Chapter 2

I ducked behind a structural pillar, pressing flat against the wall to track their movements in silence.

Their figures vanished into a room near the end of the hall.

Moving as quietly as I could, I crept forward and pressed my ear right against the gap in the doorframe.

The sounds leaking through from inside instantly shattered my world.

Though faint and muffled, there was no mistaking what was happening. As an adult, I knew that rhythmic, breathless cadence all too well.

It was unmistakably the sounds of intense, illicit intimacy.

The realization hit me like a bolt of lightning.

Was Natalie really cheating on me?

Barely keeping my fury from erupting, I raised my foot, ready to kick the door open and catch them red-handed on the spot.

Yet just as my foot hovered in the air, the passionate sounds inside abruptly stopped.

Almost immediately, footsteps began approaching the door from within.

Over that fast? The entire thing couldn't have lasted more than three minutes.

A fierce internal conflict tore through me. Should I block the doorway and confront them face-to-face, or should I slip away before they spotted me?

If I kicked the door in, I could unleash my fury, make a scene, and beat the hell out of both my wife and her lover.

But without ironclad physical proof, Natalie could easily spin the narrative, turn it around on me, and deny everything.

If I walked away now, I would have to swallow this humiliating agony and keep everything buried, avoiding alerting the enemy.

Only when I gathered irrefutable evidence could I settle the score once and for all.

In a split-second decision, I turned on my heel and bolted.

I drifted out through the hospital's main entrance like a hollow shell of a man, my legs dragging as if I were a walking corpse. The betrayal cut too deep; my mind refused to accept what had just transpired.

A quiet voice in the back of my mind kept desperately offering excuses on Natalie's behalf.

Could I have misread the whole thing? Maybe the arm around her waist was just an overly familiar gesture between close colleagues. Maybe the sounds on the 18th floor weren't what I thought they were.

No. I had to confront her. I needed to hear it straight from her mouth.

Pulling out my phone, I dialed Natalie's number, wanting to confirm where she was and if she was still on that floor.

The line connected almost instantly, and Natalie’s clear, sweet voice came through the speaker.

"Hey, babe. Why are you calling in the middle of the day? Is everything okay?"

I turned around, walking back toward the hospital entrance as I spoke into the mic. "Nothing major. Where are you in the building right now? I stopped by the clinic to grab some meds and thought I'd come see you."

"Oh, sweetheart, what terrible timing! I'm not even at the hospital today. I went out with leadership for an external medical conference."

"I was actually just about to text you—there's so much to wrap up afterward, I probably won't even make it home tonight."

The words caught in my throat. My fingers clenched around the phone so hard that my knuckles turned stark white.

Why was she lying to me? I had just seen her with my own two eyes right here in the hospital.

Fighting back the tears burning in my eyes, I tilted my head back, looking up toward the massive directory billboard towering over the courtyard.

Right in the center, occupying the prominent headliner spot, was the portrait of the silver-haired doctor who had just had his hand wrapped around Natalie's waist.

I read the title printed beneath his name:

Hospital Director and Chief Executive Officer.