He Cheated With His Mistress Then Begged Me Back

Early that morning, Misael left for work. Almost like she’d planned it, Alana texted me the second he stepped out the door. I ignored it.

But Alana wasn’t giving up. She caught me on my way to the gallery.

“I need to talk to you,” she said firmly at the entrance. “If you don’t want that perfect reputation of yours shattered…”

What perfect reputation was she even talking about? I had time to kill and was a little curious about what else she might say, so I decided to humor her.

I regretted it almost immediately. It was nothing but tedious, empty talk.

“You know how many opportunities Misael’s secretly sent my way lately?” Alana’s bragging cut through, snagging my attention.

“My projects, worthy or not, have all sailed through.”

“I know Misael’s pulling strings for me behind the scenes.”

Seeing my expression shift, Alana pressed on, even more smug. “Soon I’ll be on equal footing with Misael. You’ll have to step aside then.”

Her words dripped with superiority, edged with a hint of pity.

“I suggest you do the smart thing and leave Misael yourself,” she sneered. “Don’t wait until he dumps you, shatters your little happy-life fantasy, and leaves you humiliated.”

Watching her smugness, I let out a soft laugh, my voice steady. “I can’t say whether I’ll be humiliated in the future, but I can absolutely make you feel humiliated right now.”

“Care to test that?”

Alana didn’t so much as flinch. “You’re just an artist. What could you possibly do to affect me…?”

I cut her off calmly. “I still have those photos of you and Misael together.”

I pretended to consider it. “I wonder how posting them on your company’s public forum would affect your promotion?”

Alana clearly hadn’t expected me to still have them. Shock flickered across her face. “Didn’t you delete them?”

“Misael told you that? I deleted them, yes—I deleted one photo. Doesn’t that count?”

Watching her retreat in defeat, I felt no joy in my win. My hand, resting on my knee, was clenched so tightly it left crescent marks in my palm.

I forced my anger down with logic and pulled up the list of promotion candidates at Alana’s workplace. She’d come at me first, so she could deal with the fallout.

She might have no shame, but I wasn’t about to stoop so low as to gross everyone out by posting those photos publicly. Instead, I sent the photos I’d saved to Margaret, Alana’s fiercest competitor. The rest would play out without me; her rival would crush her chances, no question.

My good mood for the day died the second I got home. Standing at the door, I overheard Alana sobbing to Misael over the phone.

After a brief silence, Misael finally spoke to console her. “Alana, I’ll take care of this.”

“I promised to support your career. I’ll always be your safety net.”

Sweet talk. Real sweet.

I couldn’t wait for Misael to finish his call. I was too eager to applaud.

Clap. Clap. Clap…

The sound made Misael jump. Alana must have heard it too. No need to dwell on it; I already knew how foolish I’d been earlier that day.