Mr and Mrs Evans ✔

Scarlett

Not knowing where to go, I headed toward my second home - Triple-Click's front office. It was late, but Cobie was still there.
She looked at me and, without hesitation, found a comfortable chair for me to sit on.

I took a deep breath and… told her the news.

- What?

I replied with a disapproving face, as it hadn't been easy to spit out the words the first time. Besides, she understood the whole story very well and didn't need to hear it all over again.

- The agent we had orders to kill, the man who tried to kill me, was a known element. I mean, relatively well-known: my husband.

- But all this is so implausible! Cobie said, pulling out a chair where she could throw herself. "One chance in a million..." She shook her head. - But it could be worse, Scarlett.

The barbs my eyes shot in her direction could have knocked a bull to the ground.

- And even?

Cobie shrugged his shoulders in a funny way, and I would have laughed had the circumstances been different. We talked like two friends sharing the sordid details of their husbands' infidelity. But in my case, the betrayal went far beyond a simple affair with the neighbor or a reckless drunkenness on a business trip.

"I would much rather not know anything..." would say the outraged wife to her sympathetic friend. "Oh, if only I could pretend that none of this happened..."

But I am not a woman like the others, nor is my life like theirs. The crossroads before which I had chosen the path less traveled was long gone. I had been at peace with myself for a long time.

But then Chris came into my life and complicated everything. He made me feel things I never imagined I could feel for anyone. He made me wish for a life that was known to be impossible. In the heat of the moment, I had let the excitement and danger of Bogotá cloud my mind; let the enemy capture the last thing I would ever want to see captured.

My heart.

Cobie had warned me, but I didn't listen.

Fortunately, my best friend was a tough-as-nails professional in the intelligence services and had a lot more to offer than a tissue and a glass of sugar water.

"All right," she said. - The situation is a little weird. But come to think of it, he's a man. And all men should come with an expiration date stamped on their foreheads. - Judging by the look in his eyes, Cobie had seen that movie before. A film not pleasant to watch. And for the first time I imagined what her life outside of work would be like. This
it was something we rarely talked about in the Triple-Click domain.

I started playing with my wedding ring.

“Look,” Cobie continued, “this all has a positive side… You don't love the guy. You need to kill him. Well, nobody does it better than you!

I kept silent.

I could feel Cobie staring at me, trying to read my thoughts.

"Hold on," she said. - Don't tell me you still love the guy...

After noticing the stern look on my face, Cobie left the room on her own initiative. She was a seasoned agent and knew how to avoid friendly fire.
Ah, patience... I would apologize later; for now, she was content to be alone.

I went to the office fridge and got a glass of ice and a bottle of scotch.

I served the drink as if it were Coca-Cola Light; then I held the glass in both hands and sent it all in with a single shot. Nothing very elegant, I know. But it solved the problem.

This was - after all - a special occasion.

I filled the glass again. Then I took off the ring and stared at my hand. A pale, ghostly alliance remained on the skin where, for so many years, gold had protected the flesh from the vicissitudes of life.

Would that mark disappear over time? Or would it stay there until the last of my days, like a scar?

"Don't tell me you still love the guy..."
Cobie's question hung in the air.

Dear God, I was afraid to know what the real answer would be.

But he was at a new crossroads, and he could only go one way.

Literally.

The ring fell to the floor. I took another sip of the drink. And I did the unacceptable: I, Scarlett Evans - seasoned and professional killer, heart of stone - dropped my head in my hands and cried.