Chapter 1: The Night Everything Shattered

Elara

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.

The bedroom door swung open before I could stop it, and the world I'd carefully held together for three years exploded into a thousand irreparable pieces.

My husband was in our bed. With my sister.

I stood frozen in the doorway, designer heels dangling from my fingers, the migraine that had sent me home early from the charity gala suddenly insignificant compared to the nausea clawing up my throat. 

They hadn't even heard me enter. Vivienne's perfectly manicured nails raked down Marcus's back while he—

"Oh God, Elara!" Vivienne shrieked, scrambling for the sheets. But she wasn't embarrassed, no, my beautiful, perfect sister was smirking. "This is awkward."

Marcus didn't even have the decency to look ashamed. He rolled off her, casually reaching for his pants like I'd interrupted a business meeting instead of my marriage. "Elara. We need to talk."

"Talk?" The word came out strangled. My chest felt like someone had reached inside and crushed my lungs. "You're in our bed. With my sister."

"Oh, please." Vivienne's laugh was crystal-sharp, the same sound that had charmed every room she'd ever entered. She'd wrapped herself in my silk sheets, the ones I'd picked out for our anniversary and somehow still looked runway-ready. 

"Don't be so dramatic. Everyone knew Marcus married you for the business merger. Did you really think he loved you?"

The words hit like physical blows. I gripped the doorframe, my soft body suddenly feeling like it weighed a thousand pounds. All those years of trying to be enough, trying to be what they wanted

"How long?" My voice cracked.

Marcus sighed, like I was inconveniencing him. "Does it matter? Elara, you're a nice girl, but let's be honest. You were never going to keep my attention. Look at you, then look at Vivienne."

I did look. At my sister's model-thin frame, her perfect face, her confidence that came from a lifetime of being our parents' favorite. Then I looked down at myself, the soft curves I'd learned to hide under expensive, modest clothes, the body I'd apologized for since I was twelve.

Something inside me cracked like ice over deep water.

"I want a divorce." The words came from somewhere primal, somewhere I didn't recognize. "Tonight."

"Finally." Vivienne stretched like a satisfied cat. "Marcus and I have been waiting for you to figure it out. Our parents already know, by the way, they're thrilled we're together. They’ve always said I should have been the one to marry into the Thornhill family."

The room tilted. “Our parents know?"

"Sweetheart," Marcus said, and the condescension in his voice made my hands shake, "your parents never wanted you to have anything. Why do you think they pushed you into this marriage so young? They needed the Thornhill alliance, but they were never going to let you benefit from it."

I stumbled backward into the hallway. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be

My phone buzzed. A text from my mother. “Come to the house tomorrow, 9 AM. Your father and I have decisions to make about your future.”

Not "are you okay." Not "we heard." Just decisions.

The crack inside me widened into a chasm.

"Sign the papers by Friday," Marcus called after me. "My lawyers already drew them up. You'll get nothing, obviously. Prenup was airtight."

I didn't remember leaving. Didn't remember driving to the club on Fifth Avenue, the one where Manhattan's elite came to pretend they were normal. I only remembered the burn of vodka and the desperate need to feel anything other than this gutting emptiness.

The club was all shadows and burgundy velvet, bass thrumming through my chest. I shouldn't have been there. Good girls didn't get drunk alone, didn't sit at bars nursing their third—fourth?—drink while their world burned.

"If you keep drinking like that, you'll regret it in the morning."

The voice came from my left, dark and smooth like expensive whiskey. I turned, and the alcohol must have been stronger than I thought because the man sliding onto the stool beside me didn't look real.

He looked carved from shadows and sin. Sharp jaw, cheekbones that could cut glass, black hair that fell carelessly across his forehead. But it was his eyes that stole my breath, silver, like moonlight on steel, with something predatory lurking beneath the surface.

Something that should have scared me.

Something that made me lean closer instead.

"Maybe I want to regret it," I heard myself say. "Maybe I'm tired of being good."

His eyes flashed with something I couldn't name. "Careful, dulceață. You don't know what you're asking for."

The endearment sounded foreign, dangerous. Perfect.

"I'm asking for one night where I'm not invisible." My voice broke on the last word. "One night where someone looks at me like I matter."

He went absolutely still. Then his hand—large, warm, possessive—cupped my jaw, turning my face toward him. "You," he said, voice dropping to a growl that vibrated through my bones, "are impossible to not see."

The club disappeared. The pain disappeared. There was only him, only the way his thumb traced my lower lip, only the hunger in his eyes that made me feel powerful for the first time in my life.

"Take me somewhere," I whispered. "Please."

His jaw clenched, some internal war playing across his features. Then he stood, threw cash on the bar, and held out his hand.

I took it and sealed both our fates.

---

I woke to sunlight stabbing through unfamiliar floor-to-ceiling windows and the worst headache of my life. The sheets were silk—expensive silk—and I was naked.

Oh God.

Memories crashed back. The stranger. His penthouse. The way he'd touched me like I was precious and breakable and his. The way I'd shattered apart in his arms over and over, three years of loneliness pouring out in desperate kisses.

The bed beside me was empty.

I scrambled up, mortification burning through my hangover. What had I done? I'd slept with a stranger, and worse—God, so much worse—I'd liked it. I'd felt things I'd never felt with Marcus, wanted things I didn't have names for.

My clothes were folded neatly on a chair. Thoughtful. Whoever he was, he'd been thoughtful even after—

No. I couldn't think about it.

I dressed with shaking hands, found my purse, and grabbed my wallet. I had to leave something, right? That's what people did in situations like this. I pulled out all the cash I had, maybe three hundred dollars and left it on the nightstand.

“Payment for services rendered”, my brain supplied hysterically. Oh God, I just paid a man for sex.

I ran.

I didn't see the silver eyes watching me from the doorway.

Didn't hear the low, possessive growl: "You're going to regret that, dulceață."

But I was already gone.

---

Three Days Later

The email came at 8:47 AM. “Congratulations! You've been selected for final interviews at Blackwood Enterprises. Report to the 60th floor, 2 PM today. The CEO will conduct the interview personally.”

I stared at my laptop screen in the coffee shop, hands trembling around my latte. Blackwood Enterprises. The most powerful corporation in North America. This was it, my chance to rebuild everything I'd lost.

I'd spent the last three days in a hotel, my parents having made it clear I was no longer welcome at the family estate. The divorce papers were signed, the disownment was public. Social media had crucified me as the "failed wife" while Vivienne and Marcus played the star-crossed lovers.

But I had my degrees. My intelligence. My determination.

I could survive this.

The Blackwood building was all glass and steel, scraping the sky like a monument to ambition. I signed in at security, my stomach churning with nerves, and took the elevator to the 60th floor.

The receptionist directed me to wait in an office that cost more than my childhood home. Wall-to-wall windows overlooked Manhattan. Modern art that probably cost millions and a desk made of black marble that reflected my nervous face.

"Miss Sterling."

The voice froze my blood.

I knew that voice. It had whispered filthy, beautiful things in my ear three nights ago. It had groaned my name like a prayer.

I turned slowly, already knowing what I'd see.

Silver eyes met mine across the office.

The stranger from the club stood in a three-piece suit that probably cost five figures, power radiating off him in waves. His jaw was clenched, those mercury eyes burning with something between fury and hunger.

"You," he said softly, dangerously. "The woman who paid me like a *whore*."

The door clicked shut behind me.

I was trapped.

With my one-night stand.

Who was apparently Kael Blackwood.

Billionaire CEO.

And my only hope at survival.

"We," he continued, moving toward me like a predator, "need to have a very long conversation about what you did to me."