His assistant Deborah walked over looking wounded and took my hand.
"Maud, I've been married with a kid for ages. Why are you still jealous of me?"
"I was just worried Thaddeus's stomach would act up from all the drinking, so I poured him some juice. If it bothers you, I won't do it again. That's all."
Deborah and Thaddeus had grown up together. They'd always called each other brother and sister.
When he and I first got together, their closeness bothered me.
But then Deborah rushed into marriage and had a baby, and I let my guard down.
I shook her hand off. My expression didn't change.
"Once we're divorced, you can spoon-feed him juice every day for all I care."
Thaddeus's face turned even uglier when he heard that.
"Maud, are you done? All this over a glass of juice?"
"Today is my celebration with Debbie—not some place for a housewife to make a scene!"
My expression stayed the same. My voice was cold.
"I'm not done."
Deborah heard that and stepped closer, deliberately lowering her voice.
"Maud, I know Thaddeus is always busy with work and you're stuck at home by yourself, but no matter how good-looking those boys on the outside are, none of them can compare to him. He started his own company so young, and now he's just signed a ten-million-dollar deal with Blue Horizon Group. His future is limitless."
Deborah said it, then immediately clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Oh no, Maud—did I say something I shouldn't have?"
Then she pulled out her phone, opened her photo album, and held up a picture of me sitting inside a Maybach for the entire room to see.
"Maud, I just happened to see you that day, I swear I wasn't trying to say anything! You're not going to hold it against me, right?"
Her words turned every pair of eyes in the room on me—scrutinizing, contemptuous.
"Wait, Maud's been cheating? No wonder she's throwing a fit over a glass of juice and demanding a divorce. Shameless!"
"I was wondering how she could bear to give up a man like CEO Harding. Turns out she already had someone lined up on the side!"
Thaddeus's face darkened instantly. He jabbed a finger at the man in the photo and rounded on me.
"Who's that pretty boy? Are you divorcing me for him?"
I was done wasting breath on any of them. I sent Thaddeus the divorce appointment I'd already booked.
"Tomorrow morning, ten o'clock. The registration office."
I turned to leave.