Chapter 4

The charity gala was a sea of black ties and glittering gowns, the grand ballroom of the Westchester Country Club transformed into a showcase of Connecticut's elite. I stood at the edge of it all, a champagne flute clutched in my hand like a prop in a play I no longer wanted to perform. Mark was across the room, laughing too loudly with a group of investors, his hand occasionally checking his phone with practiced subtlety.

"Emily, darling, you look positively radiant tonight," Eleanor Jennings approached, her voice dripping with the same artificial sweetness she'd perfected over nine years of…