Chapter 2

I pulled myself up by the railing and caught them in the parking area.

"Daniel, we're settling this today." I stood in front of the car, my body shaking from blood loss. "Shoreline Design Lab has been running for five years. I slept in a basement with you, sold the house my mother left me, stayed up all night reworking your proposals. What exactly are you planning to do about our marriage?"

Claire lifted her head from Daniel's arms, her eyes filled with undisguised contempt.

"Pulling all-nighters with him makes you the company hero?"

She pulled a document from her bag and flung it at my face. The edge of the paper sliced my cheek, and a thin bead of blood appeared instantly.

"Read it carefully. The Winston Investment Group, which is preparing to acquire Shoreline Design Lab, is chaired by my father. I'm not some intern who got in through connections. I just wanted to see for myself what a design firm valued at less than twenty million dollars could possibly be worth acquiring.

"Daniel chose me not just because of his feelings. It was the smartest business decision he could make. You can draft and you can pull all-nighters, but what can you actually bring him?"

I stared at the letter of intent, complete with board seats and controlling stake requirements, my hands and feet turning to ice.

Claire was the junior I had personally mentored. The first time she put together a presentation deck, she couldn't even tell her materials specs apart. I walked her through modeling step by step, took her along on supplier visits, even shielded her from clients' complaints.

She had never been there to learn.

Every deliberate mistake, every time she played dumb about technical terms in a meeting, she was testing how much proprietary information I would hand over. She bought me coffee and asked how Daniel and I had met, whether we had a prenup, whether my father's medical bills were covered by the company. I took those questions for a young woman's curiosity. Only now could I see them for what they were: a due diligence review of everything I had, from my company to my husband.

She had been appraising my firm and shopping for my husband.

I turned to Daniel. "You knew who she was all along. So your so-called factory tours were really just trips with her?"

Daniel didn't deny it. He looked almost relieved, like someone finally setting down a heavy mask, and let out a long breath.

"Yes, I knew. Irene, let's be realistic. You stay up every night drafting, running yourself ragged. Tense, oversensitive, no fun to be around. Besides generating a few extra proposals for the company, what does any of that solve?

"One word from Claire, and the Winston Group would invest thirty million dollars. She could open global procurement channels in hospitality and healthcare for us. Any responsible founder would know which way to go."

I looked at this man I had spent eight years with and suddenly found his face terrifyingly unfamiliar.

When Daniel's first startup failed and his credit was ruined, I juggled three freelance design jobs at once to pay off his debts. To land our first hospital client, I revised sample room designs seventeen times for the procurement team, until a stomach hemorrhage sent me to the ER.

I thought that was what building something together meant.

In his eyes, it was nothing more than pointless drudgery by someone who had no capital to offer.

Daniel stepped forward and tried to wipe the blood from my cheek. I turned my head away. His hand hung in midair.

"As long as you don't make a scene, the Chief Design Officer title stays yours. After the acquisition closes, you'll get a solid retention bonus. The company will also keep paying for your father's dialysis and long-term care."

He paused, as if granting me a favor. "As for Claire and me, think of it as part of maintaining the investor relationship. We can still have a respectable marriage."

Claire laughed out loud. "Daniel, you don't need to explain all this to her. If it weren't for the core patents she holds that would affect the technical audit, I wouldn't have agreed to let her stay in the company at all.

"Irene, take the money, shut up, and do your job. That's the least damaging option you've got."

I looked at the two of them, my stomach churning.

The parking area PA kept reminding drivers not to idle. Daniel stood beside Claire's rented sports car, looking young and carefree, as though all he had to do was cut the woman who had witnessed his failures out of the frame and he could reinvent himself as a founder who had never needed his wife.

This time, I didn't ask Daniel whether he loved me.

I got into a cab.

He didn't follow.

The next day was Shoreline Design Lab's annual product launch.

The product being unveiled, an adjustable rehabilitation furniture system, was the project I had spent three solid months on, postponing prenatal exams to finish. It was also the core reason the Winston Group was willing to acquire the company.

I walked into the venue with my hand pressed to my still-aching abdomen.

On the giant screen in the center of the hall, the creative team credits scrolled.

In the most prominent position, it read:

Lead Designer: Claire Winston.