Standing in the Rain

Chapter 1

After Silas Sterling ditched me for the twenty-seventh time to run back to his first love, I found the resort tickets he had left on his desk.

He looked at me with those cold, indifferent eyes and said, Since you found them, I guess I'll see you this weekend. Stop complaining that I never have time for you.

That night, I stood at the entrance of the resort in Aspen, shivering in the pouring rain for hours. Silas never showed up.

When I finally dragged my soaked body back home, I saw his first love's Instagram post. It was a photo of them together in D.C.

"Someone lost the tickets, but since he took me on a trip to the capital, I guess I can forgive him this once!" her caption read, followed by a smug emoji.

In the past, I would have called him immediately, crying and demanding to know why he treated me this way. But this time, I was just done.

I tossed my phone onto the coffee table and walked into the bathroom. As expected, Silas hadn't come home.

A cold laugh escaped my lips. Raina Lockwood had posted that photo specifically for me to see. If she wanted to play the lead in this drama so badly, I decided to give her the stage.

I pulled my marriage certificate from the back of the drawer. Then, I took a screenshot of Silas and Raina's happy little getaway post.

I uploaded everything to X with a caption that would set the internet on fire. After hitting send, I packed my bags and left the house that had started to make me feel sick.

"You two love the spotlight? Fine. Enjoy the view from the top of the trending page," I whispered, laughing through the sudden ache in my chest.

But as I laughed, a bitter saltiness filled my throat. Silas, if you didn't love me, why did you keep making these empty promises? Even a loyal dog gets tired of being kicked eventually.

I had barely checked into a hotel when Silas started blowing up my phone. The ringing was relentless, a piercing scream in the quiet room.

Finally, out of some lingering shred of sentiment for our years together, I picked up. The man on the other end was hysterical, his voice a jagged roar.

"Selene Montgomery, are you insane? Do you have any idea what this scandal is doing to Raina's career? She's in the hospital right now because of your lies!"

"She's threatening to end it all because of your black heart. Post a retraction right now, or I swear I'll burn your family's business to the ground," he threatened.

"And what if I want you both to burn with it?" I asked, my voice surprisingly steady.

Silas hesitated, his tone shifting to a desperate, low plea. "Selene, please. I know I messed up the weekend, but Raina is innocent. I'm the one who chose to go to her. Don't take it out on her."

"She's just starting her career in the industry. She can't handle this kind of hate. I can't stand to see her suffer like this," he continued.

"What about me? I'm your legal wife! What did I do wrong to deserve being left in the rain while you played house with her?" I finally snapped, the anger boiling over.

"Ten years! I've been by your side for ten years! Every time she has a minor headache, you run to her like she's the only person in the world."

"Why did you even marry me? Answer me!" I screamed into the phone, but there was only a heavy, suffocating silence on the other end.

"It's not like that, Selene... Look, just take down the post. We'll talk at home, okay?" he said, still only worried about his precious Raina.

If he wanted to protect her so badly, they could rot together for all I cared. I hung up and silenced my phone.

"Silas Sterling... you're a piece of trash, and I'm finally throwing you out."

Chapter 2

The news of the Sterling Global CEO's infidelity paralyzed the internet. It was the scandal of the year, and it wasn't going away.

Silas couldn't take the post down himself. He didn't have the skills, and he didn't realize who he was dealing with.

I graduated at the top of my class in computer science. He could hire the best hackers in the country, and I would still outpace them.

However, I underestimated how low Silas would stoop. He used his resources to track my GPS to the hotel.

I was about to sit down for a quiet dinner when a thunderous banging shook my door. It sounded like someone was trying to kick it in.

"Selene, open this door right now! If you don't, I'll have the manager break it down!" Silas's voice boomed from the hallway.

The hotel manager was hovering nearby, trying to play peacemaker. But no one in this city dared to cross the CEO of Sterling Global.

I sighed and pulled the door open. The moment it cracked, a stinging slap landed across my face, sending me reeling back.

"I think I've been too nice to you. You've forgotten your place," Silas spat, towering over me with a murderous glare.

"Delete that post right now, while I'm watching. If you don't, I'll make sure you regret ever being born."

The burning sensation on my cheek only fueled the fire in my heart. I looked up at him and began to laugh, a wild, jagged sound.

"Is Raina dead yet? You're acting like such a martyr for her. I wonder if she knows how pathetic you look right now," I taunted him.

"You're so useless, Silas. You can't even protect your mistress without bullying your wife. Is this the powerful CEO everyone fears?"

"You actually hit me for her?" I stood up, swaying slightly, tears finally blurring my vision despite my laughter.

"I'm your legal wife. I'm defending my rights. Are you above the law now? Do you think you own the court system too, my dear husband?"

Every word I spoke hit him like a physical blow. His eyes turned a deep, vengeful red.

"I never realized how vicious you were, Selene. If that's how you want to play, fine. Don't expect any mercy from me."

Before I could react, Silas grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out. He didn't take me to jail; he took me to his private estate and locked me in.

He told the staff not to give me a single bite of food. I was allowed one glass of water a day, nothing more.

But the post stayed at the top of the charts. As long as it was there, Raina Lockwood's reputation was a sinking ship.

A week passed, and I was starving. Every time I fainted, Silas would have a private doctor give me a nutrient injection just to keep me conscious.

"Keep her alive. That's all you need to do. Let her feel the weight of what she's done," I heard him tell the doctor one evening.

The housekeeper tried to sneak me a piece of bread once, but I shook my head. I had to be harder on myself than he was.

