lefield, and the whole city had front-row seats. We were the couple everyone loved to hate, a story of pure, unad

twenty-second birthday. He was my older brother Liam' s biggest rival, a man who represented e

ouse he' d bought for us, still in my white dress, expecting a

Questions were shoute

s this marria

s it feel to marry y

wanted to humiliate me, to show the world that I was just another

restima

ndow, opened it, and looked down at the glittering city below. The

od pictur

I j

nklers I had tampered with earlier went off inside the penthouse. A small, well-placed fire I had set in the kitchen started to bil

one for the ne

was young, blonde, and looked at him like he was a god. He paraded her around, making sure eve

nue, took a champagne bottle from a waiter's tray, and started smashing things. I shattered display cases, tore down d

" I announced to the silent,

et with his friends. He' d wagered a million dollars that he could produce a v

ssion and pain, a tangled mess of limbs and angry words. The next

ive screen in his boardroom, right in front of his board of directors. Then, I destroyed the card. As an en

. different. Quiet. He stopped bringing women home. Last week,

' d said, hi

one didn't give gifts. He took things

Liam," I said, pacing my

lty," Liam suggested, his voice

lla, I think. He's trying to buy me off, get me out of the way so he can play house with her." I paused, looking

e always did, but this time it was different. It ended in the bedroom, a desperate, angry clash that was mor

el

g to know about her, to see her name on credit card bills. It

my first instinct was to hurt him back. I b

h fury. He got out of bed, his back rigid, and returned

I asked, my v

is tone clipped and business

what I had been fighting for. But hearin

st for show. A temporary separation. It will cause a dip in the stock price. I' ll

was exactly the kind of game he would play. But as he turned

ndar r

ith Bella. One m

stock market. He was getting rid of me to marry her. All th

steady hand, and left them on his pillow. I would play his gam

h my abdomen. It was so intense I doubled over, gasping

, my vision blurring

top it, Chloe. I'm not falling for another one of your

door behind him, leaving