Chapter 1

Company-wide layoffs were sweeping through the firm, and my husband, a department manager, held the single exemption pass.

Everyone in the office assumed that spot belonged to me.

Until the day the final list was announced. He gave the sole retention pass to a newly hired single mother.

I shoved open his office door, my voice trembling uncontrollably.

"Leo has been waiting on the kidney donor registry for two solid years. We just got a match, but the surgery costs a fortune out-of-pocket. I cannot lose this job, Austin!"

He sat behind his desk, not even bothering to look up. "You still have me. She has nobody."

That very afternoon, I signed my severance paperwork. And right beside it, our divorce agreement.

Three years later, I had climbed the corporate ladder to become a senior department director at another leading firm.

My ex-husband showed up as a representative for a vendor, pitching a make-or-break partnership.

If the deal went through, his struggling company would survive.

If it failed, as the project lead, he would be the very first person sacked.

The moment he pushed open the glass door and laid eyes on me, he froze dead in his tracks.

I closed my folder and cut straight to the chase.

"We're not doing this deal."

His lips trembled. "Chloe, this project is everything to me. My mom is sick. I really need this."

I leaned back against my leather chair, staring him down coldly.

"Three years ago, my brother was fighting for his life. I needed my job, too."

Austin stood frozen, taking several seconds before he managed to choke out:

"Back then... I just thought she was in such a pathetic situation."

"A single mother with a little girl, getting laid off—how was she supposed to survive?"

"At least you had me."

I leaned back against my chair and let out a cold laugh.

"Had you?"

"Did a single cent of your money ever get spent on me?"

His face drained of color, turning a shade paler.

During our marriage, I paid the apartment rent. I covered every utility bill. Whenever he invited his buddies out for dinner and drinks, it was my card that got charged.

He always claimed all his money was locked in long-term investments and couldn't be cashed out.

Fool that I was, I believed him.

Only later did I discover he was wire-transferring two thousand dollars to his mother every single month under the guise of being a dutiful son.

Yet when my brother was hospitalized in critical condition, Austin didn't even bother to bring a bag of oranges to the hospital.

"But your brother pulled through, didn't he?"

"Back then, if that single mom lost her job, she and her daughter might not have survived!"

"At least things worked out fine for you in the end!"

He suddenly raised his voice, sounding righteous.

Those words were like a dagger, plunging straight into the rawest wound in my chest.

Yes. Leo pulled through.

But Austin had no idea through what hell I had crawled to get there.

After getting laid off, I begged former classmates for money, swallowing every shred of pride. I cried on the doorsteps of estranged relatives, banging my forehead against cold tiles until my skin turned purple with bruises.

I sold the vintage silver bracelet my grandmother had passed down to me. I sold every designer bag I had saved up for years to buy.

During those dark, suffocating nights, I lay on a rock-hard mattress in a dingy rental, staring at the water stains spreading across the ceiling, mentally calculating how many more days my brother's ICU bills could last.

I didn't even dare turn on the lamp because electricity cost money.

After the match succeeded, Leo spent weeks in the ICU, and I slept on the hard plastic chairs in the hospital hallway for seventeen nights straight.

I pulled my thoughts back from the abyss, unclenched my white-knuckled fists, and looked up at him.

"Get out."

He froze.

"There will be no partnership. Stop wasting my time."

"How can you be this cold-hearted?"

His lips shook, his eyes rimmed with red.

I stood up, walked over, and pulled open my office door.

"Compared to you? I'm an amateur."

He stood there for a few agonizing seconds before finally turning away.

The sharp clicks of his leather shoes echoed down the hallway, gradually fading into silence.

I shut the door, walked back to my desk, and took a slow sip of water.

At three in the afternoon, the official notice came through.

Our executive board chose another vendor.

Their quote was more reasonable, their implementation strategy far more grounded.

I flipped through the pages. Clean and solid.

Coming out of the post-meeting debrief, I passed through the ground-floor lobby.

A police cruiser was parked right outside the glass entrance.

Just as I was heading toward the elevators, the receptionist rushed over and dropped her voice:

"Director Vance, there's a man outside claiming to be your ex-husband. He's making a massive scene."

My steps halted.

Of course he hadn't left.

I took the side corridor. From a distance, I saw him being blocked at the bottom of the entrance steps by two security guards.

"I want to see your CEO!"

A guard raised an arm to bar him. "Sir, no visitors without an appointment."

"Tell your CEO that Chloe Vance is abusing her power for personal revenge!"

His voice was shrill and strained, drawing stares from people in the lobby.

I stood at the top of the steps, motionless.

Arthur, our CEO, happened to be coming down from the second floor.

A man in his early sixties with graying hair and sharp, discerning eyes.

"What's going on here?"

The moment Austin saw him, he lunged forward like a drowning man grasping at a lifeline, violently wrenching himself free from the guard's grip.

"Mr. Harrison! I'm from Apex Solutions! Our proposal was clearly superior to the competition's. Why were we disqualified?"

"It's because your project director, Chloe, is my ex-wife! She's sabotaging us on purpose out of spite!"