WonNovels

Three years into Adrian’s affair, I met a college boy with a young, unguarded face.

White T-shirt. Faded jeans. Rebellious eyes beneath hair that fell a little too long over his forehead, his lips pressed into a thin line.

He looked enough like the young Adrian to make my breath catch.

My car had broken down on a road outside the city. He looked under the hood and said he could fix it for seventy-five dollars.

Halfway through the job, his phone rang.

It seemed to be the hospital billing office calling about the deposit for an upcoming surgery. He stood there with the phone to his ear for a long time before speaking.

“I’m working on it. I’ll have the rest of the deposit before the surgery.”

“Just give me a little more time, okay?”

As I watched him, I thought of the day I first learned about Adrian’s affair.

He’d sat slumped on the couch, his face buried in his hands, his voice hoarse.

“Claire, I never meant to betray you.”

“But she looks so much like you did when we were young. Don’t you understand?”

“Every time I see her, I remember everything you went through. I remember how helpless I was back then.”

“I can help now. I just want to take care of her. It’s like getting another chance to take care of the girl you used to be.”

“Please don’t hate me.”

And all at once, I didn’t.

Because now I understood.

01

When he finished, I slid behind the wheel and started the engine. It ran without a hitch.

He held out his phone, a payment app open on the screen.

I was about to send the money when his phone rang again.

One glance told me it was the hospital.

“Hello?” His face changed almost instantly. “What? Okay. I’m on my way.”

The call ended.

“Get in,” I said before he could speak.

He stared at me.

“You need to get to the hospital, don’t you? You look like it’s urgent. I’ll drive.”

He pressed his lips together, then climbed into the passenger seat without further protest. It took him a while to murmur, “Thank you.”

I entered the hospital address into the GPS and pulled onto the road.

On the way, I asked about his situation.

His name was Noah Bennett. He was twenty-one, a college junior, and the sole guardian of his ten-year-old sister.

Their parents had died in a plane crash when he was fifteen. The estate they left should have supported both children until adulthood, but one of the relatives appointed to manage it had siphoned off part of the money. Then, the year before, Noah’s sister had been diagnosed with a serious heart condition.

Insurance covered most of her treatment. The deductible, coinsurance, and long-term care did the rest, draining what remained of the estate and leaving Noah in debt.

Before he ran into me, he’d gone to see the relative who stole from them, hoping to recover at least some of the money. The man hadn’t even let him through the door.

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

Noah turned toward the window, his expression calm.

“If you’re willing to work, there’s always a way to make money.”

The second I stopped outside the hospital, he jumped out.

He didn’t even wait for the elevator. He shoved open the fire door and sprinted up the stairs.

I picked up my bag and checked which floor housed cardiothoracic surgery.

By the time the elevator deposited me there, the emergency seemed to have passed. A doctor stood in the hall, explaining something to Noah. A few minutes later, the little girl in the hospital bed opened her eyes.

The tension vanished from Noah’s face, replaced by a gentle smile.

He smoothed his sister’s hair and whispered something in her ear. She relaxed and soon fell asleep again.

I looked at the contact I’d added only minutes earlier, thought for a moment, and sent him seventy-five hundred dollars.

Then I turned to leave.

I’d made it only a few steps when Noah caught up with me.

“Wait.”

His fingers closed around my wrist, then immediately released it as if he’d only just realized what he’d done. Words seemed to fail him.

I smiled.

“Take it. Consider it my good deed for the day. Your sister is adorable. I hope she recovers soon.”

The money made him uncomfortable; that much was obvious. But reality had already worn his pride down to almost nothing. His mouth opened more than once, yet he couldn’t bring himself to refuse.

At last, he said quietly, “I’ll pay you back.”

I waved the promise away and stepped into the elevator.

02

The elevator opened into the underground garage.

I took out my keys and started toward my car when a soft voice stopped me.

“Adrian, I think I left the prenatal records in the car.”

