Semua Bab The merger contract ( ex-wife's signature): Bab 1 - Bab 10

CHAPTER TWOSIX YEARS AND A LIFETIME LATERAurora POvZenya hit the floor before I could finish the sentence."slippery." I said the last word to nobody. She was already down, sitting flat on the kitchen tiles with her legs spread wide and both palms pressed to the floor like she was checking whether it was still there, and then she looked up at me with an expression that was equal parts surprise and satisfaction, as though falling had been the plan all along."I'm okay," she announced."I know you're okay.""You looked worried.""I looked like your mother." I crossed the kitchen and crouched in front of her, brushing her dark hair back from her face to check for damage she absolutely did not have. "Which means I'm allowed to look however I want."She considered this with the particular seriousness she applied to everything, arguments, breakfast choices, which book came next, the precise arrangement of stuffed animals on her bed. Henry's brow. My stubbornness. A combination that had b

CHAPTER FOUR THE ARRIVALAurora POVThe flight landed at 9:50.The ceremony was scheduled for 10:30. The drive from the airport to the venue was forty minutes. I knew this because Joel had sent me the logistics breakdown three days ago, color-coded, with contingency notes in the margins. He was an excellent PA. He understood, without being told, that I did not like surprises.I also knew, without checking, that Henry would be standing outside waiting.Let him wait.We came off the plane the way we always did, Joel moving ahead to coordinate, my security detail forming up around us, Zenya's hand in mine and her white bunny tucked under her other arm. She had named the bunny Gerald. I had not asked why. There were things about Zenya I had learned to accept without explanation.The New Jersey air was different from Los Angeles. Sharper. It carried something that had nothing to do with the weather a weight, a familiarity I hadn't expected to feel so immediately. Six years was a long time

CHAPTER SIXTHE STRINGRinnah | POVAurora Albertsons. CEO of the company my husband had been chasing for two years.I stood at the doorway of the grand hall with my clutch tucked under my arm and let that sit for a moment. Then I laughed—short, quiet, just for me and walked in.The hall was full. Beautifully arranged, I had to give Henry that. White linens, tall centerpieces, the kind of lighting that made everyone look better than they were. Business contacts, press, board members, the mayor's aide in the third row looked important. Henry had pulled everything together for this. Months of planning, weeks of anxiety, every dinner conversation circling back to AME, the merger, and what it would mean for the company.For us.I found him at the front of the room, mic in hand, working the crowd the way he did best. Smiling, composed, the version of Henry Nicolas the world got to see.I found her two seconds later.She was near the lunch spread with Marchetti, a glass of water in her hand,

THE HOTELAurora | POVThe ride from the venue was silent, my thoughts pressing against the walls of it, looking for exits. I sat in the back of the SUV with my bag on my lap and my hands folded on top of the bag and my eyes on the window and I did not let myself think about Rinnah on that stage.I thought about Rinnah on that stage the entire ride.The applause. The cameras. Henry's hand in hers and his face doing that thing,that complicated, cornered thing, while the room celebrated around him. Marchetti on his feet. The mayor's aide clapping. All those people so happy about something that had absolutely nothing to do with them.I pressed my fingers flat against my bag and looked at New Jersey moving past the window and told myself it didn't matter.It didn't matter.She could be expecting triplets. She could announce it on a billboard on the highway outside my hotel window. It had nothing to do with me or the contract or why I was here or what happened tomorrow at nine o'clock in t

THE CALLThe kitchen counter was cold against my forehead. I stood there with my eyes closed and my palms flat on the marble and my breathing slow and deliberate.His car had not come back.I had washed the plate. Poured the juice down the sink. Wiped the counter twice. Done all the small mechanical things you do when you need your hands to have a purpose and your mind refuses to cooperate. And then I had pressed my forehead to the counter and stayed there because I had run out of things to wipe.My father's face came to me the way it always came, without invitation, without warning. That particular expression he wore the day I told him about Henry. He was Disappointed. "That man will not honor you," he had said. Sitting behind his desk the way he always sat, straight-backed, both hands flat on the surface, looking at me the way he looked at figures that didn't add up. "He is not built for loyalty, Rinnah. I know men. I know what that one is."I had told him he was wrong.I had not s