Chapter 2

### Chapter 2

It had happened a few years ago.

That night I'd been in meetings with a client until well past midnight. Stepping out of the elevator, still riding the high of a billion-dollar contract I'd just signed, I lost focus and rolled my ankle.

I called Julian to come get me. He said he was still working late.

The club was out in the middle of nowhere and impossible to get a cab from, so I called my uncle, who happened to be closing a deal nearby.

He rushed over to pick me up. And the moment he helped me into the car was the moment someone caught on camera.

No wonder. The next day was our second wedding anniversary, and the resort we'd booked suddenly claimed it had no rooms.

That was also the day Julian abruptly decided to take Anna Henson on an out-of-town business trip. He was gone a whole week.

Back then I never once doubted him. Looking back now, all that's left is bitterness and the joke I made of myself.

Five years ago my mother died, and I came back from abroad to settle in New York.

The plane hit heavy turbulence and shook violently. I went rigid with fear. The man in the seat beside me kept talking me through it, steady and low, until the flight smoothed out again.

I fell for that handsome man with the calm voice and the deep, searching eyes at first sight.

That man was Julian Farley.

But my father looked down on the Farleys, a family in decline.

My uncle warned me too, said Julian didn't seem like the faithful type.

And my grandfather was set on arranging a marriage for me with someone of equal standing.

But I wanted to marry for love. I didn't want to repeat my parents' tragedy, a business marriage that fell apart in three years.

So I married into the Farleys under a hidden name. Even Julian never knew who my family really was.

I thought that if I just worked hard enough, if I brought the Farleys back from the dead alongside him, I could prove to my family that I hadn't chosen wrong.

Suddenly I saw us again, hunched under the lamp late into the night over a proposal, so exhausted we'd fall asleep holding each other on the couch.

One word of approval from a client and we'd be dancing around the room with joy.

Back then he kissed my hair and told me that once the Farleys were back on their feet, he'd make me the happiest Mrs. Farley alive.

The memory of all that hardship and all that happiness pulled a laugh out of me before I could stop it.

"Lorraine Pruitt, you still have the nerve to laugh?" Julian's eyes were pure disgust.

I looked him straight in the eye and asked, slowly,

"Do you honestly believe I slept my way to a position?"

His look was contemptuous, like he was staring at a piece of garbage. "What else? Lying flat and servicing men is the only thing you're good for."

The words drove into my chest, and the pain made my breath catch for a beat.

Just then a crowd of people surged into the banquet hall, cameras and lenses in hand, and the second they saw me they swarmed in like flies to blood.

"Word is you slept with dozens of men over five years to hold on to your place as Mrs. Farley. Is it true?"

"They say all your promiscuity and miscarriages left you unable to ever conceive again. Do you think that's fair to Mr. Farley?"

"Tell us about your relationship with the man in this photo!"

I clenched my fists and forced my voice level.

"This man is my uncle."

"And I miscarried because I overworked myself, not because I sleep around!"

"Uncle?" Their laughter turned filthier, microphones shoved almost into my mouth. "You really think anyone's going to believe a lie like that?"

Anna picked up the thread right on cue. "Everyone knows Chairman Whitney doesn't even have a niece. This 'uncle' of yours, is that what you call him in bed?"

"I hear you even had old Mr. Whitney, well past eighty, eating out of your hand."

"Right, and there's no telling whose kid you miscarried."

Flashbulbs kept firing. Every side of me was full of the sneering of guests and reporters.

The cold in Julian's eyes deepened, as if even one more glance at me would dirty him.

"Lorraine Pruitt! Stop making a fool of yourself. From today on, there is no such person in the Farley family."

Looking at that frozen stare, I knew nothing more I said would matter.

He really could bend when it suited him.

Enduring all these years, waiting until I'd poured out my heart's blood dragging the Farleys back from the brink of collapse to the glory they had now.

Waiting until I'd helped him claw his way to the top through a pack of circling wolves and secure his place as head of the family.

Waiting until the timing was ripe, then tearing off the mask and driving the knife into me.

What a fine husband I had.

I grabbed the pen, signed the divorce agreement cleanly, and flung it back at him.

"Julian Farley, I'll be waiting for the day you come crying and beg me."

He laughed like he'd heard the biggest joke in the world. "Beg you? A shameless woman like you? I'd die on my knees before I ever begged you."

With that, he slid an arm around Anna's waist, and the two of them walked toward the press without an inch between them.

Only then did I see clearly that the jade necklace at Anna's throat was the heirloom that marked the Farley matriarch.

"Tomorrow, the Farley family officially returns to the four great families. Thank you all for witnessing it. This glory belongs to every one of us." In front of the cameras, Julian traded a lingering look with Anna. "Especially my housekeeper, Anna Henson. None of this would have been possible without her."

The press were broadcasting it live around the world, and in an instant the whole internet was in an uproar.