Jordan stared into the box as if he’d seen a ghost.<\/p>\n
“What is this?”<\/p>\n
Clark answered calmly.<\/p>\n
“It’s yours.”<\/p>\n
Percy leaned over to look inside.<\/p>\n
Her smile disappeared instantly.<\/p>\n
The box contained a thick stack of documents.<\/p>\n
On top sat a single envelope marked:<\/p>\n
Jordan Collins \u2013 Personal<\/strong><\/p>\n He ripped it open.<\/p>\n Inside was a letter.<\/p>\n His eyes raced across the page.<\/p>\n “What the hell?”<\/p>\n Clark folded his arms.<\/p>\n “I own the company your employer hired six months ago to conduct an internal financial audit.”<\/p>\n Jordan froze.<\/p>\n “You…”<\/p>\n “I recognized your name the moment your ex-wife told me who you were.”<\/p>\n The backyard fell silent.<\/p>\n Clark continued.<\/p>\n “I almost refused this acting job.”<\/p>\n “But after reviewing what happened…”<\/p>\n “…I decided to accept.”<\/p>\n Jordan looked terrified.<\/p>\n “What are you talking about?”<\/p>\n Clark reached into the box and removed another folder.<\/p>\n “Our audit uncovered thousands of dollars in fraudulent expense claims submitted under your employee account.”<\/p>\n Percy’s face turned pale.<\/p>\n Clark looked at her.<\/p>\n “Many of them benefited both of you.”<\/p>\n Jordan shook his head.<\/p>\n “No…”<\/p>\n “That’s impossible.”<\/p>\n Clark calmly replied,<\/p>\n “It isn’t.”<\/p>\n “The investigation has already been completed.”<\/p>\n “The documents inside that box include your termination notice.”<\/p>\n “A civil recovery claim.”<\/p>\n “And notice that the evidence has been forwarded to law enforcement for review.”<\/p>\n Jordan stumbled backward.<\/p>\n “This…”<\/p>\n “This is because of her!”<\/p>\n He pointed at me.<\/p>\n Clark shook his head.<\/p>\n “No.”<\/p>\n “This is because of your own decisions.”<\/p>\n “You committed the fraud.”<\/p>\n “You signed every reimbursement.”<\/p>\n “You approved every false invoice.”<\/p>\n “I simply delivered the paperwork.”<\/p>\n Jordan looked around desperately.<\/p>\n Every guest had gone completely quiet.<\/p>\n Even our teenage son stood frozen beside the pool.<\/p>\n Clark stepped closer.<\/p>\n “You mocked the mother of your children because you thought appearances were everything.”<\/p>\n “But character…”<\/p>\n “…always catches up.”<\/p>\n Jordan’s hands trembled so violently that the documents slipped into the pool.<\/p>\n The pages spread across the water.<\/p>\n Several guests watched silently as the ink slowly blurred.<\/p>\n Percy quietly removed the bracelet Jordan had bought her.<\/p>\n She placed it on the table.<\/p>\n “I’m done.”<\/p>\n Without another word…<\/p>\n She walked away.<\/p>\n Jordan called after her.<\/p>\n She never turned around.<\/p>\n He looked at me.<\/p>\n For the first time…<\/p>\n There was no arrogance left.<\/p>\n Only panic.<\/p>\n “I’m sorry.”<\/p>\n I looked at him for a long moment.<\/p>\n Then I smiled gently.<\/p>\n “You should save your apologies.”<\/p>\n “Our children deserve them far more than I do.”<\/p>\n I walked over to my son.<\/p>\n “Happy birthday.”<\/p>\n He hugged me tightly.<\/p>\n “Mom…”<\/p>\n “You didn’t need a fake boyfriend.”<\/p>\n “You’ve always been the strongest person I know.”<\/p>\n My eyes filled with tears.<\/p>\n Clark quietly picked up his car keys.<\/p>\n As he was leaving, he smiled.<\/p>\n “You know…”<\/p>\n “I was only hired to pretend for one afternoon.”<\/p>\n I laughed.<\/p>\n “I know.”<\/p>\n He hesitated.<\/p>\n “But if you’d ever like to have dinner with someone who’s not pretending…”<\/p>\n “…here’s my real phone number.”<\/p>\n He handed me a small card.<\/p>\n This time…<\/p>\n There was no acting involved.<\/p>\n Sometimes the best revenge isn’t making someone jealous.<\/p>\n It’s letting them watch you rebuild a life they never deserved to be part of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jordan stared into the box as if he’d seen a ghost. “What is this?” Clark answered calmly. “It’s yours.” Percy leaned over to look inside. Her smile disappeared instantly. The box contained a thick stack of documents. On top sat a single envelope marked: Jordan Collins \u2013 Personal He ripped it open. Inside was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7050,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7049\/revisions\/7050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}