My feet went still.

A black Rolls-Royce sat several spaces away, its rear door open. Adrian was bent over the back seat, retrieving a small leather tote.

The woman beside him wore a soft, flowing dress. She had a sweet face and the gentle swell of early pregnancy beneath one hand.

Neither of them saw me.

She looped her arm through Adrian’s. They exchanged a smile, intimate and absorbed, as though no one else existed.

I thought of the year I miscarried. I must have been about her age.

Our businesses had only just begun. We didn’t have the time, the energy, or the money for a child, and the future terrified us.

But we loved each other then. However impossible the circumstances, we could never quite bring ourselves to end the pregnancy.

In the end, we didn’t have to decide.

I miscarried before we made a choice.

Adrian held me through the night at the hospital, his eyes bloodshot by morning.

“Just give me a little more time, Claire,” he’d rasped.

“When our child comes back to us, I swear they’ll be the happiest child in the world.”

I’d clutched his shirt in both fists. His grief was as deep as mine, so I hadn’t even dared to cry too loudly.

At twenty-four, I lost my baby.

Adrian was cleverer than I was. He knew how to make up for his regrets.

There she stood—my replacement, twenty-four years old and carrying Adrian’s child.

Back in my car, I tried to light a cigarette with shaking hands.

Instead, I covered my eyes and let the tears fall through a bleak, soundless smile.

I had accepted long ago that Adrian’s heart had changed. I expected nothing from him anymore.

So I couldn’t quite understand why I was still crying.

03

Adrian came home that evening.

We’d slept in separate rooms for a long time. He and the other woman had an apartment on the other side of town, where they lived a second version of family life.

I couldn’t understand why he still insisted on returning to this house every day.

We sat across from each other at the dining table in silence, the occasional tap of silverware against china the only sound.

Adrian placed a barbecue rib on my plate.

I didn’t object.

But when dinner ended, it lay exactly where he’d put it, untouched.

“Your birthday’s next week,” he said. “I thought I’d throw you a dinner. Invite a few friends. Make a night of it.”

“Do whatever you want.” I shrugged. “I have a business dinner that night, so I won’t be here.”

He finally looked up. Weariness shadowed his face.

“Do you have to be like this forever, Claire?”

“Like what?”

After a pause, he said, “I just want us to have a life together.”

I set down my fork.

“Have you ever thought about divorcing me?”

“No.” The answer came too quickly.

“Don’t you want to give Lily a stable, public place in your life? She’s been with you for years. She’s carrying your child. Don’t you think she deserves more than this?”

Adrian frowned.

“I’ve told you. What I feel for her isn’t love. It’s compassion.”

“You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.”

“She reminds me of you when you were young. I want her to have an easier life. I want her to be happy.”

“That’s all.”

He sounded sincere. He might not even have believed he was lying.

In truth, Adrian rarely lied to me outright. At first, he’d simply concealed Lily Reed’s existence. Once I found out, he admitted everything.

I asked him to stay away from her, and at first he agreed.

Later, he told me he couldn’t.

He couldn’t watch Lily struggle and turn his back. He couldn’t see someone drowning and refuse to reach for her.

I fell apart. I cried, screamed, fought, despaired.

He only held me while I beat my fists against him.

Eventually, I ran out of strength.

Adrian mistook my exhaustion for acceptance. Once, testing the waters, he brought Lily to meet me.

She had a figure much like mine. And when she looked at Adrian, her eyes held the same trust and dependence mine had when I was young.

That night, I lay in the bathtub and cut my wrists.

If I hadn’t been found in time, I wouldn’t be alive.

Lily never appeared in front of me again.

Adrian became almost painfully careful. He treated me better than before, terrified I would hurt myself again. For a while, he refused to leave me alone, and my therapist made him and several close friends follow a safety plan.

Sometimes he fell asleep on the couch outside my bedroom, only to jolt awake and check that I was safe.

