Chapter 3

3.

It was a sticker.

A small, glittery, cheap-looking strawberry sticker.

And next to it, in a round, bubbly handwriting that was definitely not mine, was a note:

【Wouldn't the little fox be cuter if he found a magic tail at the end?】

The handwriting mocked me. It was an invasion. A territorial marking.

"Berry Babe" wasn't just on his phone.

She had been in my house.

She had been in my studio.

She had stood right here, judging my work, while I was… where? Grocery shopping? Visiting my parents?

Jason wasn't just cheating. He had brought her into our sanctuary.

I touched the sticker. It felt greasy.

From downstairs, I could hear the clink of wine glasses and Jason humming a little tune. He thought he'd won. He thought a bottle of wine and a hug had fixed the "glitch."

He had no idea.

I picked up my phone and called Sarah.

"Emily?" Sarah's voice was sharp. She was in lawyer mode.

"Don't talk," I whispered, staring at the strawberry sticker. "Just listen. I need you to find out everything you can about someone named 'Chloe' at Jason's firm. And Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"He brought her home."

The silence on the other end of the line was terrifying.

"Emily," Sarah said, her voice dropping an octave. "Burn him to the ground."

"Not yet," I said, peeling up a corner of the sticker with my nail. "First, I'm going to make him feel safe."

For the next few days, I turned our home into a silent battlefield. On the surface, I was the perfect, doting wife who had just forgiven her husband's "misunderstanding." In reality, I was a hunter, studying the man I was realizing I'd never really known.

On Wednesday afternoon, I decided to pay Jason a "surprise visit" at his office.

Jason's investment firm was in a glass skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River. I wore a tailored Max Mara camel coat, carrying his favorite Blue Bottle coffee and a box of French pastries. The receptionist knew me and gave me a professional smile, buzzing me through to the elevator.

"Is Jason in a meeting?" I asked his secretary as I walked into his executive suite.

"Mrs. Miller! No, Mr. Miller is just going over the expo schedule with his new assistant." The secretary stood up, flustered. "Should I let him know you're here?"

"No need. I want it to be a surprise."

I pushed open the heavy mahogany door.

The air in the office froze for a second. Jason was in his leather executive chair, and a young woman was sitting on the edge of his desk―not in a chair, but on the desk itself. She was leaning forward, a pen in her hand, pointing at something on his documents. They were close enough to violate not just professional boundaries, but personal space.

When she heard the door, the girl jumped back as if electrocuted, smoothing down her Chanel tweed skirt, which was clearly too short.

"Emily!" The panic on Jason's face vanished in an instant, replaced by a perfect smile. "What are you doing here?"

"I was in the neighborhood. Brought you coffee." I walked over, my eyes fixed on the girl.

She was young, her skin plump with collagen, wearing the kind of innocent-but-sexy makeup that's all over TikTok. Her big eyes blinked innocently, but I recognized that look immediately―it was the look of a predator.

"And this is?" I asked, knowing full well.

"Oh, this is Chloe." Jason came over and put an arm around my waist, trying to block my view of her. "My new assistant. Chloe, this is my wife, Emily."

"Hi, Mrs. Miller." Chloe held out her hand. On her wrist was a Cartier bracelet, an item that had appeared on Jason's credit card bill last month as a "business gift." "Jason talks about you all the time. He says you're a very… patient artist."

Her emphasis on the word "patient" was tinged with a faint, unmistakable contempt.

"Is that so?" I shook her hand; her fingertips were cold. "Jason mentioned you too. You're the… creative intern, right?"

Chloe's face flickered for a moment before she recovered her sweet smile. "That was before. Now I'm Jason's personal assistant. I help him with… all his stress."

She shot a look at Jason that lingered a little too long.

"Well, that must be a tough job." I let go of her hand and walked over to Jason's desk, pretending to glance around casually.

A few documents were spread out, one of them titled "National Book Expo Exhibition Plan." Next to the documents was a pink thermos, and on it was a familiar sticker―a glittery strawberry.

Identical to the one on my sketch.

My heart seized, but I kept my expression neutral.

"Jason, did you change your style?" I pointed at the pink thermos. "A bit girly, isn't it?"

"Oh, that's Chloe's." Jason awkwardly pushed the thermos aside. "We were just so focused on work."

"We were," Chloe chimed in, her voice syrupy sweet. "We were discussing a new IP project Jason's about to invest in. It's about a… magical little animal. Jason says the story is way more exciting than all the old-fashioned fairy tales on the market."

She looked at me, a provocative smirk playing on her lips. "Mrs. Miller, I hear you draw too. Have you been drawing for all these years and still haven't been published? Maybe you should let Jason teach you what kind of 'magic' the market likes."

The air crackled with tension. Jason obviously felt it. He cleared his throat. "Alright, Chloe, why don't you go get Mrs. Miller a glass of water."

"No need." I turned to face Jason directly. "I just came to see you. Since you're so busy, I won't disturb you."

I walked to the door, paused, and looked back at Chloe.

"A piece of workplace advice, Miss Chloe: some things look very tempting, like someone else's husband, or someone else's work. But if you're going to take them, remember to wear gloves. You don't want to leave fingerprints."

Chloe froze. Jason's face darkened.

I turned and walked away, my heels clicking sharply against the marble floor.

Once inside the elevator, I leaned against the cold metal wall, and my body started to shake. The strawberry sticker, the taunt about "old-fashioned fairy tales," and Jason's complicit silence.

This was no longer a suspicion. This was a declaration of war.

My phone buzzed. It was a message from Sarah.

【Sarah: Come to my office tonight. I got what you asked for. Prepare yourself, Emily. This is much dirtier than we thought.】