Jordan slammed the lid shut.
“Nothing.”
Clark calmly reached over and opened the box again.
“Actually,” he said, “I think everyone deserves to know why you’re so upset.”
My heart was pounding.
I had no idea what Clark had put inside.
That hadn’t been part of our plan.
I had hired him to pretend to be my boyfriend for a few hours.
I hadn’t asked him to confront Jordan.
I hadn’t asked him to bring anything.
And yet there he stood, completely calm, while my ex-husband looked as though he’d just seen a ghost.
Clark turned toward me.
“I think you should know this too.”
He reached into the box.
Inside was a small envelope.
He handed it to me.
I looked at Jordan.
His expression told me everything.
He was terrified.
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a printed photograph.
My hands began to shake.
It showed Jordan sitting at a restaurant with Percy.
But that wasn’t the surprising part.
The photograph had been taken more than a year earlier.
According to the date printed beneath it, it was from the same period when Jordan had repeatedly told me he was working late.
I looked at him.
“You told me you were at the office.”
Jordan didn’t answer.
Percy stared at him.
“You told me you were still married because you were afraid to leave.”
Jordan looked at her.
“Percy, that’s not—”
She interrupted him.
“Don’t.”
The party had gone completely quiet.
Our son stood several feet away, surrounded by his friends.
I didn’t want him dragged into his parents’ argument.
So I took a breath and stepped toward Jordan.
“This isn’t about me anymore.”
He looked confused.
“What?”
“You’ve already made your choices.”
I held up the photograph.
“What I don’t understand is why you’ve been lying to everyone.”
Clark stepped beside me.
“Because there’s more.”
Jordan immediately looked at him.
“You need to leave.”
Clark smiled.
“I’m afraid that’s not happening yet.”
He pulled another document from the box.
This time, Jordan’s expression changed completely.
It was a copy of an agreement.
I recognized the company name at the top.
Jordan’s company.
“What is that?” I asked.
Clark handed it to me.
“It concerns a business account your ex-husband controlled.”
I read the first page.
Then the second.
I couldn’t understand what I was seeing.
There were payments.
Large payments.
Transfers made over several months.
And several of them had been made while Jordan and I were still married.
I looked at him.
“What’s this?”
Jordan stepped forward.
“Give me that.”
I pulled it away.
“No.”
For years, I had believed our marriage ended because my husband fell in love with someone else.
Maybe that had been only part of the story.
Clark looked at Jordan.
“You told her the divorce was about Percy.”
Jordan said nothing.
“You never told her about the financial accounts.”
Percy suddenly looked at Jordan.
“What accounts?”
Jordan’s jaw tightened.
“Clark, you don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
Clark nodded.
“Maybe not everything.”
Then he looked at me.
“But enough.”
I felt dizzy.
I looked down at the papers again.
Some of the transfers had been made to an account I didn’t recognize.
I had spent months struggling financially after the divorce.
I had worried about paying bills, supporting the children, and keeping the house running.
Meanwhile, Jordan had been moving money around without telling me.
I looked at him.
“Why?”
He finally spoke.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“That you’d take everything.”
I stared at him.
“Everything?”
He looked away.
“You were entitled to part of the business.”
I almost laughed.
“You cheated on me, left our family, and then tried to hide money because you were worried about what I might receive?”
Jordan didn’t answer.
Percy took a step backward.
“Is this why you told me the divorce was going to be simple?”
Jordan looked at her.
“I was going to handle it.”
“You told me she wanted nothing.”
My stomach tightened.
I suddenly understood.
Jordan hadn’t simply left our marriage.
He had been trying to control what happened afterward.
Clark reached into the box one final time.
There was another envelope.
He handed it to me.
“This one is for you.”
I opened it.
Inside was a letter from an attorney.
It explained that the financial records had been discovered during a review connected to the divorce proceedings.
My attorney had apparently been trying to verify several inconsistencies.
But there was something else.
The letter explained that the money had already been traced.
And there was a court order requiring Jordan to account for it.
I looked up.
“Why do you have this?”
Clark smiled.
“Because I’m not just an actor.”
