Chapter 2

For one suspended second, even the photographers stopped moving.

Nolan recovered first. His smile returned with the precision of a mask. “An early promotional label. Mara helped us when Velaire was small.”

Helped. I waited for him to correct himself. He had once promised that when the company was strong enough, he would tell everyone *After Rain* began behind my mother’s flower shop, with my name on masking tape across the first bottle.

Celeste touched Alexander’s sleeve. “I rebuilt the fragrance for the modern market.”

He stepped beyond her hand. “I asked who corrected tonight’s batch.”

Nolan guided me through the ballroom doors before I could answer. The service corridor was colder, its fluorescent light flattening the anger in his face.

“Don’t use Laurent to embarrass me,” he said. “You disappeared for eighteen months, then returned on our most important night and started claiming credit.”

“I was caring for my mother. You asked me to fix the batch because Celeste couldn’t.”

“Mara has confused one emergency with running a company,” Nolan told Alexander, who had followed us into the corridor. “Grief has made this difficult for her.”

Alexander did not move closer. He simply held Nolan’s gaze.

“She just saved your product,” he said. “You may explain your decisions, but you cannot deny what I watched her do.”

The corridor went still except for the muffled music behind the doors. Alexander’s restraint unsettled Nolan more than shouting would have. He handed me a plain card bearing only his name and number.

“If you wish to discuss what I remember, call me.”

At home, midnight rain silvered the windows. Nolan loosened his tie while I stood at the kitchen island, still wearing the black dress I had bought for Mom’s funeral. The apartment looked unchanged, but Celeste’s powdery jasmine clung to his jacket when he dropped it beside me.

He placed a blue folder on the marble. *MIDNIGHT ORCHARD* was stamped across the cover.

“Finish the base by Monday,” he said. “Celeste will present it. Once this expansion settles, we’ll announce a consulting title for you.”

I opened the folder. My unfinished trials had been relabeled in Celeste’s handwriting.

“You gave her *After Rain*. Now you want me to create her next success.”

“I’m protecting what we built. You chose to leave.”

The old guilt rose automatically. Mom had needed help bathing, eating, breathing through the worst nights. Every hour with her had been necessary, yet Nolan had trained me to calculate those hours as debts owed to him.

“I chose my dying mother,” I said. “I never chose to erase myself.”

His mouth hardened. “Don’t make a permanent decision because Laurent noticed you for five minutes.”

That was when I understood he believed my talent, my grief, and even my courage required a man’s permission to become real.

I closed the folder and pushed it back. Then I pulled off my wedding ring. The pale band beneath it looked like the only honest mark our marriage had left.

“If Celeste is your master perfumer, let her finish the next one herself.”

I set the ring on the blue cover.

“As for us, Nolan—I want a divorce.”