Sophie beneath the hospital lights.
“Now consequences weigh three pounds and fourteen ounces.”
Grace’s eyes filled.
Ethan continued.
“I don’t want forgiveness because I’m suffering.”
“Good.”
“I want to become someone who would deserve it even if you never give it.”
That was the first thing he said that Grace did not hate.
But the next morning, the company announced publicly that Sabrina Cole had been terminated.
Ethan remained suspended.
And by lunchtime, an anonymous account leaked photographs of Ethan and Sabrina leaving a hotel together.
The scandal was no longer private.
Grace opened her phone and saw her husband’s face beneath a headline.
EXECUTIVES CAUGHT IN OFFICE AFFAIR AMID INSIDER DATA PROBE.
Below it was a photograph of Grace.
Pregnant.
Smiling.
Taken from Ethan’s social media.
Grace stared.
Then she saw the caption.
Sources say Mercer’s wife went into premature labor after discovering the affair.
May you like
Grace’s blood ran cold.
Her worst night had just become public entertainment.
