Chapter 2 - The Gala Spencer Planned Without Her
Spencer had planned the evening carefully.
He always did.
The Apex Group annual gala was not just a party.
It was a performance of power.
Investors came to be reassured.
Reporters came to be fed polished quotes.
Politicians came to be photographed near money.
Executives came to measure who stood closest to Spencer Conway.
Tonight, Spencer had intended everyone to see Paisley.
Gold satin.
Diamond jewelry.
Blonde curls.
A hand placed casually on his arm.
Not as a mistress.
Not officially.
He was too careful for that.
Paisley would be introduced as a consultant, a guest, a key part of “strategic hospitality.”
Phoebe would be absent.
That was the plan.
Earlier that afternoon, Spencer had stood in their bedroom while Phoebe held the invitation in one hand.
“You’re not coming,” he had said.
She had looked at him quietly.
“Why?”
He had adjusted his cuff links in the mirror.
“Because this room matters. Apex matters. You don’t know these people.”
Phoebe had said nothing.
That had always made him confident.
Her silence felt like agreement to men who never learned the difference between patience and surrender.
Then he had added the sentence that ruined him.
“You would embarrass me.”
He had expected tears.
A small argument.
Maybe a cold silence when he returned home after midnight.
Instead, she had arrived in red beside Raymond Harrell.
Now Spencer stood under warm chandelier light, aware of every investor looking at him.
Paisley’s fingers dug into his sleeve.
“Spencer,” she whispered, “say something.”
He could not.
Because Raymond Harrell was not looking at him like a guest.
He was looking at him like a man reviewing an asset that had become a liability.
Phoebe did not raise her voice.
She did not accuse him of the affair.
She did not shout about betrayal.
That would have been easier for Spencer.
Anger could be spun into marital drama.
Calm could not.
She simply walked past him, and every camera followed her.
Paisley’s champagne glass trembled harder.
A drop spilled onto her gold satin dress.
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No one offered her a napkin.
Read Chapter 3 👉 Because Phoebe’s silence did what shouting could not—it made the entire gala look at Spencer instead of her.
