Chapter 2

My finger hovered over his name for a long time.

I called him anyway.

"Why did you remove me from the group chat?"

There was noise in the background — music, voices, the sound of a party still going.

"We're getting divorced. It's weird for you to still be in there."

He paused, then added:

"Besides, I'm having Cara take over the fragrance development side going forward."

Before I could say anything, other voices broke through.

"Julian, who are you on the phone with?"

"Don't leave Cara standing there alone all night."

I heard Cara's voice next, playful.

"Marcus, stop it."

Julian laughed softly.

"Be right there."

Then the call ended.

I stood there for a moment.

Julian had always kept work and home completely separate — not a single person in the office knew we were married. For ten years I was just his distant relative, or some quiet consultant nobody looked twice at.

Cara had been there six months. And everyone already acted like she'd always belonged.

I took the bowl out of the water and dropped it in the trash.

The next morning, I went straight to the office.

The employees were still glowing from the night before.

"I didn't expect Julian to be so soft when Cara's around."

"She mentioned offhand that the team was overworked — and Julian sent everyone a thousand-dollar bonus."

I stopped walking.

A hundred employees. A thousand each. One hundred thousand dollars, just like that.

Something shifted in my chest.

When the company was just starting out, I accidentally ingested a toxic compound while testing a fragrance ingredient.

In the hospital, the doctor turned to Julian.

"There's an imported treatment and a domestic one. The imported version is more effective. Which do you want?"

Julian didn't hesitate. He chose the domestic one.

At the time, I told myself it was because money was tight.

Now I understood.

He just didn't think I was worth the difference.

I walked to my office, only to find that my keycard didn't work.

Cara appeared from around the corner and let me in herself.

"This is my office now. Julian had the code changed."

She walked me in like she owned the space. Because she did now.

The layout had been redone. Minimalist, expensive. My aesthetic, but erased.

And sitting in the trash can: every certificate and trophy I'd earned over the years.

Cara followed my gaze.

"They looked dated. Julian thought they cluttered the space."

"So I tossed them. Hope that's okay."

I picked them out of the bin, wiped them down, and tucked them into my bag. Then I walked to the small back room.

Good. It hadn't been touched.

The shelf along the wall was lined with the raw materials I'd collected over the years — resins, dried botanicals, extracted oils, things I'd sourced myself from markets and forests and remote suppliers.

I reached for them.

Cara stepped in front of me.

"Some things aren't yours to take anymore."

I walked past her and packed everything into my bag.

"I collected each of these personally. None of it belongs to the company."

Cara opened her mouth to argue — then suddenly slapped herself across the face.

Julian burst through the door a second later.