Shane walked into his house with his head hung low. He didn't even bother staying the rest of the night at the hotel. He wanted to get as far away from it as possible, actually.

He sighed and quietly shut the front door behind him. It was nearly two in the morning and the last thing he wanted to do was to wake his wife. Unfortunately, when he heard the sound of footsteps coming toward him, he knew that was exactly what he had done.

"Shane?" Ashley whispered at him. Good thing it was him because if he was some burglar, he was pretty sure asking their name wouldn't help her any.

"Go back to bed, Ash." Shane murmured.

"I thought your conference was supposed to last until tomorrow morning. What are you doing back?" She questioned.

"Does it really matter why? I'm here. Go back to bed, I'll be there in a second."

He could hear her huff loudly. He was in no mood for an argument.

"Well you just showed up unannounced–"

Shane felt her actions really suspicious. And since he was seasoned in techniques used to pull off an affair, the way she was acting seemed quite familiar to him.

"Why are you so…jumpy?" He asked walking closer to her. "Got another man up there?"

She smiled smugly at him. "Do you really think I would do that?"

"Just a joke." He muttered removing his coat and throwing it over the back of the couch.

"I mean, after all, you're the one who's always sneaking off to late night meetings and conferences. If anyone should be the accused cheater, it's you."

Shane sucked in a breath. Had Ashley had hidden suspicions of his behavior all this time?

He couldn't show that her words threw him. That'd just make him look really suspicious.

"It's called working, Ashley. Not all of us can be hotshot paralegals with comfortable daytime office hours." He was pretty proud of his response. Cool, but still keeping up the banter between them.

"Must be interesting," She started, flicking on a light to get a better look at Shane. He knew what she was looking for.

Once, thanks to Mitchie, Shane unknowingly had a nice, big hicky on his chest. He ended up changing in front of Ashley and she easily spotted the 'love mark'. He was able to easily play it off as a self-inflicted mark but he figured if it kept happening, she'd think otherwise.

"Working late night conferences like this every so often. Tell me Shane," She walked up to him and began tracing tiny circles on his chest through his shirt. "Do you ever get lonely at those conferences?"

He snorted a bit. "Why would I get lonely? Its not like I'm by myself. Other people from the label are there too."

"Other people?" She asked still tracing the circles. "Like your little pretty assistant? What was her name again?"

Shane groaned and moved away from her. This wouldn't be the first time she voiced her opinions on Mitchie.

"Ashley, Mitchie is just my assistant and that's all. You know that." A couple hours ago, that would have been a false statement. Now, it was a very true reality for him.

"And what exactly does she 'assist' you with?"

"You know, I don't know if you should really be talking right now considering the lawyer you assist is just a George Clooney clone!" He instantly flipped the conversation from about him, to about her.

"C'mon now Shane. Do you really think I would do something with Todd?" She asked as if it was stupid that he even implied that.

"Do you think I would ever do something with Mitchie?"

Ashley shook her head wanting the argument to end. It was too late at night to be arguing like this. Besides, she was sure if they kept it up, she might end up saying something she'd regret.

"I'm going to bed." Shane muttered as he brushed past her and went upstairs.

He went straight into the bathroom to wash up a little before heading to bed. It was when he reached for a washcloth that he noticed the shiny silver Rolex by the sink.

"Hmm," He didn't own a watch as nice as this one. Unless this was some kind of present from Ashley that she just so careless left out for him to see, Shane was sure this was another man's watch.

Maybe he wasn't the only one having fun behind his spouse's back.

Downstairs, Ashley rubbed her temples and breathed heavily. She hated fighting with Shane, she really did. Their relationship didn't always use to be this way. There was a time where they were actually happy together.

That was before the record company though.

After Shane set it up, with the help of her father, things changed. She thought it would be just a little hobby, that it was fail as quickly as it started. When it didn't, when Shane actually started signing artists, he spent more time working. It wasn't really the working that bothered her, though. It was the fact that for all that time spent he wasn't bringing home nearly enough money. Not to say she was so superficial that all she cared about was how much money her husband made but in the profession she was in, spouses tended to match each other in paycheck and in social status. Both areas Shane ranked quite low.

Not to mention his damned assistant, too.

When the company first started, her father recommended Shane hire her brother Mark as his assistant. Granted Mark wasn't the sharpest took or the most lively of workers but he was her brother and it only seemed right they keep it in the family. But when Mark started slacking too much for Shane's liking, he let him go and hired a new assistant. It would be stupid to imply that Ashley wasn't jealous of Mitchie. Here was a younger, gorgeous woman who was spending way more time with her husband than she was. Yes, she trusted Shane but it was in her nature to be a little jealous. She took solace in the face that she knew he'd never try and pull any funny business behind her back.

That was until she realized she was blinded by love. She was seeing what she wanted to see. Once she stopped, everything became clearer.

Shane would come home to Ashley and smell like women's perfume. At first, she chalked it up to him being around his female artists but then she realized, that scent was all to familiar. At a party held for one of Shane's artist's new single, Ashley ran into Mitchie and wouldn't you know it? There was the perfume. She never confronted Shane about it because she thought she was being irrational. It was easy to see how Shane could have picked up the girl's smell. She was his assistant after all.

But then came the conferences.

Every month? She was started to feel a little insulted. Did Shane really think her intelligence level was so low she wouldn't figure it out?

Maybe it was with Mitchie and maybe it wasn't but it was definitely with someone.

But there was one reason she never confronted Shane about it, a bigger reason than not wanting to be wrong in accusing him.

She was cheating herself.

It wasn't easy to be a woman in a 'man's business'. Being a paralegal was tough. It was hard to get people to take you seriously if you were a woman and Ashley was nothing but serious about her work. So in order to get where she needed to be, she did a little flirting here and there to move up. Never did she intend to have full on flings with some of these men.

But that's the difference.

When she would have the occasional rendezvous with a guy at the office, it was just a fling.

She was sure that whatever Shane had going on was much more than a fling.

She didn't want to believe it. She still had yet to believe it, honestly. But she knew it.

Shane was in love with another woman.

…

So, there you have it. Shane's wife isn't such a victim now, huh? Thanks for all the awesome reviews! Special thanks to bookcritic345's review. Really helped me out a lot. I always love in depth reviews like that!

Anyway, next chapter at 4 or 5 reviews!

Thanks for reading! :]