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“I don’t know.”
“That’s not enough.”
Naira stared at him.
There it was.
The crack becoming a break.
“Not enough for who?” she asked. “Your lawyers? Your mother? Belle?”
His face tightened at Belle’s name. “Don’t bring her into this.”
Naira laughed once, shocked and wounded. “She is always in this, Caspian. You just refuse to see her.”
“This is about evidence.”
“This is about trust.”
He gripped the edge of the island. “Millions were moved.”
“And you think I took it?”
“I think I don’t understand what I’m looking at.”
“No,” Naira said, voice trembling. “You understand enough to look at me like I’m a stranger.”
She stepped closer.
“Look at me.”
He did.
Her eyes were full but steady.
“Have I ever lied to you?”
He did not answer fast enough.
That silence destroyed more than anger ever could.
Naira nodded slowly. “You promised you would hear me before the world did.”
“I’m trying.”
“No. You are trying to decide how guilty I look.”
“The board meets tomorrow.”
“The board?” Her face went pale. “They know?”
He said nothing.
“You let them know before you spoke to me.”
“I found out today.”
“And I am your wife.”
The room went quiet.
The soup sat untouched on the counter.
Naira reached for his hand. He did not pull away, but he did not hold her either.
That hurt worse.
“Caspian,” she whispered. “Please. Someone is doing this to us.”
A memory flashed in him.
Naira laughing under rain. Naira fixing his tie. Naira saying yes under city lights.
Then Selene’s voice returned.
Protect the company before the board does it for you.
Belle’s voice followed.
Be careful with your heart.
Caspian removed his hand.
Naira stepped back as if he had pushed her.
“Don’t do this,” she said.
“I need time.”
“You always need time when I need you.”
His eyes flashed. “That’s not fair.”
“No. What’s not fair is begging your husband to believe your character.”
She wiped one tear quickly, angry that it had fallen.
“I did not marry you for money. I did not steal from you. I did not betray you.”
Caspian stood frozen.
She waited.
One word from him might have saved them.
I believe you.
That was all she needed.
He did not say it.
Naira picked up her purse with shaking hands.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“Somewhere I don’t have to defend my soul.”
“Naira.”
She stopped at the door.
“When you are ready to ask me for the truth instead of making me prove I deserve love, call me.”
Then she left.
By morning, responsibility had turned into cowardice.
The board demanded distance. The crisis team advised legal protection. Selene arrived at his office before nine. Belle arrived before ten.
By noon, the story had been shaped around him without Naira in the room.
“She is a liability,” one board member said.
“She used your marriage as access,” another added.
Selene sat beside Caspian, calm as ice. “You do not have to hate her to protect yourself.”
Belle stood near the window. “She needs help, Caspian. But you can’t let guilt ruin everything you built.”
Caspian looked at the divorce papers on the table.
They were supposed to be temporary protection.
That was the lie he told himself.
A legal wall. A public pause. A way to stop the bleeding.
He signed.
Naira received the papers the next morning at Marisol Greer’s apartment. She had gone there after leaving the penthouse, too broken to explain and too proud to return.
Marisol was in her sixties, with soft gray curls and warm brown eyes. When the courier arrived, she opened the door.
Naira knew before she opened the envelope.
Some part of her already knew.