Chapter 2

It was the very first time I had ever uttered the word "divorce." Historically, Julian was always the one dangling it over my head as a threat.

The finality in my voice sobered Julian up instantly. He glanced around the room, finally noticing the glaring empty spaces where my things used to be.

Realizing I wasn't bluffing, he scrambled to block the doorway.

"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded. "I'm exhausted today. Can you please just drop this? Fine, worst comes to worst, I'll keep my distance from Kate from now on."

I had heard that exact empty promise a million times, yet he had never once followed through.

I sidestepped him, reaching for the doorknob, but right on cue, his cell phone buzzed.

He pulled it out, glancing at the caller ID, and a flash of guilt washed over his face as he instinctively tried to hide the screen.

Who else could it possibly be? It was Kate.

Julian offered a tight, awkward laugh. "She's calling this late. It might actually be an emergency. I should probably take this, just in case something went wrong at the firm."

Under my piercing gaze, he answered the call, specifically putting it on speakerphone just to prove his so-called innocence.

The second the line connected, Kate's whiny, tearful voice echoed through the hallway, giving me full-body goosebumps.

"Mr. Thompson," she whimpered. "The elevator in my apartment building is broken, and I'm all alone down here. I'm so scared."

I rolled my eyes so hard. What kind of professional executive assistant calls her billionaire boss in the dead of night over a broken elevator? Her true motives couldn't have been more painfully obvious.

"Are you completely alone? Then I..." Julian's face was a portrait of pure concern. It was a look of deep, agonizing worry that he hadn't directed at me in years.

He caught my icy glare and abruptly realized his slip-up.

"Why don't you call building security? I... I have some pressing matters to handle here right now," he stammered.

Evidently shocked by this rare rejection, Kate sobbed even harder, dialing up the pity act.

"Mr. Thompson, I'm just a small, defenseless girl living alone. How can I trust some random security guard to walk me up in the dark?

"Is... is your wife forcing you to stay with her? It's fine. I'll just sit out here in the cold lobby all night by myself. It's almost dawn anyway."

Every single word she spoke was a precision missile straight to Julian's heart. Whenever Kate played the fragile victim card, his resolve completely shattered.

"I'll be right there," he blurted out.

He ended the call and casually shoved my suitcase out of his way.

He said, "You heard her, Samantha. It's incredibly dangerous for a young girl to be out there alone. Regardless of anything else, she is my employee. It's my duty to go check on her."

Before I could even form a syllable of protest, he had already pinged his driver and rushed out the door.

Left standing alone in the foyer, I let out a bitter, hollow laugh.

This was the marriage I had desperately tried to hold together for four years.

The only reason his company had even reached its current level of success was because my parents had relentlessly pumped their own money and connections into his startup.

The sheer injustice of it all finally broke the dam, and tears streamed down my face. I clenched my fists tightly, grabbed my bags, and slammed the front door behind me.

They always say a married woman runs straight to her parents the second she gets her heart broken.

But it was the middle of the night, so instead, I drove to a cozy little condo I had bought with my own hard-earned money before we ever tied the knot.

Stepping into the pitch-black apartment, I noticed a thick layer of dust coating the furniture from months of vacancy. In that quiet, empty space, a suffocating wave of loneliness washed over me from every corner of the room.

Unable to suppress the agony any longer, I sank to the floor and sobbed until my throat was raw.

But life waits for no one.

Once I literally didn't have the energy to cry anymore, I hauled myself up and started deep-cleaning the apartment. Who needed sleep anyway? I scrubbed the floors and washed away the dirt, preparing my space to welcome a brand-new chapter of my life.