Chapter 2
Feeling the man’s ragged, heated breaths growing closer, Sylvia’s heart lurched. She drew her knee back and drove her foot straight into his
chest.
Her voice cracked, high and furious.”Have you lost your mind?!”
Ronan’s eyes darkened to something lethal as he leaned in and closed a hand around the back of her neck.
“You announced to everyone that I was dead. Was that not insane enough? You’ve spent three years washing yourself clean and waiting in this bed to tempt me. Tonight, I’ll give you exactly what you’ve been begging for.”
His voice was terrifyingly cold as he lowered his mouth to her throat.
Sylvia clenched her jaw against a scream, straining every muscle to hold him off. She pressed her hands against his chest, keeping just enough. distance to breathe.
She locked her gaze on the fury blazing in his eyes. A single tear slid down her cheek, and then, strangely, she laughed. Her body went limp beneath him. She stopped fighting and slid her arms around his neck, her bare legs curling around his waist.
Her voice dripped with false sweetness.”Fine. If you’re so willing, then let’s do it properly. We’ll try for a child tonight. And after that, you’ll make me the Administrative Manager at Gordon Airlines.”
Ronan’s chest heaved. His expression turned glacial, disgust replacing any flicker of desire.
He pried her arms and legs off him as if shaking off something diseased. Rising to his feet, he looked down at her with an edge of contempt.
“Sylvia, you’d really trade this for a promotion? Is there any shame left in you at all?”
She went still for a moment. Then she let out the softest, most brittle laugh.
“Lacey came back, and you handed her a senior engineering title overnight. And yet you can’t manage a lowly administrative position for me. Tell me, Ronan, who’s really your woman?”
The words had barely left her mouth before his fingers clamped around her chin, hard enough to bruise.
“So that’s all this is? Jealousy? If you must compare yourself to her, at least have the sense to see the difference. Lacey has the ability. What do you have? Your body?”
The pain in Sylvia’s chest was sharp and fine as a thousand needles.
Ronan’s patience was gone. He shoved himself away from her, his voice as cold as a blade.
“I’m sleeping in the guest room. Stop creating these ridiculous scenes. It’s exhausting.”
The door slammed shut behind him, as precise and devastating as a slap across her face.
She’d known this would happen. She’d walked herself straight into the humiliation.
Her lips twitched in a pitiful attempt at a smile, but the tears finally fell, unstoppable. She curled in on herself, shivering in the darkness.
Three years ago, she’d been caring for her dying mother while trying to clean up the mess her father had left behind.
Ronan’s grandfather, Caleb Gordon, had been her grandfather’s dearest friend. Out of loyalty to an old bond, he’d paid 100 million to clear her family’s debts and brought her in as Ronan’s wife.
Everyone said she was lucky beyond reason, a pauper’s daughter transformed into Mrs. Gordon overnight. They never saw the journals she kept hidden away, page after page filled with Ronan’s name, from her girlhood dreams to her present desolation.
She thought if she loved him enough, tried hard enough, she could earn a scrap of his affection.
But she’d been blind. He had always belonged to someone else. He’d married her only to keep the Gordons from hurting that woman.
It didn’t matter.
None of it had mattered, not until she realized that woman was Lacey.
Lacey, the woman who had destroyed her family.
It was too tangled to explain. Ronan wouldn’t believe her even if she tried.
So all she could do was beg and hope that if she made enough noise, maybe he’d let go of Lacey at last.
But it was all just her own pathetic delusion.
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< Chapter 2
The scenes from that afternoon replayed behind her closed eyes, relentless and vivid.
It was time.
Time to end this love that had buried her in the dirt.
Sylvia lay awake until dawn, turning everything over in her mind.
When the sun finally climbed into the sky, she knew what she had to do.
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Near noon, she heard the housekeeper calling through the door.
“Madam, the food is ready.”
Sylvia sat up slowly, and it hit her that today was their wedding anniversary. She’d been planning for a week.
Now there was nothing left to celebrate.
She rose, washed her face, and stepped into the hall.
She meant to tell the staff to clear it all away, but her gaze caught on a handbag sitting neatly on the table. Her heart stopped.
It was the same bag Lacey had posted on her social media. So he’d bought it for her already and even brought it home.
A wild, splintering fury climbed up Sylvia’s throat.
