Clara's POV

 The way his face instantly went white sickened me, it shamelessly told me that he still thought I was going to do his bidding, donating one of my most vital organs to someone who didn't even need it.

 What a joke

 I grabbed my cocktail really making sure to savor it.

 "You better figure something else if you want your mistress to live, not right here otherwise." I set the cocktail down and he just gave me a long stare, the login his eyes told me that he had about it doesn't other comments but he just accept them behind his lip and slithered out of my sight.

 Good, I should enjoy this pool at least once before I have to leave.

 But 2 hours later on a fresh glass Cassie showed up with Luke trailing behind her.

 He looked like he was about to run over to my side, but then Cassie thugged him on his arm.

From the corner of my mind it crept back to me that Luke during this time in my past life had a super important homework that took a titan size of his grade.

 In my past life I had forced him to do the homework while he begged to play his time away.

 He came out with the best grades, but still look at me like I was the dirt he walked over.

 Cassie would probably know about this homework if she actually cared about his future, and Nick was always too distracted between work and entertaining his mistress, besides I was always there like the loyal lap dog I have been in my previous life keeping up-to-date with everything; doctor appointments, club activities.

To think I was solo parenting while he got to play family with the woman that abandoned him.

Let's see how that works out for him now.

 Cassie kept throwing looks at me, I knew she hoped I would be jealous and bitter looking at her spend so much time with Luke, but my only annoyance came from the noise they were making and nothing else.

 Eventually they stepped out from the pool, water dripping. She didn't even grab him at towel or anything. She just wiped herself and with the same soaked towel threw it over to him as an afterthought before gliding over.

 "Clara, Mr Whipple told me something awful, are you really moving out?"

 With Nick nowhere inside and Luke several meters away finally having to dry himself for the first time instead of having me do it for him Cassie was free to reveal a little bit of her fangs.

Her words on the surface carried a note of regret, but it was a huge juxtaposition from the big smug smile on her face.

 From the looks of things it seems like Nick had not told her about the 30 million settlement, if not she would have already started hooting about it.

 Nevertheless she'll find out when she escorts him to court.

 •••••••••••••

 That evening I was no longer in the suffocating Winston mansion, but rather a suite in a five star hotel. I hadn't been completely stupid in my previous life, I had kept a rainy day fund, do it had been with the hooks of supporting Nick in case anything ever went wrong with his business now it was purely for my own benefit.

 I cozied into a plush chair, then carried my eyes out to the view laid out in-front of me.

 My phone rang with a call from an expected number.

 I ignored the pile of other calls I had gotten in the last 5 hours, bringing the phone off to my ear and in moments a deep velvety voice oozed through after I gave a polite good evening.

"Evening to you as well Miss Moore, or perhaps I'm jumping the gun. Or am I supposed to still call you Mrs Winston?"

 "Legally, yes. But I prefer if you called me Miss Moore, I'll have everything filed and official before this week ends."

 "I'm afraid I'm inclined to doubt that, Miss Moore, what man in his right senses would let you go?"

 I squeezed the phone tight, on the other side of this line was arguably the most desirable bachelor of the country.

 Mr Silas Luther, a man whose name rang synonymously with wealth and power as the CEO of his titan company, Luther corporation. He was the kind of man that every other man wanted to be and every woman wanted to be with.

 For what it was worth, his compliment was like a light balm to the wounds that my self esteem had endured over the years.

 "Don't worry," I said propping my laptop over my legs and the positioning it so that I was looking comfortably at the screen, "will have no other choice than to do what I say,"

 "I hold you to your words then.."he said then momentarily paused, "what changed?" He asked a little out of the blue.

 "About me?"

 "Yes," he responded quickly, "5 years ago when I offered to make you my secretary you'd thrown that job offer at my face, you said that your fulfillment in life was being a housewife and a mother."

 You could tell he wasn't judging just simply curious but it's still made the corners of my my ears go red.

 Out of the goodwill of his heart, Nick had taken me to a charity gala and amongst the elite that graced the occasion Mr Luther was one of them.

He had my husband straddled with some other responsibility than moment he laid eyes on me and offered me the job, I don't know how he found out I was the one doing all the work in the shadows while Nick took all the credit but I doubt there was much a man with his connection and charisma couldn't find out.

 I had bluntly rejected him, back then I thought I was happy.

