Orange Hour at the Marina

The sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in bruised shades of **orange** and violet. Elena sat at the outdoor bar, nursing her third gin and tonic, watching him play. Marcus, her husband of fifteen years, laughed at something the woman said—Martina, the new associate from the Madrid office, young and hungry and now apparently excellent at **padel**.

They'd come to this Marbella resort for what Marcus called "team building" but what Elena recognized as another excuse to avoid their crumbling marriage. The past six months had been a slow erosion: late nights, encrypted messages, the smell of another woman's perfume faint but unmistakable on his shirts.

She wasn't supposed to know. But Elena had become something she never anticipated—a **spy** in her own life. Checking his phone while he showered. Tracking his location through the family account she'd cleverly set up "for safety." Listening at doors.

Earlier that afternoon, she'd followed him to the private cove beyond the resort's main beach. Hidden by limestone cliffs, she'd watched him wade into the crystal **water** with Martina. They'd stood waist-deep in the Mediterranean, his hands on her waist, her head thrown back in laughter. The image burned itself into Elena's memory like acid.

Marcus was slick—clever as a **fox**, as his partners at the firm often said. But foxes had predators too, and Elena had learned to hunt.

Now, as he and Martina approached the bar, flushed from their match, Elena forced a smile. Marcus kissed her cheek—perfunctory, distant. "Having a good time, sweetie?" he asked, but his eyes were already scanning the room, looking for something—someone—else.

"Great time," she lied. "You played well."

Martina ordered an orange juice, smiling at Elena with those perfect white teeth. "Your husband's quite talented, Elena. You're lucky."

"I know," Elena said. She finished her drink, the ice melting against her lips. "I'm the luckiest woman alive."

Tomorrow she'd call her lawyer. Tonight, she'd let him think he'd won.