20. Caleb
CALEB
My heart kicked hard against my ribs as I looked at Jiya across her desk. The moment my eyes locked onto her honey-brown ones, my pulse accelerated.
They were the same eyes I had once looked into with trust and devotion, the same eyes that had drawn me in years ago and held me captive without effort.
The same lips I had kissed until the world had faded around us.
The same face I had traced with my fingertips in the quiet aftermath of love, memorizing every curve as if it belonged to me forever.
I hadn’t stopped thinking about her, not for a single day, and standing here now only made those thoughts grow.
“I’m sorry,” she said gently. “You’re right.
I don’t know a whole lot about this field.
The meetings are fine. I’ll try to show up on time for the next one.
” She lowered her eyes. “If you could just give me a heads-up much earlier, I’d appreciate it so I can figure out how to manage the kids and everything else. ”
She looked back up at me and smiled.
That smile hit me like a memory I hadn’t asked for, like tenderness, and I hated it.
I had told my secretary to schedule meetings with Jiya’s office. I did have other projects that demanded my attention, but I made this one my priority. I knew I didn’t need to have these meetings with her, not this often, but I couldn’t stop myself.
I wanted to see her. I wanted to watch her reactions, study her expressions, search for cracks in her story. I wanted to find out about her life, about her past, and about the man she had married. And somewhere beneath all of that, I wanted to warn Liam before things spiralled out of control.
Her apology made me flinch with a brief flicker of guilt rising. I straightened instinctively and began buttoning my jacket. The back of my throat ached as I thought about how little time she seemed to have for her children because of this project.
For a brief second, I felt responsible for that.
For a brief second, I felt like the villain in a story I had never intended to write.
That guilt lasted exactly two seconds.
My eyes dropped to her hands.
The rings were still there.
The diamonds caught the light and flashed like tiny blades, cutting through whatever sympathy had tried to take root inside me. The sight of them brought back every bitter assumption I had carried since reading about Cole and his wife.
Jiya had entered Cole’s life while another woman still stood beside him. She had taken what did not belong to her.
Heat rushed through my body again, rising inside me like a fire fed with fresh oxygen.
“It’s fine,” I said coolly. “Maybe you should share your workload with Eva. I’m sure she’d be happy to help.”
“Eva?” Jiya’s brows drew together.
“Your husband’s first wife,” I said, smoothing down my jacket, sliding my hands into my pockets. “Before you replaced her.”
Her expression shifted instantly—shock flashing across her face before it hardened.
“You know what?” she said, reaching for her bag with controlled, precise movements.
“What?” I asked, even though I already felt the change take hold between us.
“This meeting is over.” Her voice was steady, but there was steel beneath it. “My personal life is none of your business. And if you’re done making assumptions about a life you know nothing about, you can direct your questions to someone who actually owes you answers.”
My jaw flexed.
“And for the record,” she added, adjusting the strap on her shoulder, “I don’t take what doesn’t belong to me.” Her gaze held mine, unwavering. “Whatever you think I did says more about you than it ever will about me.”
“You were the one who brought up your children and schedule,” I replied, a hint of mockery slipping into my tone. “I was trying to make it easier for you.”
Even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t concern driving the words.
“You can deal with Liam from now on, and he can update me on things. Goodbye!”
She turned sharply and walked toward the door, her steps quick, her back straight, that same fierce pride in her posture that had always drawn me to her…
… and driven me crazy.
The door shut behind her, the sound echoing through the room.
I exhaled slowly, staring at the empty space she’d left behind.
I entered my penthouse in the evening. As I walked up the stairs toward my bedroom, my mind drifted back to the meeting earlier that day.
Cooper trotted over the moment I stepped inside, a toy already clutched in his mouth, tail wagging expectantly. I took it from him and tossed it across the room. He sprinted after it, caught it mid-run, and came straight back, dropping it at my feet.
I scratched behind his ears, earning a low, satisfied rumble before he fell into step beside me, following me up the stairs.
My thoughts, however, were nowhere near as simple.
They were still on her.
I thought about how I had used my first card—Eva—to cause Jiya pain. The memory of her stunned expression and the fury that followed had made it a success.
It should have felt like a victory. It should have filled me with satisfaction after striking that decisive blow.
It didn’t.
There was no satisfaction in it. No sense of balance restored. Just a quiet, unsettled weight I couldn’t quite shake.
Maybe it wasn’t enough.
Maybe it would take more—more truths, more pressure, more cracks in the life she had built—before anything inside me shifted.
Entering my bedroom, I stopped short when I saw Tatiana sitting on my bed.
Our living arrangements had always been uncoordinated, like two travellers sharing the same map but walking different roads. Sometimes I stayed at her place. Sometimes she stayed at mine. There was no rhythm to it, no comforting pattern.
Another thing that constantly bothered me was how she didn’t like Cooper. He had to be kept in a different room whenever she was around, as if he were an inconvenience instead of family. That bothered me, just like the fact that she didn’t like children.
Recently, she had been dropping by less frequently with the wedding date getting closer, something I found myself grateful for.
“Hi, honey!” she said brightly. “How was your day?”
“Good, it was good,” I replied, avoiding her eyes as I sat down on the edge of the bed with my back facing her. “How was yours?”