She looked at the spread of prepared dishes. Fine. She didn’t want the man, but the food wouldn’t go to waste.
She didn’t bother cooking. Instead, she ordered the staff to pack every dish into disposable containers. When everything was ready, she hired a group of couriers.
“Take these to Zephyr Heavy Industries Group,” she said calmly.”Tell them Ronan Gordon’s wife sends lunch to celebrate the end of her marriage and the freedom from a man who doesn’t know how to make love.”
The couriers stared, dumbstruck, nearly dropping the boxes.
Sylvia pressed a few bills into their hands with a serene smile.
“Make sure you use the loudspeaker.”
Zephyr Heavy Industries Group was Ronan’s company, independent of the Gordon family.
She didn’t know its exact worth.
But she knew it was founded by Ronan, Lacey, and a few of their closest friends, the perfect symbol of everything she could never touch.
Once, even the mention of that place had hurt her heart. Now all she felt was the urge to tear it
apart.
When the last box was gone, Sylvia went upstairs to pack.
The Singh family had collapsed years ago. She’d come here with almost nothing. One suitcase of clothes, one of old keepsakes. That was her entire life.
In less than half an hour, she was wheeling her bags out the door.
She took a taxi straight to Crestview Gardens. She found the familiar apartment number. The door was ajar.
She’d barely stepped inside when someone grabbed her and shoved her back against the wall.
Cora Jensen, in nothing but a silk robe, braced a hand above Sylvia’s head and squinted at her. “Homeless already? Don’t worry, I’ll keep you.” Sylvia let out a weary sigh and gently pushed her away.
If there had been any other option, she would never have come here.
A few minutes later, Cora made coffee and set it in her hands. The warmth chased away a fraction of the cold gnawing through her.
“Thank you.”
Cora snapped. “I told you that marry to pay off your debts, then walk away clean. But no, you had to fall head over heels…”
“You knew, didn’t you?”
Sylvia cut in softly, her hands cupping the mug. She lifted her gaze and caught the flicker of guilt on Cora’s face.
< Chapter 2
“You knew he’d choose Lacey.”
Cora cursed under her breath.
“She’s back, isn’t she?”
“Yes. She’s Gordon Airlines’ new senior engineer.”
Sylvia lowered her head. Her long lashes swept down, hiding her expression. Her pale face looked even more drawn.
The silence grew heavy between them. Finally, Cora sighed.”Divorce him. Quit. I’ll take care of you.”
Sylvia let out a watery laugh, her eyes filling.”You really think I’ve lost?”
“Hasn’t he already thrown you out?”
This was why she hadn’t wanted to call Cora. She never sugarcoated anything, never spared her feelings.
“I was the one who asked for the divorce,” Sylvia bit out.”I’m the one who doesn’t want that man anymore.”
Cora just snorted.
“Congratulations on growing a spine. So what’s the plan? Kill Lacey? Or Ronan? Just say the word-I’ll hire someone.”
Sylvia’s mouth fell open.
“Do you honestly think anyone would dare touch Ronan?”
‘Oh, I see. You still have feelings. So it’s Lacey who has to go!”
*Cora, can you think of any solution that doesn’t involve murder?”
“There is another way. If you have the guts to come back.”
At those words, something fluttered painfully in Sylvia’s chest.
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Sylvia thought back to the summer she turned eighteen, the first time she’d ever completed a private cybersecurity commission. She’d earned 80,000 dollars from that job. She’d used every cent to build her own team. No age requirements. No credentials. Just skill.
Through four years of college, they had refined their methods, grown stronger. The orders came steadily, the income climbing higher. If she’d kept going, she might have built her own empire.
But then her mother had fallen ill, the debts had nearly crushed everything she’d worked for, and she’d been forced to walk away.
After she married, Cora had tried to lure her back. But Sylvia had been determined to join Gordon Airlines, to follow Ronan wherever he went. She’d abandoned her old dreams without looking back.
Three years of her life, all the things she had tried so hard to hold onto, had slipped through her fingers like sand, impossible to gather again.
Cora went into the bedroom and returned with her laptop balanced in one hand. Her fingers flew deftly over the keyboard for a few moments before she turned the screen toward Sylvia.
“It’s your specialty, firewalls. The project has been rejected twice already. If you don’t step in, the team’s reputation is going to take a serious hit. Are you really planning to just ignore it?”
< Chapter 3
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