I knew he was exhausted.

So what?

No matter how tired he became, he could still leave me and fall into Lily’s arms, where someone would soothe him.

Who did I have?

Whose arms were left for me?

04

I’d made it clear I had plans on my birthday, but Adrian still cleared his entire schedule.

Since I had to work, he moved the celebration to my office.

I came back from an internal meeting to find hundreds of red roses and a stack of gift boxes in the corner, every logo more expensive than the last.

“Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

Adrian smiled and opened his arms.

I walked toward him, then shifted half a step and passed him without a touch.

His smile dimmed for a heartbeat before he summoned it again.

“I ordered lunch from that chef-owned place you used to love. They’re delivering it soon. We can eat together.”

“Sure.”

He hadn’t visited my office in a while. Since I was busy, he didn’t interrupt. He wandered around instead, studying everything that had changed.

Then his phone rang.

He silenced it at once, glanced at me, and turned his back to answer.

The office was large, and he stood too far away for me to hear the other person.

I knew who it was before he spoke.

“What? You fell down the stairs?”

His voice shot up. Remembering I was there, he lowered it again.

“I’m coming right now.”

Only after he hung up did he remember his promise to spend my birthday with me. He hesitated.

I kept my head down and continued working.

“Claire…” The words seemed to scrape his throat. “Something’s happened. I need to leave for a while.”

“Mm-hm.”

He hurried to the door, then paused with his hand on the knob and looked back.

“I’ll try to make it back for lunch.”

“Don’t bother. Go take care of it.”

We both knew the truth.

He said he’d come back soon.

He wouldn’t be back at all.

05

That night, I went to a bar for the first time in years.

I’d never liked places like that. Too loud. Too crowded. But every once in a while, I wanted to disappear into the noise.

I chose an upscale lounge that had opened recently. When I took a table, the host asked how many people would be joining me.

“Just me.”

He knew how to read a customer.

“If you’d like, I can send over a few of our bottle-service hosts. They’ll keep you company, liven things up.”

My gaze traveled across the room and stopped in one corner.

The host followed it, hesitated, then smiled.

“He’s our most requested guy. He already has guests tonight, so there’ll be a higher minimum if you want him at your table.”

Noah sat between two older women, a professional smile fixed to his face as he knocked back drink after drink.

“Money isn’t a problem. Send him over.”

I didn’t wait long.

He approached my table with a dazzling smile.

“Thank you for asking for—”

Then he recognized me.

The rest died in his throat.

“We meet again.” I gave him a slow, unapologetic once-over. “Who dressed you? You look ridiculous.”

Humiliation flashed in his eyes, though his smile stayed in place.

“I looked it up online. They said women who come here like this style.”

“Sit.” I tipped my chin toward the chair beside me. “So this is your plan for making money? Selling bottles at a lounge?”

That was the polite version.

The honest version was that he made his money selling attention, flirtation, and the suggestion of more.

Noah said nothing.

“Did you get enough for the surgery?”

He nodded, then shook his head.

“Not yet. I’m close.”

“How much are you short?”

“Fifteen thousand.”

“When’s the surgery?”

“The day after tomorrow.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“You’re going to come up with fifteen thousand dollars in two days? Planning to sell yourself?”

I meant it as a jab. He didn’t deny it.

“Even that kind of arrangement isn’t as easy as you think. Fifteen thousand is a lot of money. Find yourself a rich woman?”

He pointed toward the booth where I’d first seen him.

“They offered me a private arrangement. They’re splitting the cost.”

My drink went down the wrong way.

Noah instinctively reached out to pat my back, then stopped himself.

At this distance, I could smell the cheap cologne clinging to him.

I hated it.

I preferred the clean scent of soap from the day we met.

It reminded me of Adrian when he was young.

“Your first time?” I asked.

His answer was barely audible. “Yeah.”

I picked up my phone, tapped the screen a few times, and turned it toward him.

