Sophia's Point of View
"Hope you can wait a bit more to keep our relationship under wraps."
I gaze at Nicholas's text to this enigmatic fourth woman. My hands begin to tremble once more, but this time it's not due to sorrow
It's from pure rage.
Four women. At least four women.
I took a screenshot of the message and shared it with both Maya and Alexandra. I take my handbag and hurry out of the café.
I have to go for a walk. I need to ponder. I must determine how we will ensure Nicholas pays for being a much larger monster than we understood.
My phone begins to ring before I reach the corner. Maya's name appears on the display.
"Have you seen it?"
I answered without saying hello.
"I saw it. Where are you?"
"Walking home. I can't sit still after seeing that."
"Stay here a bit longer." Join me at Central Park. The seat beside the water feature. "We should discuss this."
"How about Alexandra?"
"Have already sent her a message." "She's on her path."
Forty minutes later, three of us are sitting on a bench, the sun is coming out already. A few joggers pass by, but mostly we're alone.
Alexandra looks terrible. Her perfect makeup is gone, and her hair is messy as though she has been running her fingers through it.
"I can't handle it," she declares before we get a chance to speak
"I am unable to stay at that hotel tonight and act as if everything is fine." "Not once I saw that message."
"You must," Maya states authoritatively. "If you fail to appear"
"He'll sense that something is off." "You've mentioned that before." Alexandra glances over at the two of us. "Yet I can't rest beside him while being aware of another woman existing."
Maybe more than one."
I know what she is experiencing. The idea of Nicholas being with Alexandra used to provoke my jealousy
Now it just makes me sick for her.
"What if you go but don't stay?" I suggest. "Show up, have a drink, then say you feel sick and leave early?"
"He'll want to take care of me. He'll insist on driving me home."
"Then you tell him you don't want him to catch whatever you have," Maya says. "Make something up. Food poisoning. Headache. Women problems. Men hate hearing about women's problems."
Alexandra considers this. "That might work."
"It has to work," Maya insists. "Because we need time to figure out who this fourth woman is. And we can't do that if Nicholas gets suspicious."
I pulled up the screenshot again. "The message doesn't give us much to work with. No name, no details."
"But the timing is interesting," Maya points out. "He sent it right after his date with Alexandra ended. Like he was already planning his next romantic evening."
"This weekend," I read once more. "Thus, while Alexandra believes she's his girlfriend and I believe I'm his girlfriend and you believe you're his girlfriend, he's making arrangements to meet someone else completely."
"How many women is he balancing?"
Alexandra asks.
"Does it matter?" Maya's voice is cold. "Three, four, ten. The issue is that he's a habitual cheater who believes he can treat women as if they were toys.
A runner speeds by us, panting heavily. She appears concentrated and resolute. I long to feel that sure about what we're doing.
"What's the strategy?" I inquire. "How can we eliminate someone like Nicholas?"
Maya takes out a tiny notebook and a pen. "Our strengths are utilized." Every individual has access to various aspects of his life. On our own, we're merely friends he can control. "United, we can dismantle everything he has created."
"What are you trying to say?"
Maya starts writing as she talks. "Sophia, you handle all his personal affairs. You know his schedule, his passwords, his private business. You could cause chaos in his daily life."
"Like messing up his meetings and losing his files?"
"Exactly. But bigger. You could feed information to his competitors. Leak confidential documents. Make his business partners lose confidence in him."
I think about all the secret information I handle for Nicholas. Client lists, financial reports, private correspondence. If I wanted to, I could destroy his company from the inside.
"What about Alexandra?" I ask.
"Alexandra moves in high society. She knows all the wealthy people Nicholas depends on for business connections. She could destroy his reputation in social circles."
Alexandra nods slowly. "I could spread rumors about him. Make people think he's unstable or unethical. Rich people hate scandals. They'll drop him fast if they think he's bad for their image."
"And you, Maya?"
Maya's smile is very dangerous, as sharp as a knife. "I handle his business deals. I know which investments are risky, which clients are unhappy, which competitors want to buy him out. I could manipulate his decisions until he loses everything."
Saying the plan, it sounds good . But there's something that comes to my mind.
"What about if we were caught?" I ask. "Nicholas isn't stupid. If his life starts falling apart, he'll look for causes. He might get to know that we had plans .
"That's the reason why we need to be smart about our plans," Maya says. "We may not be able to attack at once. We take turns. One of us causes a problem while the other two act concerned and helpful."
"Like good girlfriends would," Alexandra adds with disgust.
"Exactly."We deceive him into believing we support him while we gradually dismantle everything significant to him."
"We guide him to think we are on his side while we slowly tear down everything he cherishes."
I observe a young couple strolling by, hand in hand. They appear joyful and affectionate
Like Nicholas and I used to look. Like I thought we looked.