If I wasn't willing to go to the edge, I couldn't ensure he would fall when the time came. I held out for seven days without cracking.

Silas tried everything to spin the narrative. He released statements saying I was mentally unstable and that the post was a hallucination.

But the public didn't buy it. The evidence I had posted was too clean, too undeniable.

Finally, a frantic Raina Lockwood showed up at the estate. She strutted into my room, flashing a massive diamond ring Silas had bought her.

"Selene, honey, look. Silas and I are getting married. You should really try to make it to the wedding... oh wait, you're stuck here."

I looked at her with pure disdain. "Bigamy is a felony, Raina. Unless you're planning on me dying in this room, you're just his legal side-piece."

I smiled at her, despite my weakness. "As long as I'm breathing, I will never sign those divorce papers. I will stay married to him just to make your life a living hell."

Raina's face contorted with rage. She leaned in close, her voice a poisonous whisper.

"You haven't eaten in a while, have you? I think I'll have the chefs cook a five-course meal right outside your door every single day."

"Let's see how long your little rebellion lasts when you're smelling steak while you rot."

Chapter 3

The hunger and the isolation finally broke my body. I collapsed again, but this time, the darkness felt different.

I could hear the doctor's voice drifting in from a great distance. He sounded panicked for the first time.

"Mr. Sterling, her vitals are crashing. If we don't get her to a real hospital immediately, she isn't going to make it."

Silas's voice was as cold as a winter grave. "She's tougher than she looks. She probably just wants attention. Let her stay hungry until she learns her lesson."

"Sir, you don't understand. Her heart rate is..."

"I said what I said! Stop making excuses for her manipulative behavior!" Silas roared, cutting the doctor off.

My mind began to drift. I saw flashes of us when we first started dating, back when I thought he was my soulmate.

"Why?" I whispered in the silence of my mind. "We were so happy... wasn't that real?"

Suddenly, the world exploded into noise. "Code Blue! We're losing her! Get the defibrillator, now!"

I felt a massive jolt through my chest. Then another. It felt like my soul was being slammed back into a broken cage.

"She's back! Vitals are stabilizing! We have a pulse!" a voice shouted.

So, I didn't die. I almost felt disappointed. The peace of the darkness had been so much better than the reality of my life.

I was still paralyzed from the medications, unable to move a finger. Silas didn't know one very important thing about me.

I wasn't just a coder. I was a survivalist.

He had made a fatal mistake by keeping me in the house I had lived in for years. I knew every dead zone and every back door in the security system.

In my final moments of consciousness, I had used a micro-transmitter I'd hidden months ago to send an SOS to my brother.

He had arrived just in time. My family had finally come for me.

When I opened my eyes, I saw my parents and my brother, Liam, sitting by my hospital bed. They were all crying.

"You stupid girl," Liam sobbed, clutching my hand. "Why didn't you tell us? We would have burned his whole world down if we knew he was hurting you."

I squeezed his hand slightly, my heart aching for them. My father's face was set in a mask of cold, hard fury.

"Selene, don't worry about the money or the contracts. We never wanted you with that bastard anyway," my father said firmly.

"We are going to take everything from the Sterlings. Him, that Lockwood woman, everyone who touched you... they're going to pay."

I couldn't speak yet, but my eyes burned with unshed tears. I wanted to tell them so much, but I needed to save my strength.

I had survived. And now, I was going to make sure Silas Sterling and Raina Lockwood found out exactly what hell looked like.

Chapter 4

Once I was strong enough to sit up, I began organizing the evidence I'd gathered during my captivity. I had recordings of everything.

Every threat, every cold remark Silas had made while I was starvingDit was all saved on a secure cloud server he couldn't touch.

While I recovered, Silas made a desperate move. He announced that he and Raina were getting married in a lavish ceremony.

It was a pathetic attempt to show the world that I was just a bitter ex-wife and that their love was pure.

"A wedding? How charming," I muttered, staring at the news on my laptop. "I think I have the perfect wedding gift for the happy couple."

My family protected me from the media storm. Even though the internet was full of trolls calling me a liar, I didn't care.

My father spent the week dissolving every business tie we had with Sterling Global. He made it clear: if you work with Silas, you're an enemy of the Montgomerys.

Silas didn't seem to care. He was too busy planning a "Wedding of the Century" for his mistress, broadcasting it live to millions.

He wanted to humiliate me. He wanted to show everyone that he had moved on to someone "better."

The day of the wedding arrived. Raina looked stunning in a custom Vera Wang gown, walking toward her "prince" down a bed of white roses.

But as they stood at the altar, the massive LED screens behind them flickered and changed. The romantic montage of their love story vanished.

In its place, a high-definition video began to play. It showed Raina in a dark club, surrounded by men who were definitely not Silas.

She was laughing, drinking, and eventually, the video showed her getting very intimate with several of them in a hotel suite.

The footage was crystal clear. There was no mistaking it was her.

Silas's face turned from a smug smile to a mask of pure, unadulterated rage. He looked like he wanted to kill someone.

He grabbed Raina by the throat right there at the altar. "You told me you were pure! You told me you lived for me! What the hell is this?"

"Silas, no! It's a lie! It's Selene! She's a hacker, she made it up! It's a deepfake!" Raina screamed, her voice cracking with terror.

The wedding was a disaster. The guests were filming everything, and the livestream was racking up millions of views.

My tech prevented the staff from turning off the screens. The video played on a loop, showing every sordid detail of Raina's secret life.

I watched it from my hospital bed, leaning back against the pillows. "Enjoy the show, Silas. Happy anniversary."