Chapter 2

Corinne Preston POV:

Brielle Yang' s presence in the Hatfield mansion became a suffocating blanket. Arlo had explained it away with a vague mention of her apartment undergoing "unexpected renovations." I knew it was a lie. I knew it was his way of keeping her close, making her part of his domestic landscape. My home had become her playground, my sanctuary invaded.

She left her expensive scarves draped over my antique chairs, her sickly sweet perfume lingering in the air, mixing with the scent of Arlo's cologne. I found her casually reading my rare astronomy books, leaving dog-eared pages and smeared fingerprints. Every corner I turned, she was there-a constant, grating reminder of my fading status.

One afternoon, I walked into the sunroom, hoping for a moment of quiet reflection, and found them. Brielle was giggling, feeding Arlo a strawberry, playfully wiping a smudge from his lip. Their heads were close, their voices soft. It was a tableau of domestic intimacy I had never shared with him. My stomach churned.

"Corinne!" Brielle chirped, her eyes widening in feigned surprise, though she' d clearly heard my approach. "Join us! We were just discussing Arlo's new AI project. It's so fascinating, truly groundbreaking. What do you think, Arlo?" She squeezed his arm, staking her claim.

I shook my head, my voice flat. "I have work to do. Papers to review." My fellowship application, the real one, was due soon. The irony was a bitter taste in my mouth. My divorce papers were already filed, the countdown begun.

Brielle' s smile tightened. "Oh, right, your studies. Still chasing those distant stars, Corinne? While Arlo here is busy building empires on Earth? Such different paths." Her words were like tiny, sharp needles, designed to prick at my ambition, to remind me of my perceived irrelevance. Arlo chuckled softly, a sound that sliced through me. It wasn't malicious, but it was an acknowledgment of her barb, a quiet agreement.

I felt the familiar urge to lash out, to defend my life's work. But I held it in, the anger a cold knot in my stomach. What was the point? He had never truly seen my passion, my intellectual fire. He had only seen the social asset, the quiet wife. Brielle' s manipulative nature was transparent to me, but Arlo, trapped in a nostalgia he mistook for love, was blind. I just had to endure a little longer. Just a few more weeks.

That night, I lay awake in my vast, cold bed. The mansion was silent, but my mind was a whirlwind of calculations, packing lists, and astrophysics equations. My escape plan was a complex orbital trajectory, meticulously plotted.

Then, the door to my bedroom creaked open. Arlo.

He walked in, his silhouette tall against the dim light from the hallway. The subtle scent of Brielle's perfume, now mingled with his own, preceded him. A phantom touch on my skin, a ghost of intimacy that was never truly mine.

"Still awake?" His voice was low, a rumble in the oppressive silence. He sat on the edge of the bed, the mattress dipping slightly under his weight.

"Thinking," I replied, my voice neutral. I didn't turn to face him.

"About your work?" he asked, his tone surprisingly soft. He reached out, his hand gently tracing the line of my jaw. It was a rare, almost startling gesture. My body tensed involuntarily. Then, against my will, it softened. A desperate part of me, the part that still yearned for connection, for warmth, responded to his touch like a starved plant to sunlight. It was a dangerous, fleeting comfort.

I hated myself for it. Hated the way my skin still craved his touch, even after all the neglect, all the indifference. It was a pathetic, lingering weakness I thought I had purged.

He leaned in, his lips brushing against my forehead, then my temple. "You work too hard, Corinne." His voice was a low murmur, a hypnotic vibration against my skin. He smelled of power, of expensive liquor, and of another woman.

My stomach suddenly rebelled. A wave of nausea, sharp and violent, washed over me. I gasped, pushing him away slightly, turning my head.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice laced with concern.

"Just... a sudden headache," I managed, my voice strained. "And a bit of stomach flu, maybe." I pressed a hand to my mouth, trying to suppress the rising bile. Stomach flu? The thought, sharp and unwelcome, sliced through my mind. I hadn't missed a single contraceptive pill. Had I? My period was... late. A cold dread began to coil in my gut.

Before I could process the terrifying thought, a loud crash echoed from downstairs, followed by Brielle' s piercing shriek. "Arlo! Help!"