"There's something else we need to consider," I say.
"What?"
"What happens after? Let's say we succeed and destroy Nicholas's business and reputation. What happens to us?"
Maya and Alexandra exchange glances.
"What do you mean?" Maya asks.
"I mean, do we stay at the company? Do we keep working for him? Do we pretend our relationships never happened?"
"I didn't consider that in advance," Alexandra confesses.
"We should think about it now," I insist. "Because once we start this, there's no going back. We'll either succeed and have to live with the consequences, or fail and face his revenge."
The fountain behind us makes soft splashing sounds. A few coins glitter at the bottom where people made wishes. I wonder how many of those wishes were about love. How many people threw money into the water hoping for someone who would never lie to them.
"You're right," Maya says finally. "We need to plan for after. But first, we need to decide if we're really doing this."
She looks at both of us seriously. "This isn't solely about avenging Nicholas for betraying us." If we execute this correctly, we will ruin his whole existence.
His business, his money, his reputation. Everything."
"Good," Alexandra says without hesitation.
"Sophia?" Maya asks. "Are you sure you want to go this far?"
I think about the hotel room I booked for Nicholas and Alexandra. About the roses I ordered for his real girlfriend while thinking I was his real girlfriend. About the text where he laughed about how clueless I was.
About the fourth woman who has no idea what kind of man she's dating.
"He destroyed our hearts," I say quietly. "He made us feel stupid and worthless and replaceable. He probably has a dozen other women lined up after us."
"So?"
"So yes. I want to destroy him."
Maya tears three pages from her notebook and hands one to each of us. "Write your name and sign it. This is our pact. Our promise to each other that we'll see this through no matter what."
I write "Sophia Chen" in careful letters and sign my name below it.
Alexandra does the same. Her handwriting is fancy and elegant, like her.
Maya signs hers with quick, confident strokes.
"Now what?" Alexandra asks.
Maya collects all three papers and folds them together. "Now we swear to each other that we won't back down. That we won't let feelings or guilt or fear stop us from making Nicholas pay for what he did."
She holds out her hand. Alexandra puts her hand on top of Maya's. I add mine to the pile.
"Swear it," Maya says. "Swear that we'll destroy Nicholas Blackwood."
"I swear," Alexandra says.
"I swear," I repeat.
"I swear," Maya finishes.
We hold our hands together for a moment. Three women who were enemies this morning, now bound together by shared pain and shared purpose.
"When do we start?" I ask.
"Tomorrow," Maya says. "But tonight, Alexandra has to go to that hotel. "And Sophia, you need to behave normally when you encounter Nicholas in the morning."
"What will you do?"
Alexandra asks Maya.
"Research. I will investigate all I can regarding Nicholas's business transactions, his financial standing, and his vulnerabilities. "By tomorrow evening, I will have a list of objectives."
We pull our hands apart and rise from the bench. The park is becoming dimmer as additional people return home for dinner.
"There's one last thing," Maya mentions before we head out
"We need code names. Ways to communicate about the plan without anyone knowing what we're talking about."
"Like what?"
"Nicholas is 'The Target.' Our plan is 'The Project.' And we are..." She pauses, thinking. "We are The Alliance."
The Alliance. I like the sound of that.
"How do we contact each other?" I ask.
Maya pulls out her phone. "Group text. But we use the code names and keep everything vague. Just in case someone else sees our phones."
She creates a group chat and adds Alexandra and me. The group name appears as "Book Club."
"Book club?" Alexandra asks.
"If anyone asks, we're reading romance novels together," Maya explains. "Three single women discussing fictional relationships. Very believable."
My phone buzzes with our first group message from Maya: "Ladies, ready to start our new book? The one about getting revenge on cheating men?"
Alexandra types back: "Can't wait. When do we discuss the first chapter?"
I add: "Tomorrow night. Same time, same place."
We walked out of the park together, but split up at the street corner. Maya heads north toward her apartment. Alexandra goes south toward the hotel where she'll have to pretend to love the man we've sworn to destroy.
I walk east toward my own apartment, thinking about tomorrow. About continuing to be Nicholas's perfect assistant while planning his downfall.
My phone buzzes with a text. For a second I think it's another message from Nicholas to his mystery woman.
But it's from Maya, sent to just me: "Found something. Nicholas has been using company money for personal expenses. Including paying for hotel rooms and expensive dinners. This is bigger than just cheating. He's been embezzling."
I stop walking and stare at the message.
Nicholas isn't just a cheating boyfriend. He's been stealing money from his own company t
o fund his multiple relationships.
I text back: "How much money?"
Maya's response makes my blood run cold: "Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Maybe more. If the board finds out, he won't just lose his job. He'll go to prison."