Chapter 2

### Chapter 2

"But he won't agree to a divorce. With the Farley family's power, there's no way you can get away, is there?"

My friend was worried, and she pushed me on it.

I'd already thought that far ahead. My voice stayed calm. "Five days from now, I'll leave in a way he'll never forget. For good."

At home I ran a hot shower, and my frozen body finally thawed out.

I'd barely stepped out of the bathroom when the trending topics online blew up.

Elliot Farley had hired the top legal team in the country to strip Vivien Galloway's ex-husband of everything he had.

And the smear stories that ex-husband had planted against her, before I could even tap them open, they vanished. Wiped clean in a second.

All of it was his doing.

He'd spared nothing to keep Vivien Galloway safe.

But back when I closed a multibillion-dollar deal for him, when some old man made it clear he wanted me to "spend the night," Elliot had been sitting right there, watching it happen without lifting a finger.

I handled it myself, and what I got in return wasn't sympathy. It was a line:

"You eat and drink well living at my side. I've been good enough to you. If you can't even handle something this small, then don't call yourself one of my people."

Right. I was never the person he held close to his heart. How could I dare hope he'd cradle me carefully in his palm the way he did her?

I laughed at myself, and started packing the things that mattered most.

When I first married in, I'd meant to guard this heart for the rest of my life, so I'd brought everything connected to Zachary Hughes with me.

After I packed those things and shipped them off to Los Angeles, I dragged my heavy, burning body into bed and collapsed.

In the middle of the night, someone seemed to slip a pill between my lips and feed me water, then pulled me into his arms.

I opened my eyes in a daze, and when I saw that face clearly, I pushed him away on instinct.

Elliot Farley, rejected for the first time, went still. "Didn't you say you couldn't sleep without listening to my heartbeat?"

After we married, every night I leaned against his chest with my ear pressed to his heart.

He'd asked why.

I said I liked hearing his heartbeat. He didn't understand, but he let me.

That habit lasted three years.

But now, I shook my head. "I don't need to anymore."

He sat up, displeased, his brows knitting tighter. "Still angry that I left you behind? You should understand. When Vivien is being bullied, I can't just stand by."

I only said quietly, "I understand. Anything else? If not, I'm going to sleep."

I'd spent so long meek and submissive at his side that this coldness was something he wasn't used to.

Elliot Farley was about to ask what was wrong with me when a figure slipped in at the door.

"Hi, Serena. Elliot and I are good friends. Sorry to intrude."

It was Vivien Galloway. She walked in smiling, her hand settling on Elliot Farley's shoulder. She called herself a friend, but it looked more like she was staking a claim.

My gaze went cold.

I was leaving, yes, but the provocation still grated.

Before I could say a word, Vivien Galloway's eyes had already reddened. She looked at Elliot Farley, all wounded. "Since Serena hates me, I'd better go. I don't want to stay here and get looked down on!"

And with that she turned and rushed out.

"Vivien has no one and nowhere to go. I'm the one who told her to move in. What's your problem?" Elliot Farley shot me a cold look and went after her.

Soon Vivien Galloway's sobbing drifted in from the hallway, along with his low reassurance. "I'm here. I'd like to see who dares chase you out."

Absurd.

I hadn't gotten out half a word, and he'd already decided it was my fault.

Whatever filter that heart had cast over him, it shattered completely then.

Early the next morning, I packed up every gift Elliot Farley had ever given me and donated them all to the children in the slums.

I was busy until the afternoon, and when I got home, I punched in the front-door code a few times, and every time it came up wrong.

The door suddenly opened from inside. Elliot Farley leaned against the frame. "Vivien has a bad memory. I changed the code to her birthday."

He watched me as he said it, as if waiting for me to blow up.

"Oh." I answered flatly. "Got it."

He pressed his thin lips into a line, that puzzled look on his face like he wanted to ask whether I really wasn't angry, but I walked past him into the house as if I hadn't noticed.

I had no interest in becoming part of his game to spoil her.

I climbed the stairs, and the sight in front of me froze me in place.

All my things had been thrown out into the hallway. Even my mother's memorial photo had been dropped on the floor, glass shattered everywhere.

My eyes went red in an instant. I spun around and shouted, "Why would you touch my mother's memorial photo?"