Our message thread showed a transfer of fifteen thousand dollars.

“You’re young. You go to an excellent school. Your future doesn’t end in a place like this.”

“Don’t come back here. My company is hiring paid interns, and I need a project assistant.”

“If you’re interested, apply through the regular process. HR and an independent manager will decide whether you get the job. I’ll disclose the money between us.”

“You won’t owe me a position.”

06

Noah passed the interviews and background check and joined Sutton & Co. as a project assistant.

He was already a college junior, and it became his first real internship.

To avoid a conflict of interest, he reported to the operations director. HR reviewed his compensation and performance. I could mentor him, but I couldn’t decide his promotions or discipline on my own.

On his first day, I told him, “This company has high standards. I can recommend you, but I won’t bend the rules for you. You have to prove you deserve to be here.”

Once he shed the gaudy sequined jacket for a well-cut suit, he looked even more like Adrian.

Sometimes, when he gave me a project update, the resemblance made the room tilt.

One night, I found him still working long after everyone else had left. I walked over and rapped my knuckles against his desk.

He looked up in surprise.

“Ms. Sutton? You’re still here?”

“So are you.” I arched a brow. “I don’t remember this company encouraging interns to work this late.”

“I want to catch up as quickly as I can.” His smile turned sheepish. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”

“You don’t have to prove yourself by staying all night. Log the hours and talk to your manager about your workload tomorrow.” I straightened. “Come on. I’ll drive you home.”

He didn’t argue. He saved his work, shut down his computer, and followed me out.

“Thank you.”

On the drive, I asked how his sister was recovering.

“Really well. She’s home now. All she needs is rest and regular follow-ups.”

The mention of her softened his whole face.

Most of the time, Noah’s expression hovered on the cool side of indifferent. His sister was the only subject that brought genuine warmth to his eyes.

I glanced at him, then looked back at the road.

At a red light near a neighborhood park, I stopped the car.

Under the amber streetlamps, Adrian and Lily crossed in front of us with his arm around her. They must have been going for an evening walk.

His attention never left her. He didn’t see my car at all.

I rested my chin on one hand and watched.

What a lovely scene. The perfect little family, straight out of an advertisement.

“Ms. Sutton?” Noah prompted. “The light’s green.”

A car behind us honked. I came back to myself, pressed the accelerator, and left the image behind.

Outside his apartment building, Noah asked if I wanted to come upstairs for a minute.

“No.”

“Then wait here. Five minutes.”

Before I could answer, he ran inside.

The motion-sensor lights flickered on floor by floor. On a whim, I started the timer on my phone.

He’d promised five minutes.

It took him exactly five.

When he came back, he carried an insulated bag.

“You tell everyone the company doesn’t reward pointless overtime, but you’re always the last person to leave.”

He set the bag on the passenger seat.

“I made chicken soup. I bought a free-range bird at the farmers market this weekend. Half for my sister, half for you.”

“I don’t have much to give you. Just this.”

He shifted, suddenly shy.

“Drive safe. Will you text me when you get home?”

He was too young to hide his feelings with Adrian’s effortless control.

Everything was right there in his eyes.

I crooked a finger at him.

He leaned closer, puzzled but obedient. I asked, “May I?” and only when he nodded did I reach up and ruffle his soft hair.

I used to tease Adrian the same way. He’d complain that a man’s hair was sacred, then duck his head toward me and ask me to do it again.

I couldn’t remember how many years had passed since then.

“Get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

07

Noah learned at a startling pace.

My recommendation had gotten him through the door. Before long, however, no one questioned his ability when he accompanied me into project meetings.

No one could miss how much help I’d given him along the way, either.

My executive assistant and I were close. One day, during a casual conversation, she asked—carefully—whether my investment in Noah had anything to do with his face.

She knew Adrian well. Of course she had seen the resemblance at once.

I didn’t answer.

My silence was answer enough.

I knew better than anyone how much Adrian had suffered to reach his position, how many times he had fallen.