I froze.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“The agency you contacted didn’t send me because I was available to play a boyfriend.”
My mouth fell open.
“They sent me because I was already working with your legal team.”
I stared at him.
Jordan suddenly stepped forward.
“You set this up?”
Clark shook his head.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“She hired an actor.”
Then he looked at Jordan.
“You simply didn’t realize that the man standing beside her already knew about your financial situation.”
I couldn’t believe it.
The entire fake-boyfriend plan had been something I created because I wanted Jordan to see that I was moving on.
But the real reason Clark had been there was completely different.
He had been gathering information for my attorney.
The pool party had accidentally become the place where everything came to light.
Jordan looked around.
People were staring.
Percy was staring at him.
Even some of our neighbors had come outside.
Our son finally walked over.
“Mom?”
I immediately put the papers behind my back.
“It’s okay.”
He looked at Jordan.
“Dad, what’s happening?”
Jordan opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
I stepped between them.
“Nothing you need to worry about tonight.”
My son nodded slowly.
Then he looked at Clark.
“Are you Mom’s boyfriend?”
Everyone went silent.
Clark looked at me.
I smiled.
“No,” I said.
My son raised an eyebrow.
“Really?”
I laughed for the first time that afternoon.
“No. He’s an actor.”
My son looked at Clark.
“You’re an actor?”
Clark nodded.
“Apparently.”
My son laughed.
“That’s actually pretty cool.”
The tension finally broke.
A few people nearby smiled.
Even I couldn’t help laughing.
Jordan didn’t.
He simply stood there holding the empty gift box.
The same man who had laughed at me earlier now looked completely lost.
Percy walked over to him.
“I need to talk to you.”
Jordan looked at her.
“Percy—”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“You lied to me too.”
Then she walked away.
Jordan watched her leave.
For once, he had nothing clever to say.
He looked at me.
“I never meant for things to get this bad.”
I stared at him.
“They got this bad because of your choices.”
He lowered his head.
“I know.”
I looked toward the pool.
Our son was laughing with his friends again.
The music had started playing.
The party was slowly returning to normal.
And suddenly, I realized something.
I had spent weeks planning how to make Jordan jealous.
I had wanted him to see me standing beside another man and wonder whether he’d made a mistake.
But I didn’t need that anymore.
I didn’t need his jealousy.
I didn’t need his approval.
And I certainly didn’t need him to regret leaving me.
I had something far more valuable.
My children were happy.
I was rebuilding my life.
And I had finally stopped measuring my worth by the way my ex-husband looked at me.
Clark walked over.
“So,” he said, “I guess the boyfriend assignment is officially over.”
I smiled.
“I think so.”
He handed me the empty gift box.
“Keep it.”
“Why?”
He shrugged.
“As a reminder.”
“Of what?”
He looked toward Jordan.
“That sometimes the best revenge isn’t making someone jealous.”
He smiled.
“It’s letting the truth speak for itself.”
I looked at the box in my hands.
For a moment, I thought about the woman I had been months earlier.
Heartbroken.
Angry.
Convinced that I had somehow become less valuable because my husband had chosen someone else.
Then I looked at myself now.
I wasn’t pretending anymore.
I didn’t need an actor beside me.
I didn’t need a perfect outfit, a dramatic entrance, or a jealous ex-husband.
I simply needed to remember who I was before someone else convinced me I wasn’t enough.
That evening, after everyone had gone home, my son came into the kitchen.
“Mom?”
“Yeah?”
“Was the fake boyfriend thing really necessary?”
I smiled.
“Probably not.”
He laughed.
“But it was kind of funny.”
I laughed too.
Then he hugged me.
And for the first time in a very long time, I didn’t think about Jordan.
I didn’t think about Percy.
I didn’t think about the divorce.
I didn’t think about revenge.
I simply stood there with my son, listening to the house slowly becoming quiet.
And I realized the biggest surprise wasn’t what had been inside the gift box.
It was what had changed inside me.
I had spent so long wanting my ex-husband to understand my value.
But I finally understood something much more important:
My value was never something he had the power to give me—or take away.