He was on his feet in an instant, his concern for me vanishing like smoke. "Stay here," he ordered, his voice already distant, preoccupied. He was gone before I could respond, the door swinging shut behind him. I heard footsteps, quick and urgent, then the muffled clatter of objects being moved. A moment later, I heard the distinctive click of his hidden weapon safe, followed by his rapid descent down the main staircase.

I lay there, listening, my heart hammering. After a while, he returned. He didn' t come back into my room. Instead, I heard his voice, hushed and low, from his study. The light from under my door was now a thin sliver. Minutes later, the sliver disappeared. He was gone. With Brielle.

I closed my eyes, pretending to be asleep, though sleep felt miles away.

Sometime later, I woke to a soft rustling sound. My eyes fluttered open. Arlo was standing by my desk, the beam of his phone flashlight illuminating my fellowship papers. The papers. The ones with the Chilean observatory's impressive letterhead. The ones he'd signed as a "guarantor."

My blood ran cold. He was looking at them. Really looking.

A fresh wave of nausea, this one born of pure panic, swept over me. My breath hitched in my chest.

"Chile?" His voice was quiet, almost contemplative, but it sliced through the silence like ice. He turned to me, the phone's light catching the glint in his eyes. "You said this was just a grant application. Your background check showed a pending fellowship, Corinne. To the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array."

My mind raced. "It is," I said, my voice surprisingly steady. "The grant application is for the fellowship. They're intertwined." It wasn't a complete lie, not technically. But it wasn't the full truth either.

He held the papers closer, his gaze scrutinizing the details. My heart pounded so hard I thought he must hear it. He read the names, the dates, the terms. He remembered none of it. Of course, he wouldn't. He never remembered anything about my work.

"The Atacama," he repeated, a faint, dismissive curl on his lip. "A remote desert, far from everything. Are you sure that's what you want? To bury yourself in the middle of nowhere?" He scoffed gently. "Your brilliance might be wasted there, Corinne. You could do so much more here, with the resources Hatfield Tech could provide. We could build you your own private observatory, state-of-the-art. You wouldn't have to leave."

He said it so casually, as if my lifelong dream was a minor whim he could easily indulge or discard. He didn' t remember the late nights I' d spent talking about it, the articles I' d highlighted for him, the passion in my voice. He hadn't seen any of it. He' d seen only a quiet woman, easily contained.

I said nothing. Just watched him, my face a mask of polite indifference. It was clear he saw it as an eccentric hobby, something he could manage, control. He always did.

"Look," he said, turning back to the papers, a slight edge of impatience in his voice. He had already moved on. "I can arrange for you to head up our new AI research division, focusing on computational astrophysics. You'd have unlimited funding, the best team, no need to relocate to a desert. Think of the prestige."

My mind flashed back to the Hatfield family. Their suffocating influence, their endless expectations. His solution was just another gilded cage, more luxurious, perhaps, but a cage nonetheless.

Just then, the door opened, and Brielle entered, wrapped in Arlo's silk robe, her hair a charming mess. "Arlo, darling, are you coming back to bed? We have that early morning meeting with the investors, remember? And I've been feeling a little... fragile." She gave me a wide, pitying smile. "Oh, Corinne, still up? Don't let Arlo trouble you with work. He can be such a workaholic." She leaned against Arlo, her hand possessively on his chest.

Arlo' s gaze softened immediately, the concern for my "headache" a distant memory. He nodded. "Right. The investors." He stood up, placing my papers back on the desk, his attention now fully on Brielle. "We'll discuss this later, Corinne." The dismissal was clear.

"Good night, Corinne," Brielle said, her voice sugary sweet, as she led Arlo out of my room, his arm around her waist.

I waited until I heard their door click shut. Then, slowly, deliberately, I walked to my desk. I picked up the fellowship papers, the ones he had signed without truly seeing. His signature, the final stamp of his indifference, was already drying.

I found my pen. On the bottom of the last page, below his sprawling, arrogant signature, I scrawled a single word: "Filed." This wasn't just a fellowship application. This was my declaration of war. Or rather, my declaration of peace. My peace.