* I decided to test my husband and told him: “Honey, I got fired!” — but the truth was, I’d been promoted….

Let’s not get carried away, Brian muttered. We still have to make sure Rachel doesn’t fight us on the divorce. She won’t, Linda replied confidently.

Not if you handle it right. Remind her she has nowhere to go. No job.

No savings. She’ll fold. I clenched my fists, every nerve in my body screaming.

They thought I was powerless, that I was trapped. But I wasn’t. Not yet.

Not entirely. And what if she doesn’t fold? Linda asked. What if she gets a lawyer? Brian’s voice dropped, low and calm.

Too calm. Then we hit her with the infidelity angle. I nearly stumbled backward.

What infidelity? Linda asked. Doesn’t matter, Brian said. I’ve got a few old photos from that conference she went to two years ago.

Just her with some colleagues. But they can be interpreted the right way. Enough to raise doubt.

You’re a clever boy, Linda cooed. Just like your father. But he wasn’t done.

If that doesn’t work, Brian continued, we accuse her of leaking internal documents. She worked with sensitive client files. She brought stuff home all the time.

I’ll say I caught her trying to sell data to competitors. I felt my knees give way, and I sank slowly to the floor. My hands were ice cold.

My husband, the man who once held my hair back while I threw up from food poisoning, who painted our bedroom walls while I picked the color, was planning to destroy my life from the inside out. He was going to lie in court. He was going to accuse me of things I never did.

Just to push me out. For Claire. And a baby who wasn’t even his.

Claire. The quiet, soft-spoken woman I remembered only in flashes from Mark’s memorial. She had seemed kind, fragile.

I never imagined she would come back into our lives like this. Not as the woman replacing me. Not as the mother of the child my husband planned to call his own.

How’s the baby doing? Brian asked then, his voice suddenly light. Almost happy. Strong, Linda answered proudly.

Claire says he’s growing fast. Looks just like Mark. Same eyes, same laugh.

You’ll see soon enough. The room started spinning. They were building a new family.

Brian, Claire, the baby, and Linda, of course. Always Linda. The perfect little unit.

And in their minds, I was already gone. Just paperwork. Just one final conversation.

I’ll tell her tonight, Brian said. She’s already on edge after losing her job. It’s the perfect time.

I’ll play the sympathetic card. Say it’s better for both of us. Offer her a bit of cash to walk away.

Linda snorted. Push the pity. Make her feel like a burden.

She’ll cave. Women like her always do. I bit my lip so hard I tasted blood.

But even through the pain, I smiled to myself. Just barely. Because they didn’t know the truth.

I hadn’t been fired. I had been promoted. And they had no idea that their plan was already falling apart.

I stayed crouched behind the door long after they stopped talking. I didn’t move when I heard the couch creak or the front door close behind Linda. I just sat there, hugging my knees, heart hammering so loud I thought it would give me away.

My body was frozen. But my mind, my mind was burning. This wasn’t just betrayal.

This was war. And I’d walked right into it, unarmed, unaware, until now. But I wasn’t going to be a casualty.

Not quietly. Not ever. That night, I didn’t speak to Brian.

He acted like nothing had happened. He poured himself a drink, watched the game, glanced at me with that carefully neutral expression that now seemed so grotesque. I didn’t look at him.

I didn’t trust myself to. Because if I did, I might break the illusion. And I needed that illusion, at least for a little while longer.

In bed, I lay still with my eyes open, my back to him. He fell asleep quickly, like always, as if the day hadn’t included plotting to erase me from his life. I listened to his breathing and planned…