Chapter 4 THE WOMAN BESIDE HIM IS A SNAKE

Cassandra Vale always wore perfection like perfume.

Tonight, it smelled like desperation.

She stood in Adrian's office in her silk robe, swirling wine she hadn't touched, her red lipstick smudged from the argument that had just erupted.

"You're overreacting," she snapped. "She's just trying to provoke you."

Adrian's back was turned, his jaw tight as he stared out at the city lights.

"She just acquired my company," he muttered. "That's not a provocation, Cassandra. That's a declaration of war."

Cassandra stepped closer, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Then fight back."

But Adrian didn't move.

Because a part of him wasn't sure who the real enemy was anymore.

Flashback – The Night After the Crash

Adrian remembered standing over Elena's hospital bed after the accident. She was unconscious. Barely breathing.

Cassandra had slipped in like a shadow.

"She's not stable," the doctor had said. "And her bloodwork-there's something strange. An irregularity."

Adrian had panicked. Cassandra had calmed him.

"She'll never recover," she'd whispered. "But you will. With me."

She had planted the doubt, day by day.

Spun lies like silk.

Until Elena woke up - and found herself rejected.

But now, cracks were forming in Cassandra's lies.

And Adrian could feel it:

The truth was coming.

Meanwhile – Elena's Plan Moves Forward

Elena sat in a private suite with Vivienne De Luca and her silent fixer, Liam Frost, a former intelligence operative turned corporate ghost.

Vivienne handed her a sealed file.

"The evidence you asked for - transfers, accounts, encrypted emails. Cassandra fed company secrets to Blackwood's biggest rival two years ago."

Elena's hands didn't shake.

She had expected this.

"Leak it. Quietly," she said.

Liam raised an eyebrow. "Why not go loud?"

Elena smiled.

"Let Adrian figure it out himself. Let him feel what I felt... when the one person I trusted most broke me."

Adrian Finds the Truth

Later that night, Adrian sat alone in his home office. His phone buzzed with an anonymous alert - a file titled:

Project VENOM: Cassandra Vale – Internal Surveillance

He opened it.

His blood ran cold.

Transfer logs. Secret meetings. IP traces. Audio clips.

"He's weak. He thinks he needs me," Cassandra's voice purred in one recording.

"But he needed Elena. He just didn't realize it until he ruined her."

Adrian dropped the phone.

Everything.

Everything had been a lie.

The woman beside him had never loved him.

And the woman he left had never betrayed him.

Final Scene – The Uninvited Dinner Guest

Cassandra lit candles at the dinner table, smiling as Adrian approached. He said nothing. Just sat. Stared.

Until-

A knock on the door.

She frowned. "Are we expecting someone?"

Adrian didn't answer.

He walked to the door. Opened it.

And there she stood.

Elena.

Draped in black silk, red lips curled into a smirk.

"Didn't bring dessert," she said, stepping past him, "but I did bring the truth."

She locked eyes with Cassandra.

And Cassandra paled.

Because she knew -

Everything was about to fall apart.