/1/117686/coverbig.jpg?v=2b8daa54942578a907ebb905abf607f7&imageMogr2/format/webp)
ed to
moment she walked through the door, b
d been sleeping with behind her back for six months. Clo
sat on the white leather sofa, his tie hanging loose around his neck. A half-fin
to an ashtray already overflo
greeting. It
oarse, scraped raw by seventeen hours of recycl
e table. "Isabelle. Don't drag this
g day photo was gone. In its place was a picture of Darius with another woman-Daphne Mull
t catch. There was only the low, steady hum of the penthouse's ventilation system-a sound she'd neve
f playing a part, and this
n front of a mirror while she was still at thirty thousand feet. "This marria
s perfectly styled hair. "My family agrees.
e thick document. Her fingers, steady and cool, flipped through the pages. Her eyes swept ove
missal of three years of marri
scene. But the silence was spreading, sucking the air out o
ven listen
ing. She was a
d never set foot in. One million dollars. In exchange, s
tugged at the corne
g more than a helpless housewife. What he didn't know was that the money she had used to secretly save his com
the cover snapping shut echoed through th
to the
had prepared for a siege, and she had thrown ope
ening back into the smug mask she knew so well. He
atility-you'll continue working at Lloyd Group for another year after the divorce is finalized." His tone carried the
A competent, grateful employee he wa
d have been laughable
time. Her eyes met his-flat and cold.
t that comes right before the blade of a guillotine d
papers back toward him.
straight, forged steel, utterly unyi
gh for a woman like you?" Greed. That was all he saw. A girl wh
lights of Manhattan glittered below, reflected in her dark eyes. A kin
, devastating authority that cut through the vast room. "What I
the room
ace. "What? You're insane. What s
didn't need her to defend it. Th
n he had been married to for three years, and a sicken
e he didn'
really know
icked up her suitcase. "My lawye
ad placed there three years ago, back when she'd been foolish enough to think it meant something. The
d. Not with grie
onto the silver tray on the console table by the door. It struck the metal with
k back to see
er, sealing Darius inside a pe
houlders finally relaxed. She exhaled a long breath-n
quiet, ordinary wife had been th
ons of a normal life. It was ti
Darius stood motionles
, he picked
e wants more money, of course. A woman like her?" A faint sm
glass, watching the city lig
I can't
e in the back of his mind whispered
the hell had she g
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