Chapter 2

My attorney found me in the service corridor with anniversary cake crushed beneath my heel.

My attorney still wore the black suit she had chosen for the acquisition announcement. Her phone vibrated continuously in her hand.

"The video is already online," my attorney said. "Three employees sent it to me before I reached the kitchen."

"Did they record the drawing?"

"They recorded everything."

Beyond the ballroom doors, the band had stopped playing. Two hundred guests were deciding which part of my life they had just witnessed.

My phone rang again.

My husband.

I declined the call.

"Can Grant close the sale without me?" I asked.

My attorney studied my face. She had protected my founder shares when Grant became Aster & Row's chief financial officer.

"Not by himself," she said. "But the board can suspend you if they believe your reaction threatens the acquisition."

"My reaction."

The words tasted bitter.

My husband could stand beside another family on our anniversary, yet I was the unstable variable.

The ballroom door opened.

Grant entered first. My best friend followed him, holding Milo's blue box against her stomach.

My husband placed the abandoned microphone on a linen cart.

"You walked out before the announcement," Grant said angrily. "Do you understand what that could cost us?"

Seven years of marriage had just split open in front of me.

He was counting money.

"Where is Milo?" I asked my best friend.

"With my sister," Elise replied. "Away from the cameras."

"You brought him to an investor gala."

"I didn't tell him to go onstage."

"But you told him Grant was his father."

My best friend's grip tightened around the box.

My husband stepped between us.

"This isn't the place for that conversation."

"You had another place prepared?"

Grant glanced at my attorney.

"This is a family matter."

My attorney remained beside me.

"Nora asked me to stay," my attorney said.

My husband's expression hardened.

"We were going to explain everything after the acquisition agreement was approved."

Not I was going to tell you.

We were going to explain.

Grant and Elise had already discussed how my marriage would end. They had chosen the time but forgotten to give me a vote.

I remembered my husband kissing my forehead that morning and asking whether I was ready to become eighty-five million dollars richer.

Now the question sounded different.

"How long?" I asked.

Neither my husband nor my best friend answered.

Grant moved closer.

"Go upstairs and wash your face," he ordered. "We can repair this if you return before the investors leave."

For seven years, I had mistaken his instructions for protection.

I finally heard the difference.

My attorney's phone rang. She stepped away to answer it, then returned with her mouth set in a hard line.

"The independent directors have entered an emergency session," she said.

"To suspend Grant?"

My attorney looked at me.

"No. They're meeting to suspend you."