 "Let's just say I want to be where I'm appreciated now, so just wait, within a week. We'll be talking face to face." 

Nick's POV

She was gone

A little part of me still believed that it was a bluff she would pull out of in the last moment, but she actually went ahead and did it.

I had just gone to the office to wrap up some things, who knew I would come back and find every trace of her in our bedroom gone?

 My chest was burning from the inside, I was struggling to breath.

 I reached from my phone inside my pocket and began to dial her number like a maniac off the rails.

Each and every call when straight to voicemail.

She didn't even think of giving me one single response.

The more I called her the more it feels like the ground beneath my feet was beginning to spin, how could this be happening?

Could it be... that there was another man?

That would explain her erratic change in behavior.

She'd found someone else.

Of course... Though I'm sure she doesn't love that affair partner half as much as she loves me, she must just be using him to buy time and make me jealous.

A little sense of reasoning in the corner of my head was asking me if she was really trying to make me jealous why didn't she just bring up the affair partner when we spoke.

But I refused to listen to that voice.

Clara still loved me.

That was all she knew.

Maybe she was distracted for now, but she would always come running back to lick out of the tip of my fingers to celebrate at the crumbs of affection that fell at her feet.

She would-

"Daddy! Daddy!!" I was broken out of my stream of thoughts by my son relentlessly pulling at my pants.

I took a deep breath.

 "What is it champ?" I asked hoping it was something I could take care of quickly because I was not in the mood for playing.

"Where is mommy?" He asked with a sniffle, "did mommy leave because she does not love us anymore?"

"Of course not," I said sharper than I needed to startling him.

"Mommy loves us very very much, she's just taking a short...break, like a vacation when she comes back she'll have lots of gifts and toys for again

Luke's face visibly bright in the after hearing this then it's dimmed down again, then he held a large colorful book above his head and announced; "Homework,"

Instinctively I turned my head around to call Clara, her name was already at the tip of my tongue but I stopped myself before making such a stupid mistake.

Usually she was the one that helped with his homework.

Okay if I'm being honest and frank with myself in my past 8 years of being a father I've never had to actually sit down because of 'homework'

But whatever, if Clara can help then it can't possibly be that hard.

I escorted Luke to his bedroom more specifically he study table, it's only took about 5 minutes for me to be reminded that my wife was actually a business major and one of the best in her sets before I made her quit her entry job at my family's company to be my housewife.

As for me I had surfed through my educational hurdles with the connections from my family, and the same could be applied to many of my problems today.

Except no family connection was getting me out of this. 

"Daddy that's not how you do it!" As if it was not already humiliating enough that I was confused by basic math my son was already making corrections for me.

"That's enough Luke!" I ended up shouting at him, he went quiet for a second gauging my eyes before bursting into tears.

I sighed, I couldn't deal with this time from at least not alone.

Mr Whipple said Cassie went out an hour ago she said she was just running some errands so she should be back by now right?

 I tried calling her, she picked up on the second ring.

Before she could speak blasting through the phone was the sound of upbeat club music, I stood up whispering to Luke to continue his homework before stepping out.

"Cassie where are you?" I asked even though I knew the answer to my question already.

 "Out just out," she said and the club music was getting louder.

If she was at a club she might be tempted to drink, she's such a soft person they might actually be able to force her even if she doesn't want to.

Luckily I had her location, so I drove to the club at the speed of light.

I arrived and some loser was trying to grind up to her, I stepped between them and stared him down until he backed away then I spun around to hold Cassie.

The smell of booze oozed off of her and my heart sank.

"Cassie you know you're not supposed to be drinking!"

"It was just a few glasses," she conceded but the way she staggered as I held her hand and laid her out of the club told me otherwise.

As we were heading over to my car I thought about how Clara would have never left the house and Luke to go clubbing. But I pushed the thoughts of that cheating woman aside for the moment.

We reached the car, I was trying to gently guide Cassie into it then she began to sway her body against mine.

It was crazy but instead of seeing Cassie what I saw was my wife, I pictured that bikini two piece that almost made me embarrass myself.

Pushing away any other thought, I pressed her against the car and slammed my lips into hers.

Except in my head I imagined she was Clara even as I held her neck and pulled her close to deepen the kiss.

By the time I pulled away we were breathless, reality struck like a thunderbolt painfully reminding me that I wasn't kissing my wife.

