Chapter 2

I didn't go back to the hotel. I went straight to the airport.

I bought the first available flight back to the city we'd shared.

The apartment was full of him.

Matching slippers by the front door. Two sets of toiletries in the bathroom. Our fifth anniversary photo still hanging on the wall.

I found a suitcase and started packing.

I didn't take anything that wasn't mine.

I barely took anything that was.

I'd just zipped it shut when I heard the lock turn.

Julian stood in the doorway, tie loose, eyes red. He looked like he'd come straight off a plane.

He'd followed me.

He saw the suitcase on the floor and crossed the room fast, grabbing my hand.

"Don't do this. Just calm down."

"I know I messed up. But I never wanted a divorce."

I looked down at his fingers on my hand.

"Let go."

He didn't. He pulled me into him instead.

"I won't."

"That kid was an accident. The night of the company party at headquarters, I blacked out. By the time I came to, it had already happened."

"When Vivienne turned up pregnant, the doctors said terminating would put her life at risk."

"What was I supposed to do? Let her die?"

He handed every piece of blame to bad luck and impossible circumstances.

I shoved him off and slapped him across the face.

The sound rang through the apartment.

Julian turned his head. One side of his face went red.

"The first one was an accident. What about the second one she's carrying now?"

"Did you black out for that one too?"

Julian said nothing.

He looked at me, and something flickered in his eyes. Annoyance.

"Did you have to say it like that?"

"I already told you — you're my wife. Most of what I have goes to you."

"Vivienne doesn't want anything. She just wants a stable home for the kids."

"Why can't you just be reasonable about this?"

His nerve almost made me laugh.

"Reasonable?"

"Julian, you make Director and suddenly you think you're entitled to two women under one roof?"

"What do you think a marriage is? What do you think I am?"

He dragged a hand through his hair.

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"Strangle a two-year-old? Push Vivienne off a roof?"

"You didn't used to be this cold."

Cold.

So in his mind, refusing to accept his mistress and her child made me the cold one.

Something inside me shut off. And stayed off.

My phone buzzed.

A message from Vivienne.

A photo. Her lying in a hospital bed, taking a selfie. The private medical wing at headquarters in the background.

The caption read: "He flew back overnight to calm you down. I'm here alone, trying not to lose the baby. I'm scared. But I don't blame you. I just want you two to be okay."

Then a second message came through.

A photo of a legal document. A share transfer agreement.

Julian had signed over thirty percent of his stake to a name I'd never seen before.

Leo Harlow.

The two-year-old's name.

I held the screen up in front of Julian's face.

"This is what you call most of it going to me?"

Julian's face changed the moment he read it.

"That was Mom. She pressured me into it. She said it was for the child's security—"

I didn't want to hear another word.

I grabbed the suitcase and walked around him toward the door.

"My lawyer will contact you tomorrow morning. If I don't hear back by nine, I file and send this document straight to your company's HR."

Julian didn't follow me out.

His phone had started ringing. Through the line came the sound of Vivienne crying.