“I had a good meeting today,” Tatiana said. “Plus, the organic skin clay mask line got approved.”
My fiancée was a successful businesswoman with a make-up and skincare company that had earned her recognition and awards.
“That’s great,” I said. “I’m gonna take a shower.”
“Can we go out for dinner then?”
I wanted to be alone tonight.
I wanted silence.
I wanted space wide enough to breathe.
“I already ate,” I said, keeping my tone neutral, “but why don’t you ask Martina to prepare you something?”
Before I could stand, Tatiana came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my torso. Her embrace was warm, yet my body reacted with stiffness.
“You okay?” she asked softly. “You’ve been different lately. Is everything all right?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, jerking my head back.
“From the time you’ve come back from your bachelor party, you seem so distant and distracted. Did something happen there?” she said, moving around to face me until our eyes met.
Her eyes searched my face.
How could I tell her that I had come face-to-face with my past?
How could I explain that the woman I had once loved—the woman who had shattered my trust and left scars across my family—was now standing across conference tables from me, speaking calmly about business as if history had never happened?
What would she think of me if she knew the truth?
“Did you find someone else?” Tatiana asked, giggling lightly.
“No,” I said, letting out a short laugh. “I didn’t.”
I leaned forward and kissed her, hoping the gesture would close the conversation the way a door shuts against a cold wind.
“That’s all I need to know, then,” she said, smiling after kissing me back. “Don’t forget we meet the florists tomorrow. Now let me show you what you’ve missed. Hold on.”
She slipped away and ran toward the closet.
Minutes later, she emerged wearing leopard print lingerie and began walking toward me with slow, deliberate steps, her hips swaying gently with each stride.
God help me!
“Hi, Caleb. Nice to see you again. Jiya asked me to take over the meeting today,” Liam informed me.
“Oh, great.” I shook his hand and took a seat across the table from him.
I knew she was furious with what I had said.
The truth was bitter, after all. I hadn’t expected her to skip the meeting, though.
I had always known her to be disciplined, composed, and fiercely committed to her responsibilities.
Part of me had assumed she would show up regardless of her anger, because professionalism had always been her armour.
Seeing Liam instead of her felt like a silent confirmation that my words had crossed a line I shouldn’t have touched… even if it had been justified.
“So, she said you guys have started working on the marketing plan for the project, is that right?” Liam asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “I believe you have an in-house photographer who takes site pictures, right?”
“That is correct,” Liam said with a breaking voice.
“I’m sorry,” I said, leaning forward slightly. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes, sorry.” Liam sniffled and cleared his throat. “My brother, Cole, Jiya’s husband, used to do that for us.”
Fuck! “I’m sorry,” I repeated, meaning it this time.
“It’s fine. It’s still hard at times.”
I knew this was my chance to dig a little further and find out more information. The opportunity sat in front of me like a door left slightly open, inviting me to push it wider.
“I saw his picture on your website,” I said, clearing my throat. “It’s weird, it says his wife’s name is Eva, not Jiya.”
“Ahhh!” Liam said. “We haven’t updated his information yet. Jiya wanted it to remain unchanged.”
Here comes the truth! This was going to confirm my suspicions. This was going to prove that I had been right all along, that she had been the other woman, that my anger had been justified.
“She wanted Eva to be always remembered as his first wife… to have that importance even on the website,” Liam continued.
“You see, Eva and their daughter, Chloe, had died in an airplane crash in Nepal when they had gone on vacation. My brother was devastated, and Jiya was a blessing. She saved Cole. He and her—”
Liam’s phone rang.
He glanced at the screen and excused himself, stepping out of the room, but not before his words struck me like a sudden blow to the chest.
No.
That couldn't be right.
I stared at the empty doorway after Liam left.
Eva was dead?
Chloe too?
My mind scrambled through every assumption I had made over the past few weeks, trying to find a way to make them fit.
None of them fit anymore.
The entire story I had built in my head collapsed.
The hum of the air conditioner faded into silence. The ticking clock on the wall disappeared. Even the light streaming through the window felt distant, as if the world had stepped back and left me standing alone in the middle of a truth I had never expected.
He had lost his wife.
He had lost his daughter.
And Jiya had stepped into a broken life and helped him rebuild it.
I remained seated, unable to move.
I had judged her wrongly and had accused her. I had assumed she had betrayed another woman, stolen a husband, and built her life on someone else’s pain. I had thrown cruel words at her without knowing the truth.
A tight knot formed in my stomach.
Coming back into the room, Liam cut the meeting short, apologized politely, and left.
The door closed behind him with a quiet click.
I sat there alone in the conference room, crumpled in the chair, cheeks burning. I loathed myself as the memory of her face hit me. I wished I could rewind time, swallow those words before they left my mouth, and spare her the pain I had caused.
But the past doesn’t bend, it stands still, waiting for you to face it.
There was only one way to fix this.
I pushed back my chair and stood up quickly, and scanned my phone for a rental car company.
Fifteen minutes later, a car arrived in front of Liam’s office building in Downtown Victoria.
I stepped into it, pulled out my phone, and punched Jiya’s address into Google Maps, my heart pounding in my chest as the navigation screen lit up.
And I headed straight toward her.