If someone had guided him then, his road could have been so much easier.

I had that power now. Noah didn’t need to repeat Adrian’s pain.

“You and Mr. Hale…” my assistant began.

I smiled, patted her shoulder, and told her not to worry.

If I no longer bothered thinking about my own future, no one else needed to do it for me.

There was an industry summit at midyear, and I planned to take Noah.

In a sense, I was opening doors for him—introducing him to people who could shape his career.

He asked if I had time to help him choose a suit.

The way a person dressed at a formal event was part of his professional image, he said. He didn’t want to embarrass me.

I agreed.

His budget could stretch to a respectable midrange suit, nothing more. I looked through several options and disliked all of them, so I took him somewhere else.

“Ms. Sutton.” He kept his voice low. “I can’t afford this brand.”

I smiled.

“The company offers a formalwear allowance for employees attending the summit. Finance has already approved it. Anything over the limit will come out of my disclosed consulting budget. It won’t be a personal gift you owe me for.”

“I already owe you too much.”

“Then pay it back with good work.” I chose several outfits and handed them to him. “Go try these on.”

The store was quiet. I sat on a sofa while a sales associate brought me coffee and pastries.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen you.”

“It has.”

Adrian loved this label, and I used to shop there often.

His clothes and his life were no longer my concern. I had no reason to come back.

“We’ve just received the new collection. You should take a look.”

The associate had barely finished speaking when two more customers entered.

Lily’s arm was threaded through Adrian’s, her face bright with a smile.

“What do you think of this shirt, Adrian? It would look great on you.”

Perhaps she felt me watching. She lifted her head.

The smile was still in her eyes when the rest of her face froze.

Adrian stopped beside her.

At that exact moment, Noah emerged from the dressing room.

He was dressed entirely to my taste, a version of Adrian stripped of fifteen years.

“What do you think, Ms. Sutton?” Noah looked uncomfortable beneath the attention.

I rose and adjusted his collar, then fastened the button of his jacket.

After smoothing the line of his shoulders, I nodded.

“You look wonderful.”

08

“Claire!”

Adrian strode toward me, one hand already reaching out.

Noah moved faster. He stepped between us without touching him.

“Sir, please give her some space.”

Adrian almost laughed.

“You’re telling me to give her space? Do you have any idea who I am?”

“Who you are isn’t relevant. Ms. Sutton hasn’t indicated that she wants you near her.”

I patted Noah’s arm, calming him.

“What a coincidence.” I smiled at Adrian. “You taking time off to go shopping, too?”

My gaze shifted to Lily’s pale face, then drifted down to her stomach.

She stepped back and covered it with one hand.

To give her credit, she had always respected the boundaries of appearances.

She never came around when I was present. She never deliberately interfered on dates that meant something to Adrian and me.

I still remembered the first time we met. Lily had sat on the edge of my couch, her hands shaking as she apologized. She hadn’t dropped to her knees; in this world, the gesture would only have seemed absurd.

“Ms. Sutton, I’m so sorry. I know what I did was wrong. I knew Adrian was married, and I fell in love with him anyway.”

“But I can’t leave him. I thought I’d die if I lost him.”

“I don’t expect you to forgive me. I won’t pressure him to marry me, and I won’t pretend I have a legal place that belongs to you.”

“You’ll always be his wife.”

Knowing how protective Adrian was of her, I couldn’t believe he had never imagined making their life official.

Yet even with Lily days away from giving birth, he hadn’t asked me for a divorce.

Maybe she had talked him out of it. I didn’t know.

Adrian always said she was like me, but in this respect, she and Adrian were the ones who resembled each other.

Both of them had a gift for making themselves the innocent party after doing something unforgivable.

As though every wound they inflicted came from having no other choice.

“She doesn’t look well.” I glanced at Adrian. “You should take her to labor and delivery triage. She’s late in her pregnancy. Don’t take chances.”

