Chapter 2

When I woke up, Adrian was sitting by the bed with a glass of water.

One look at the hands that had once made me feel so safe, and my stomach clenched.

"Get out."

He dropped his gaze and walked out. I grabbed the jacket he'd left behind and went after him. I didn't want to smell even a trace of him!

But then I heard Lucas's voice out in the hall.

"She was 16 weeks pregnant. She only went missing 12 weeks ago. You knew it was yours!"

"The doctors know how to count weeks. The people out there don't."

"She'll never forgive you."

"I'll make it up to her. But we couldn't keep that baby, no matter whose it was."

Then Lucas asked, "You paid over eight million for that dance and married her. Was it all for this?"

Adrian gave a short laugh. "Did you forget who called you out of the ballroom that night? Once Elena was married off, you'd be free to commit to Sophia. I didn't want people running their mouths about my sister's engagement. All they'd say is that Sophia stole Elena's man!

"The money I gave the charity? Think of it as the price of a good marriage for my sister. As for my own marriage, so what if I had to sacrifice it?"

I clamped a hand over my mouth so I wouldn't sob out loud.

Lucas had kept his paddle down on purpose, and Adrian had paid eight point seven million dollars to make me his wife.

They'd both done it for Sophia.

I braced a hand on the wall and started back, my legs threatening to give out with every step.

The hallway was only a few dozen steps long, but it took me forever.

Back in my room, I grabbed a soft pillow, pressed it hard against my face, and finally let myself cry.

But I didn't dare make much noise.

Adrian was right outside. I was afraid he'd hear me and come in to hold me again.

Now just the thought of him touching me made me sick.

The next day, I called a lawyer named Rachel to file for divorce and learned that our marriage had never been legally recognized.

He'd slipped a settlement agreement into a stack of asset paperwork and tricked me into signing it. I'd given up all my property claims.

The last clause said that once Sophia was engaged, I had 30 days to move out of the Holt house.

My fingers curled into tight fists. He'd never meant for me to stay, not even on the day he married me.

Rachel asked if I wanted to sue right away.

I looked at my own signature on the page and shook my head.

"Don't tip him off yet. Help me get my passport back. I'm leaving New York."

Rachel was quiet for a moment. "Where are you going?"

I dug up an email that Julian Bennett, an old classmate from college, had sent me two months earlier.

Dubai.

The farther from here, the better.

He'd attached a hiring plan for the Bennett Fund and more than 100 pages of acquisition files.

"Our Dubai office opens at the end of December, and I need an investment manager. This acquisition has been stuck for three months. If you can redo the proposal in three days, the job is yours. Be here by December 30, or I give the spot to someone else."

I opened my laptop and pulled up the financial models I'd used back in college. In two years of marriage, I hadn't touched any of it. I was rusty on a lot of the formulas. I worked through the files into the early hours and finally circled a guarantee in the debt schedule that had been counted twice.

I sent that page to Julian. Five minutes later, he wrote back.

"Your brain still works. Your lawyer will have the work visa invitation within the hour."

I typed back, "Save the hardest project for me."

"Deal."

December 30 was coming fast.

When I got home that evening, Sophia was in the living room trying on dresses for her engagement party.

She had on a black dress that left almost her whole back bare, yet Adrian just sat on the couch and told her, "It suits you."

He used to make me change if I so much as wore leggings. He said he didn't like other men staring at me.

The second Sophia saw me, she came right over.

"Elena, do you think Lucas will like it?"

I didn't answer.

As she reached for my hand, her elbow knocked a cup of hot tea off the table.

Scalding tea splashed across the back of my hand. The cup shattered on the floor, and a shard sliced my palm open.

Adrian didn't even hesitate. He yanked Sophia behind him.

"Did you get burned?"

Sophia shook her head, on the verge of tears. "I just wanted her opinion."

Adrian pulled her under the lamp anyway and checked both sides of her wrist twice, then sent a maid to call the family doctor.

The back of Sophia's hand was perfectly clean. There wasn't even a pink mark on it.

Blood from my palm was dripping onto the rug. Evelyn frowned and had the staff roll it up so it wouldn't upset Sophia.

I looked down, pulled the glass out of my palm, and pressed a wad of tissues to the cut.

Only then did Adrian notice my hand was covered in blood.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were willing to kill our baby."

I dropped the bloody tissues in the trash.

"It's just a cut. It's nothing."

Adrian's face went dark.

I didn't wait for him to answer. I turned and went upstairs.