Chapter 3

I was half asleep when my phone rang.

I answered on reflex. A familiar male voice came through. “My assistant says you came looking for me yesterday. Want me to have someone book you a flight back?”

Declan’s voice was low and rich.

He always sounded so unhurried.

I woke up a little more. I’d barely slept, and my head was still buzzing, a dull ache like someone had split it down the middle with a knife.

I pressed hard against the back of my head. “No need.”

On the other end, I could hear him breathing.

“Declan.” I thought for a moment, then said, “Have you ever thought about going public with us?”

Almost at the exact moment I spoke, another, louder male voice cut in. It was his childhood friend, Hunter.

There was a burst of noise, and then the line went quiet again.

“What did you just say?” he asked.

I gripped the phone and gave a small, bitter smile.

Maybe because I’d been silent too long, he asked again, “You still there?”

I shook my head. “It’s nothing. I was just going to say your assistant got it wrong. I’ve been working the past couple of days. I didn’t go looking for you.”

Keeping our marriage a secret had been Declan’s idea, back when we got married.

He’d been dead serious about it. “Unless it’s necessary, I don’t want a lot of people knowing about us. I don’t want reporters pointing cameras at my private life.”

I’d only worked up the courage to ask once.

After that, I never thought about going public again.

Over the next few days, I buried myself in work as though nothing had happened.

I never told him that I’d flown out for his birthday and found an empty room.

I stopped questioning him about Serena, too.

My coworkers all said I seemed to be doing a lot better.

Only I knew that the whole time, I was buried under a deep sense of defeat, and I was scared.

Some part of me could feel that Declan and I weren’t going to make it.

The breaking point came one afternoon.

A coworker and I went to Vance Global to pitch a partnership. In the conference room, when I saw that the person running the project was Serena, my hands and feet went ice cold.

She wore a perfectly tailored navy dress, and she presented with poise and confidence.

My coworkers couldn’t stop praising her.

But I noticed the way her eyes kept landing on me, bold and openly challenging.

Under the table, I clenched my fists. It felt like the only way I could force myself to stay calm, even for a little while.

When the meeting ended, I went straight up to the CEO’s office on the top floor.

“Why did you bring her to headquarters?” My throat was tight. I made myself stay rational.

Declan leaned back in his leather chair, unbothered. “She’s good at what she does.”

I laughed coldly. “Plenty of people are good at what they do. Why her? You know it bothers me. Is keeping your distance from your ex really that hard for you?”

My chest was heaving now, and I was getting more and more worked up. “Or have you just never gotten over her?”

He cut me off sharply before I could finish.

His face darkened. “That’s enough. You’re a woman too. Have you thought about what a rumor like that could do to her career?”

He looked down at me. “Her Ivy League degree, her track record, which one isn’t better than yours? What exactly are you questioning?”

“Nora, I’m only going to say this one more time.” He held my gaze and spaced out every word. “If I actually wanted something to happen with her, you wouldn’t even be wearing that ring right now.”

The way he said it, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, cut deep.

I balled my hands into fists. Even my voice was shaking. “If you think so little of me, why did you marry me in the first place?”

I stared him down. Every word he’d said, from the beginning to the end, had been in Serena’s defense. Bitterness spread through my chest.

I lifted my chin, and the words I’d been holding back for so long finally came out.

“Let’s get a divorce.”