Betrayed Wife's Comeback

Synopsis

I stared at Troy across the crowded campus café, certain I'd misheard him. The familiar buzz of student conversations and the hiss of the espresso machine seemed to fade into white noise as his words echoed in my mind. "You're choosing Eve as your project partner?" Troy shifted in his seat, avoiding my eyes as he picked at the corner of his textbook. "Dana, it's just a project. Don't make it into something bigger than it is." But it was bigger. So much bigger. We'd talked about this competition for months—the Regional Academic Excellence Challenge that could secure graduate school recommendations and open doors neither of us had dreamed of. We'd planned it together, researched together, even joked about how we'd celebrate our inevitable victory together. "We promised each other," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "Fifteen years, Troy. We've been a team for fifteen years." He finally looked up, and something cold flickered in his familiar brown eyes. "Look, Eve brings something different to the table. She's got this... perspective. This drive. You know how inspiring her story is—scholarship kid, working three jobs, overcoming all those obstacles." Each word felt like a small knife twisting deeper. "What about my perspective? What about our partnership?" "Come on, Dana." Troy's laugh was sharp, dismissive. "What obstacles have you ever had to overcome? Your biggest challenge is choosing between your BMW and your dad's Mercedes." The casual cruelty in