After Fifteen Years, I Learned I Was the Other Woman

After Fifteen Years, I Learned I Was the Other WomanChapter 1

When I found out Julian James had been keeping a woman on the side, I was calmer than I ever expected to be.

I tracked down her address and went straight to her apartment, ready to lay everything on the table.

But when I actually stood in her living room, I froze.

"This place cost one-point-six million. Julian paid cash, put it in my name." The woman's expression was perfectly composed, as though she'd been expecting me. She disappeared into the bedroom and came back with a marriage certificate, setting it down in front of me.

"Last month, Julian and I made it official."

She looked at me, her eyes dripping with contempt. "So legally speaking, you're the other woman."

The marriage certificate burned my eyes.

Fifteen years. I'd been with Julian James for fifteen years.

Fifteen years, and I never got a marriage certificate. What I got instead was the word mistress.

——

"Maya Cobb." The woman pressed one manicured nail against Julian's name on the certificate, her tone dripping with disdain. "You have no right to be here, and you certainly have no standing to put on airs in front of me. Are we clear?"

She held that certificate like a trophy, standing there like a doll in a department store window.

I recognized the bracelet on her wrist. Last month, Julian and I had gone to an auction together. He'd won the bid and told me it was my fifteenth anniversary gift.

Then, the day before our anniversary, Julian came to me in a panic and said the bracelet was gone.

His eyes were full of guilt. So full that they turned red as he spoke.

"Babe, I'll get you something even better. I promise."

He ran his thumb across the calluses on my hands, and tears actually fell.

"You've had it so rough all these years, sticking with me through everything. Once the company goes public, let's get married. What do you say?"

"Babe." He pulled me into his arms. "I want to marry you. I want to build a real home with you."

And I believed him.

I thought we were finally going to take that step.

I told myself that all those years by Julian's side, building something from nothing, had been worth it. That I could look back on my life with no regrets and settle into something quiet and steady.

Now.