Chapter 8 - The Serpent’s Shedding Skin
While Ethan sat in the diner,
broken and defeated,
I knew the real battle was happening back at the house.
Chloe wasn't the type to go down with the ship.
I had researched her,
digging into her past with a fervor that only a woman scorned can possess.
She wasn't just a "delicate" assistant.
She was a woman who had hopped from one high-level executive to another,
leaving a trail of broken marriages and settled lawsuits in her wake.
Ethan was just her biggest catch yet.
When I returned to the house to collect the rest of my things,
I found her in the bedroom.
She wasn't crying anymore.
She was packing.
Not a suitcase,
but my designer bags.
She was shoving my jewelry,
the pieces Ethan had bought me before he left,
into a duffel bag.
"Going somewhere?"
I asked,
leaning against the doorframe.
Chloe spun around,
her face contorted in a sneer that replaced her sweet,
innocent mask.
"You’ve ruined it,"
she spat,
dropping a pearl necklace onto the bed.
"You’ve ruined everything.
Do you think he’s going to have anything left after this?
The company will take his stock options.
They’ll sue him for every dime."
"I imagine they will,"
I said calmly,
walking into the room and picking up the necklace.
"Which makes me wonder why you’re still here.
Surely there’s another CEO with a mid-life crisis you can go haunt."
She laughed,
a harsh,
grating sound.
"Ethan was a fool.
He thought he was so smart,
sneaking around.
But he’s weak,
Mabel.
He’s always been weak.
He cried to me about how much he hated coming home to you,
how boring you were,
how you had no ambition."
The words were designed to hurt,
but they felt like pebbles thrown at a tank.
"And yet,"
I replied,
"here I am,
taking everything from both of you.
If I’m so boring,
how did I manage to outmaneuver you without even trying?"
She stepped toward me,
her eyes flashing with malice.
"You think you’ve won?
He’s going to hate you for the rest of his life.
He’ll never forgive you for this."
"I don't need his forgiveness,
Chloe.
I need his absence.
And as for you..."
I looked her up and down,
at the stolen clothes and the desperate look in her eyes.
"You should probably leave before the police arrive.
I called them ten minutes ago to report a burglary in progress.
After all,
those are my bags you’re packing."
The color drained from her face.
She dropped the duffel bag as if it were on fire.
In that moment,
the "delicate" girl was gone,
replaced by a common thief caught in the act.
She scrambled for her purse,
not even looking back as she fled the room and the house.
I watched her go from the window,
running down the driveway to her car.
She was a serpent who had shed her skin,
May you like
but she was still a snake,
and now she had no garden left to hide in.
