Chapter 2

I spoke those four words, crystal clear and cold as ice.

Julius's face instantly turned deathly pale.

I didn't even look at him again. I turned and walked away.

I didn't even bother to go upstairs to grab a single thing.

Everything in that house, from the priceless jewelry to the designer handbags, bore the mark of the Alvarez family. All of it was tainted with the stench of their charity.

I wanted nothing to do with any of it.

The moment I stepped out of the Alvarez estate, the afternoon sunlight washed over me, almost blinding.

I lifted my hand to shield my eyes and drew in a deep breath, tasting freedom for the first time.

Behind me was the gilded cage that had been my prison for three years.

Ahead of me, the open sky belonged to me alone.

I didn't look back. I headed straight for the taxi waiting by the curb.

The first thing I did after getting in the taxi was transfer 150 million dollars into my own account.

Staring at the bank notification on my phone, I felt nothing at the sight of all those zeros.

This was only the interest.

They owed me way more than that.

I booked a presidential suite at the best hotel downtown.

The moment I walked in, I dropped myself onto the plush bed.

I didn't cry. I didn't even feel the urge to shed a tear.

When a heart was dead, it could no longer feel pain.

I lay there quietly until the sky outside faded from bright daylight to dark, and the neon lights of the city began to flicker to life.

Then I sat up and made two calls.

The first was to my personal lawyer, Calvin Thomas.

I said, "Mr. Thomas, I need you to pull all the financial records for the Alvarez Group from the last three years. Give me the most detailed report, especially on the overseas investments."

The second was to my financial advisor, Gilbert Newman.

I said, "Gilbert, I've got 150 million dollars sitting in my account. I need the boldest investment plan you can come up with.

"The only goal is to leverage the maximum amount of capital as quickly as possible."

I hung up the phone and opened an encrypted folder in my phone's photo gallery.

Inside were dozens of explicit, damning photos.

These intimate photos showed Julius and Cassidy were in his office, in hotel rooms, and in underground parking garages.

I had found these by accident a month earlier.

At the time, I had felt my entire world collapse around me.

Now, they were nothing more than the trigger for my revenge.

I stared at Julius's phony face in those pictures, my gaze turning cold and sharp.

Julius and Lena.

Your game was over.

Now, it was my turn to set the rules.

*****

Three days after the divorce, explosive news took over the city's financial and entertainment headlines.

Julius, CEO of Alvarez Group, was about to tie the knot with Ashlyn Carson, heiress to the Carson Group, in a lavish ceremony next month.

The press release painted the union as a match made in heaven, a merging of two powerful dynasties that would build an unstoppable commercial empire.

And of course, there was no shortage of gossip about me, his ex-wife.

The press claimed, "Word is, Julius Alvarez was married before, but the couple separated amicably in recent days due to irreconcilable differences in personality and family background."

Those two words, "separated amicably," were everywhere, twisted by the media into something sharp enough to cut.

They painted me as a woman of humble birth who could never fit into high society and had ultimately been cast aside.

Social media erupted with comments from socialites and influencers, all piling on.

Someone posted: [See? Cinderella stories are just a myth. In the end, you have to stick to your own kind.]

Another posted: [Ashlyn is a real heiress. She and Julius actually look like they belong together.]

A third echoed: [Heard Julius's ex-wife only made it in because of her looks. Now she's back to square one.]

My best friend, Amy Mills, called me, her voice trembling with rage.

She said, "Gwen, these people are awful. And Julius, how dare he? Announcing his wedding right after the divorce. What does he think you are?"

I was lounging by the pool at my private villa on Parador Island, soaking up the sun and the sea breeze.

The anger and chaos on the other end of the line felt like it belonged to another world entirely.

I kept my voice steady as I reassured her. "Don't waste your anger on stuff like this. It's not worth it."

"But I just can't let this go," Amy snapped.

"Don't worry about it," I said, taking a slow sip of my ice-cold lemonade, my voice frosty. "I'll make them choke on every single word they've said."

I hung up the phone and tossed it aside, ignoring the endless tags and direct messages popping up on the screen.

None of those rumors even fazed me.

The only thing I cared about right then was the email that had come through from Calvin.

It contained the full financial reports for the Alvarez Group over the last three years, hundreds of pages long.

I slipped on my sunglasses and flipped through the pages carefully.

The sun was blazing, but my heart was trapped in icy darkness.

Memories came crashing in like a tidal wave, unstoppable.