Chapter 2 - The Mistress ArrivesAnd no one except me knew that the elegant blonde woman stepping onto the upper deck in a scarlet evening gown had spent the past year sleeping with my husband.
Celeste Rowan carried two champagne glasses as if she were arriving at a celebration. During office hours, she served as Adrian’s executive liaison, a title he invented to give her unrestricted access to private meetings, corporate accounts, and international travel. At company events, she wore conservative dresses and addressed me with exaggerated respect. In photographs, she always positioned herself several steps behind Adrian. That night she did not pretend.
Her gown was fitted, her diamond earrings were familiar, and her smile held the impatient satisfaction of someone who believed a long-awaited promotion was only minutes away.
I recognized the earrings immediately. They had belonged to my mother. My father had given them to me after she died, and I had stored them in a locked drawer in our penthouse.
Celeste noticed me looking. “They suit me, don’t you think?” she asked, her voice carrying over the sound of the wind and the engines.
I turned to Adrian, keeping my voice perfectly level. “You gave her my mother’s earrings?”
He took a slow drink, the ice clinking against the glass. “Material possessions become complicated when people are preparing for major transitions.”
“Is that what tonight is?” I asked. “A transition?”
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Celeste laughed quietly and handed him a glass of champagne, discarding the pretense she had worn for months. “There is no reason to continue pretending, Adrian. She already knows enough.”
Adrian’s smile disappeared. He placed his bourbon on the table and studied me with the detached expression of a man reviewing an asset he had already decided to sell. For most of our marriage, I had mistaken his calmness for emotional control. I understood now that it was an absolute absence of empathy. Adrian did not feel guilt the way ordinary people did. He felt inconvenience. He did not regret causing pain; he resented the person who noticed.
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