Chapter 2

As Silas drove away, his glaring headlights swept across the room.

I walked barefoot to the floor-to-ceiling window and saw my reflection in the glass.

My eyes were red, my long hair disheveled, and the marks he'd just left still marred my neck.

I'd loved Silas in secret for three years before he married me under pressure from his family.

Before the wedding, he set three rules.

First, we couldn't go public, and I had to keep my distance from him at the company.

When the company was first getting off the ground, Silas and I worked past midnight every day.

He stroked my face tenderly. "Vivian, I can't bear to see you work so hard.

"Would you support me from behind the scenes instead?"

He brushed his lips against the corner of my mouth, his voice coaxing. "I want to come home every day, see you waiting for me, and pull you into my arms."

Seeing how tired he was, I gave in.

I willingly stepped down from my executive position and became a full-time wife, taking care of him and our home.

After the company went public, I suggested announcing our marriage, but he refused, claiming the company wasn't stable enough.

Every time, he told me to wait a little longer. That wait lasted ten years.

For ten years, I sat in a corner at the annual gala and skipped every company gathering.

Everyone knew Silas had a wife who kept out of the spotlight, but no one had ever seen her face.

That changed last month, when I went to his office to deliver some documents he'd left at home.

When I opened his office door, Elowen was sitting on his lap, drinking coffee from his cup.

Silas was a germaphobe, yet he gazed at her indulgently.

The moment he saw me, his face hardened. "Miss, please knock first."

I stood there, waiting for an explanation.

But Silas merely took the documents and shoved me back into the hallway.

Second, the company's interests would always come first. He would never prioritize my feelings.

Silas said decisions had to be made rationally.

So he ignored all my calls and texts while he was working.

But last year, when I called him with a fever of 104 degrees, he was in a board meeting.

I passed out in the bedroom, delirious with fever.

I barely managed to get up and check my phone, only to see a photo of Elowen holding a cake.

Apparently, she'd missed dinner while working late that night.

Silas had driven halfway across the city just to buy her favorite cake.

When I confronted him with the photo, he sighed helplessly and pulled me into his arms.

"Vivian, do you still have a fever?"

Silas's lips brushed my ear, his breath hot. "Why are you losing your temper over a girl?

"You know how busy the company is. Elowen has helped me a great deal. I can't simply ignore her."

But which one should matter more, his wife or his employee?

Swallowing my hurt, I offered to help at the company again.

Silas's expression changed instantly. Frowning at me, he said, "Vivian, why are you becoming so unreasonable?

"Isn't buying purses and charging them to my card enough for you? You haven't worked in ten years. What could you possibly do at the company?"

I wanted to tell him that I'd been working all ten years and knew every bit as much as Elowen did.

But he said, "Vivian, knowing you're waiting for me at home gives me peace of mind."

Third, he drew a strict line between his life and mine.

For ten years, his computer was password-protected, his study stayed locked, and he never told me the details of his business trips.

I told myself this was how mature couples lived, giving each other space.

But three months after Elowen was hired, she could go through his phone whenever she wanted, answer his messages, and unlock the safe in his study with her fingerprint.

I used to fool myself into believing those boundaries proved he was committed to our marriage.

Only now did I understand that all those rules had applied to me alone.

I dried my eyes and looked at the faded snow globe on the bedside table.

It was Silas's wedding gift to me.

A cheap trinket from a roadside shop, yet I'd treasured it for ten years.

Before Elowen came along, he had always come home early on our anniversary.

No matter how busy the company became, he never once forgot.

Last year, he held me as we danced in the living room. There was no music, so he hummed the old song that had played at the restaurant on our first date.

He said, "Vivian, after all these years, I still think marrying you was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me."

Back then, I never imagined that one year later, Silas would look at me with disgust.

I closed my eyes, picked up the snow globe from the bedside table, and traced the tiny words engraved on its base.

"Vivian, my one true love."

Without hesitation, I turned my palm over. The snow globe landed in the trash with a thud.