Adrian kept staring at me.

But sweat beaded on Lily’s forehead. Her face turned whiter by the second as she held her abdomen.

At last, she whispered, “Adrian, my stomach hurts.”

His jaw tightened. He shot Noah one final, bitter look, then turned, put an arm around Lily, and rushed her out.

I took out my phone and faced the sales associate.

“Ring up all of them. Split the invoice between the approved clothing allowance and the overage budget.”

09

Noah was quiet on the drive back.

I parked outside his apartment building, but he made no move to get out.

“That man in the store looks like me.”

At last, he turned to face me.

“Can I ask about him?”

“He’s my husband. You’ve been at the company long enough to know I’m married.” After a moment, I added, “And he doesn’t look like you. You look like him.”

Noah gave a humorless tug of his lips.

“So that’s why you’ve been so good to me? Because I’m a substitute for him?”

“What answer are you hoping for?” I sighed. “That my husband cheated on me, so I found a younger version of him to get revenge?”

The idea made me laugh.

“Does it matter that much, Noah?”

“Whatever my reasons, the help I’ve given you is real. So is the time I’ve spent teaching you. Every professional arrangement went through the proper channels. None of it was a private bargain.”

“Why do you need to dissect it?”

He stared at me, disappointment, anger, and hurt colliding in his eyes.

In the end, he said nothing. He opened the door and got out.

The bags of new clothes remained on the back seat.

I sighed, collected them, and followed him inside.

I’d driven him home enough times to know his floor and apartment number, but this was the first time I stood outside his door and knocked.

When Noah opened it, his eyes were red.

He looked away at once.

“What is it?”

“You forgot these.”

I set the bags at his feet and turned to leave.

His hand closed around my wrist. The pressure eased immediately, leaving me free to pull away, but he still refused to speak.

I let out another sigh.

“Your sister’s home, isn’t she? Don’t let her see you like this.”

“And relax. I don’t think of you as Adrian’s replacement. You’re you. He’s him.”

“Really?”

I smiled and nodded.

“Really.”

10

The house was dark when I got home.

I switched on a lamp and found Adrian sitting on the living room couch.

That surprised me. Why wasn’t he at the hospital with Lily?

I changed my shoes and headed upstairs.

“Claire.”

I looked back. “What?”

“Don’t you have anything to tell me about the man from today?”

“His name is Noah Bennett, and he’s a project assistant at my company.” I held his gaze. “There. I’ve told you. Anything else?”

The instant our eyes met, Adrian turned away, as if he was afraid I might say something worse.

When he didn’t continue, I went into the bathroom.

He followed and stopped outside the door.

“You and him…”

I looked at Adrian in the mirror and smiled.

“You guessed right.”

All the color drained from his face.

“I finally understand how you felt when you met Lily,” I said softly.

“When we were young, you had to beg people for business. You drank with prospective clients until your stomach bled. I hated myself for being so useless, for not being able to help you.”

“I wanted to buy you beautiful clothes and make you shine like a movie star.”

“You once broke two ribs protecting me from a group of men on the street. I begged God to be kinder to you.”

“You weren’t the only one left with regrets, Adrian.”

“When I look at Noah, I see the man you used to be.”

“I can’t stop myself from helping him, either. He looks so much like you, and I don’t want him to suffer the way you did.”

“I understand you now.”

Adrian’s face remained strangely calm.

But his hand clamped around the doorframe until his knuckles went white. A sharp edge of metal cut into his palm, leaving a thin line of blood.

“I overreacted back then,” I told him. “I’m sorry. Now we’re even.”

“So you won’t interfere with Noah and me, will you?”

“After all, no one should understand me better than you.”

“Don’t worry. Noah doesn’t love the fact that you exist, but I’ve reassured him. He won’t come looking for a confrontation.”

“Like Lily, he’s sweet. Considerate. He knows his place.”

“Do you love him?” Adrian asked.

&