Chapter 5

Tina stepped forward. "Wait."

Jonathan, already a few steps ahead, turned back. "Changed your mind?"

"We were married for four years. You could at least do something for me."

She matched his calm tone, though it took effort. Every memory from those years pressed in, sharp and relentless.

She steadied herself. "Have Leonard perform surgery on my grandmother."

He studied her, his expression unreadable. "You're trading the divorce for that?"

"Yes. I want confirmation that Leonard agrees to the surgery, then I'll sign."

"Tina, are you counting on the fact my father won't contact Leonard? Are you trying to stall the divorce?" His gaze sharpened. "You know things have been bad between us since I married you."

"I know. That's why you should call your grandma. She dotes on you. She won't say no."

Her voice stayed clear and even, without the softness she used to slip into when she coaxed him.

Jonathan watched her for a moment, then took out his phone.

The call connected. Eileen's warm, gentle voice came through.

"Jonathan? What a surprise. Your grandpa and I are playing with Joyce. Children are adorable. When are you and Tina going to have one?"

She always circled back to that within a few sentences. They were used to it.

Before, Tina would have watched Jonathan quietly, holding onto a flicker of hope. He would have answered the same way every time: Not yet.

Now, she let the remark slide and waited for Jonathan's reply.

"We'll let it happen when it happens," he said. "I called about something else. Tina's grandma is sick. She needs surgery, but Dr. Broughton turned her down."

"I'll talk to your dad," Eileen said, her tone turning serious. "Come home for dinner tonight, both of you. And I heard something about you two getting a divorce. That's not true, is it? Not right now. Too many people are watching you. Don't stir up trouble."

Tina's heart tightened.

If Eileen found out the truth now, would she still help? What about her grandmother?

Rosalind could only have the surgery in three months.

"I understand," Jonathan said. "We're fine."

He ended the call and looked at Tina. "So my grandma knows about the divorce. I see you planned that, too."

Tina blinked and met his gaze.

He thought she had leaked the news to Eileen. It didn't seem to bother him much. Whether they divorced today or tomorrow made no real difference to him. He was willing to go through with it anytime.

Jonathan checked his watch, already glancing toward the car, eager to wrap this up. "You'll get what you want. We'll wait until the surgery's confirmed."

After a long silence, she nodded. "Okay."

He looked at her again. "Six today. Where do I pick you up?"

"Rehearsal studio." She turned and left.

But the cab she took went in the opposite direction.

She stopped at a private clinic. Inside, she handed two samples of hair with intact follicles, one from Jonathan's bedroom and one from Andy, pulled loose when he had been rolling on the floor earlier.

The Reeds were too powerful. Exposing his affair outright would be suicide.

But proof would give her leverage.

"The results will be out in five to seven business days," the doctor said.

Tina signed the paperwork and left.

She didn't know that after she walked out, the samples were never processed. The doctor studied them for a moment, then made a call.

"Ms. Ashworth just brought in two samples for DNA testing… Got it."

From there, she went to Cecelia Thompson's place. Everything she had moved out of Jonathan's apartment was stored there.

Cecelia was one of the "useless friends" Jonathan always complained about.

But they had met at a real competition.

Tina was 12 when she entered an international robotics contest under the name Johanna Trede. She took first place, while Cecelia came in second.

She had been the youngest participant and the most talented.

After the competition, a professor from a prestigious college personally invited her into a degree program.

Tina had turned it down.

Back then, she wanted distance from her family, but she wanted to stay close to Jonathan even more.

She had planned to tell him about the win first. Only him. But something happened that year that made it impossible.

Jonathan's mother had been leading a research team on a self-driving vehicle project. During a test drive, the system failed, causing the car to accelerate out of control.

She died on impact.

After that, Tina never brought up robotics around him again.

The moment she walked in, Cecelia pulled her into a hug. "Congrats! You finally got out of that marriage."

"I need to know something." Tina pulled back. "Did you talk to Professor Donovan?"

Cecelia nodded.

"He's in the country right now, working on a government project, so he can't talk about the details. But the second he heard it was you, he got excited and gave me his number."

Relief and anticipation flickered through Tina. "I'll send him my work."

Cecelia reached over and pinched her cheek. "No need. He wants to meet you for dinner. You can talk then."

Her face warmed, and her eyes stung slightly. "He's not worried I've turned into dead weight?"

"Dead weight?" Cecelia snorted and gestured around the room, packed with robots of every shape and size. "More than half of this is your work. I've checked the market. No one here is better than you."

As Tina looked at the machines, something steadied in her chest.

At least she hadn't given that up. All these years, she had used "hanging out with Cecelia" as an excuse, but she had been working, improving.

"What about the dancing?" Cecelia asked. "Are you still sticking with it? You should quit. You never should've picked something you're not good at just for a guy."

"I'll finish the last performance," Tina said, "then I'm done."

Cecelia studied her for a moment, then smiled. "You're really letting him go."

All these years, Tina's tears and her smiles had all been because of him. Maybe it was finally time to do something for herself.

Tina's throat tightened.

When she was younger, she had carved words into the magnolia tree in the yard.

[I'll love Jonathan until I'm 100.]

She was 24 now. She didn't plan to love him anymore.

That was 76 years saved.

After setting a time to meet Edward Donovan, Tina fixed her makeup and headed to the cultural arts center to rehearse.

As the lead dancer, she needed extra practice, so she found a smaller studio.

She was about to push the door open when she heard the artistic director's voice from inside.

"After this show, drop Tina."

The choreographer sounded surprised. "What? Why?"

"Sadie's back. The original's here. Why keep a stand-in?" Quentin Gray let out a short laugh. "I've already had someone reach out to her."

"But… Didn't she get into a car accident? How is she supposed to dance with one leg?"

"That's not the point. If she says no, that's one thing. But the dance company's funded by Mr. Reed. He can back whoever he wants."

Tina turned and walked back to the main studio.

The space was loud, full of movement, dancers practicing in every corner. She moved through it as if none of it touched her and stopped in a corner to stretch.

Sadie could dance.

Jonathan had told her she was suited for it because Sadie could dance.

He had invested in the company. Tina had thought it was for her, and she had been happy. He rarely did things like that for her.

All these years, she had trained from morning to night, sweating through every session, enduring stretches until tears came.

She had never thought about quitting, because he had said she was suited for it.

And now, even that wasn't real.

The word "divorce" echoed in Tina's head. Soon, she found herself thinking about joining Edward's team.