Chapter 2

Nicole wiped her tears and jumped in.

"Sophie, our hard days are almost over. Let's start fresh together, okay?"

"Derek really does love you..." She twisted the hem of her top. "If it bothers you that much, I... I'll be the one to leave!"

"No."

Derek immediately pushed back, reaching for her hand before catching himself.

"You've poured everything into this company. Where else are you going to find an opportunity like this on your own?"

He couldn't bear to see her upset.

And she, apparently, couldn't bear to make things difficult for him.

I couldn't stomach their lovesick little performance. My stomach turned.

I looked up and took back the pen.

"Enough. Stop the act."

"If either of you actually cared about what we had, you wouldn't have done something this disgusting!"

"Do you really want me to stay? Or do you just want to keep your lead researcher on staff?"

I wrote a number one on the page.

"I said I want a divorce, and I mean it."

Derek gritted his teeth and sat down across from me.

"Sophie Archer, you really are heartless!"

"Fine! You want a divorce? You've got it."

It was almost funny when I thought about it.

The first time we met was in a chemistry lab. We'd argued until we were red in the face because my lab partner had added one drop too much hydrogen peroxide.

Derek chased me down after class to get my number.

He said, "Sophie, I love how fiercely serious you are!"

Now he'd slept with someone else during our marriage.

He said, "Sophie Archer, you really are heartless!"

Next to the number one, I wrote: HOUSE.

"Last year we put a $30,000 down payment on the place at Harmony Gardens. We each paid half. I don't want the house. I want my $15,000 back."

Derek was too angry to argue. He transferred the money without a word.

"You really mean to split everything down the middle."

I scoffed.

"We're getting divorced. Of course we're dividing everything."

He snatched the pen and paper and wrote: 2. CAR.

"You don't drive. The car goes to me."

I nodded.

"Fine. Transfer the money."

"The car is marital property too."

Derek's jaw clenched. He sent me $10,000.

A cheap used car. Even that had cost us more than we could easily afford.

"Should we split every dollar we spent during the marriage too?"

Derek asked with a humorless half smile.

"Obviously." I pulled out my bank card and opened our compiled dining expenses: $6,137.27.

"Send me half."

I kept track of every penny, down to the last cent.

Up until that night, Derek and I had still been devoted husband and wife, sharing everything.

He handled the business expenses for the company. I covered our daily living costs.

Now, I wouldn't let him shortchange me by a single dollar.

"I never realized you've always thought of me as a stranger."

Derek transferred the money, seething.

"What about the company? Are you going to split that too? You didn't invest a cent."

He was right.

The house and car had already drained our entire savings.

The startup capital came from the extra income he'd scraped together on the side.

"I'm not splitting the company," I said. "And I'm not paying back any of the loan. Whether the company sinks or swims has nothing to do with me anymore."

"But I'm taking my research with me."

Derek slammed his palm on the table.

"Sophie Archer, are you trying to destroy me?"

"I made one little mistake, and for that you want to tear down my company and everything I've worked for?!"

In college, I had been the top student in our program, with a gift for research.

Of the six formulations we'd developed together, I was the lead researcher on four. They were modest products that earned small returns, but they were the credentials that qualified us to start a company in the first place.

Without those four, his revenue would instantly drop by more than half. And on top of that, what I was taking with me included the drug sitting in the lab, the one I'd spent three solid years developing and hadn't yet submitted for testing.

I looked at him steadily. "You can keep running your company. But my work is mine, and I'm taking it."

Nicole, who'd been crying quietly in the corner, finally broke her silence.