 For the first time I wondered what I would do if Clara really didn't come back.

Clara's POV 

I woke within the week with a text from Nick, my soon to be ex-husband.

 "When are you coming back home?"

 I read it over and over again, then something between a snort and a chuckle passed through my lips.

He still thought that everything I did was a bid for his attention.

But I had already planned for this. I knew he wasn't going to let me walk out of the marriage with 30 million dollars, especially now that his parents' company was expanding. He couldn't lose such a huge amount without also losing their favor in the process.

 I sent him some very particular special videos and within minutes he was dialing my phone battery down with calls and voicemails that had his shaking voice begging for me to talk.

A smile curled around my lips when I finally gave him a response through text, it was simple. It read; head over to this address that I'm about to send to you and you better not be more than 5 minutes late or else I'm going to post the video.

The address was a place that I'm sure he would have remembered. I sent it to him and no surprise he arrived before me. When he saw me I watched as every single muscle in his body instantly became stiff and then rigidly relaxed again.

"Where did you get those videos?" he asked me when I was halfway to sitting down.

 I chuckled.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I sat on the park bench keeping a distance between the two of us and even lodging my bag has a barrier between us as well.

"It's not like those videos were hard to get, you made it extremely easy for me all it took was hiring a private investigator and he had more than enough evidence within a couple of days."

 I enjoyed it as his face was losing more and more color with the progression of the conversation.

The videos in question that I was speaking about were evidence of him and my twin sisters' infidelity. There was one of him coming out of a club with her. She seemed to be drunk, barely standing, then they got in his car and there was some shaking from the back seat. There were other videos as well showing them just as intimately entangled as that one.

 "But I'll just tell people that you were the one in those videos with me since you and Cassie are identical," he said, appearing to regain some of his confidence then he looked at me as if he had outsmarted, "probably thought I wasn't going to do that right? Now all of the evidence that you have gathered is useless!"

 I laughed at this, he was showing himself to be more of a clown than anything else.

"Do you think that I would intentionally make those videos if I had no way of proving where I was and when?"

His face became bleached again and he looked like a fish out of water, the next thing I knew he became more docile lowering his voice.

"Okay Clara I'll admit that I've been a bit unfair to you lately but I'm going to change and treat you better, what about Luke? Haven't you thought about how this is going to affect our little boy and-"

"He is you and Cassie's little boy." I corrected him sharply. "At best he's my nephew and I don't really see Cassie as family anymore so that basically means nothing..."

Nick's jaw hits the ground, he seems so sure that all he had to do was play his little mind game again using Luke to his advantage and I would just instantly melt.

Too bad that wasn't going to work.

 "Are you saying that you are fine with never seeing her again?"

I hated how I took a moment to respond, then I recalled a memory where I was sick and really down with a fever first I had asked Nick to stay with me he said he had to go to work for an emergency, then in the same breath I asked if Luke could just stay by My side keeping me company he didn't have school that day and I didn't think it was going to be a problem. He screamed no in my face, "daddy is taking me and Aunt Cassie to-"

Nick immediately reached forward to cover his mouth but most of its adults already spelled out and I had an idea of what they were going to do.

I looked at Nick and asked about the work emergency he had spoken of.

 "Of course there is an emergency, don't listen to look he's just a kid that doesn't know what he's saying."

After convincing me that I was imagining everything in my head he wouldn't go ahead to blame me for even considering that he would leave me while I was sick to spend time with Cassie.

I wanted to trust him but my common scene was telling me otherwise so I snuck into Cassie's socials where I found several post of my husband and the boy I had raised as my own closely wrapped around her, the woman who had abandoned them all of them having the time of their lives in an amusement park.

In every picture they were all smiles, while I was on the other side of the screen weeping out my eyes and my temperature shooting up.

After the one of the longest most miserable days of my life Nick and Luke finally showed up, Luke was holding one of the stuff toys that they'd won at the amusement park and he was non-stop babbling about Cassie while I stood at the top of the stairs but none of them noticed me so they kept going at it.

Talking about her as if she was the best thing ever when she had chosen to up and leave both of them.

That should have been the moment I counted my losses and walked away.

But I still foolishly kept the hope that they would change.

Not anymore.

Now I looked strongly at Nick and said; "Mr Winston what happens to you and your son is no longer my business, now tell me when will they sign the divorce papers or should I release these videos to the press?"