Chapter 2

For three years, I had been invisible in that building, stuck in a corner at every holiday party and seated in the back row at every company event, and Julian never once introduced me as his wife in public.

Sophie was the one standing beside him, smiling for everyone.

The spot beside him was never mine, so I quit trying to claim it.

At 2 o'clock, I walked into Shawn's firm, and he slid an americano across the table to me.

"All right," Shawn said. "Tell me what happened."

"Three years married, and I never touched a dollar of what's in Julian's name. I only want back what's mine," I said.

Shawn flipped open a legal pad. "What did you own before the wedding?"

"My father gave me the Riverside East house as a wedding gift, and the deed is in my name. I also have savings that stayed in my own account and never moved."

"And the marital assets?"

"I don't want them."

Shawn's pen stopped, and he looked up at me. "You sure? Julian's shares in Eastgate alone are worth one billion dollars. As his legal wife, you'd be entitled to..."

"I said I don't want them."

He leaned back in his chair. "Fine. Then what do you want?"

"I want out clean. Not a dollar more than mine, not a dollar less. Give me back what belongs to me, and I won't touch anything that doesn't."

"You want to leave the Eastgates with nothing to say."

"I want the whole world to see that Lauren Winters walks away from Julian without missing a thing."

Shawn watched me for a few seconds. "There's one thing I have to bring up."

"Go ahead."

"You signed a prenup when you got married."

"I know. If I'm the one who files, I walk away with nothing."

"Right. And you're the one filing, so..."

"It doesn't matter." I took a sip of the americano. "Walking away with nothing still means walking away with what's mine. Nothing the Eastgates built was ever mine anyway."

Shawn closed the legal pad. "You're not the same, Lauren."

"I finally woke up."

The door opened and Shawn's assistant leaned in with an odd look on her face.

"Mr. Rivers, someone's here to see Mrs. Eastgate. She says she's...the general counsel at Eastgate Realty."

Shawn and I looked at each other. "That was fast," I said.

Heels came down the hallway, and a woman in a black skirt suit walked in with a professional smile and eyes that took inventory of everything.

"Mrs. Eastgate, I'm Christine Woods, general counsel at Eastgate. Julian asked me to pass along a few things."

"Go ahead," I said.

She opened the folder in her hands. "First, Julian says this morning was a misunderstanding. Second, he'd like you to post a clarification in the chat. Third..."

She pushed a document across the table. "This is the settlement he's put together."

I glanced down at it. The terms were simple: I would delete the message, apologize publicly, and keep the marriage as it was, and in return Julian would hand me a card with 150 thousand dollars a month on it.

I laughed, and it wasn't a bitter laugh, because the whole thing struck me as honestly funny.

"Take this back to Julian," I said.

Christine watched me.

"First, there was no misunderstanding," I said. "He stayed out all night five times, and that's a fact. Second, I won't delete the message and I won't apologize. Third..."

I pushed the settlement back across the table. "150 thousand dollars a month to buy my silence? He used to spend more than that on Sophie's birthday."

Christine's face finally changed.

"Mrs. Eastgate, you should think this through..."

"I've thought it through completely," I said.

I stood up. "Tell Julian I don't want a settlement, I don't want compensation, and I don't want a dollar of his money. I want the divorce.

"And the sooner it happens, the better."