Chapter 5

Francesca POV:

Irvin: Yes, Francesca. There's good news. Your divorce means you're legally free. And you still own your intellectual property. Your recipes. They're tied to you, not Antonio's empire anymore.

A flicker. A tiny spark in the crushing darkness. My recipes. The soul of our success. The one thing he couldn't completely steal. It was a lifeline.

"My intellectual property?" I whispered, the words foreign on my tongue. It was a cold, legal term, but it meant something. It meant I still had a weapon.

Irvin: Your name, your brand, your culinary genius. It's all still yours. And it's worth a fortune. Antonio knows that. Which is why he wants you silent.

Hope, fragile but insistent, began to bloom. A chance. A way out. A way to fight back.

"What's your plan, Irvin?" My voice was steady now, a new purpose hardening it. "Tell me everything."

Irvin: It' s risky. Very risky. We' re going to make you disappear. Make them believe you' re gone for good. And then we hit them where it hurts the most.

My heart pounded. Disappear. Permanently. It was terrifying. But the alternative... a life trapped, erased, humiliated. There was no choice.

"I'm in," I said, my voice firm. "But I have one condition. I don't just want to disappear. I want them to pay. For Shannon. For everything. I want them to lose everything, just like they made me lose mine."

Irvin: Agreed. Consider it done. We'll make sure they pay the ultimate price. A price far greater than money.

The line went dead. My heart hammered, a drumbeat of anticipation and terror. The game was on.

Antonio arrived an hour later, his expression one of forced pleasantness. "How's the new dish coming along, Francesca? Harlow is quite excited." He glanced around the pristine kitchen, inspecting it like a hawk.

"It's... developing," I replied, my voice carefully neutral. "But Antonio, about the divorce papers..."

He cut me off, his smile unwavering. "Ah, yes. A formality, my dear. Purely for the optics. You know how the media is. We need to project a unified front, even if it's separate. But rest assured, you'll always be taken care of." His words were silk, woven with cunning.

I nodded slowly, a small, knowing smile playing on my lips. Liar. I thought. You're a master of lies.

I spent the next few days in the test kitchen, a prisoner in plain sight. I cooked, I experimented, I perfected the dish for Harlow. But my mind was elsewhere. It was plotting. It was planning.

The silence in the house was heavy, broken only by the occasional laughter floating from Antonio's office, or the clinking of Harlow's champagne glass. They thought they had won. They thought I was broken.

I played the part. I was quiet, withdrawn, seemingly defeated. I let them see a woman on the edge, a shadow of her former self. It was all part of the charade.

Harlow, emboldened by her new status, grew increasingly arrogant. She would parade past the kitchen, her hand resting possessively on her belly, a smug smile on her face. Each glance was a silent taunt.

One evening, she cornered me in the deserted living room. The large portrait of her and Antonio now dominated the space, a constant reminder of my displacement.

"Antonio says you're making good progress on my dish," she purred, her eyes gleaming with malicious pleasure. "It needs to be perfect, Francesca. This media tour is huge for us. For me."

"For you and Antonio," I corrected, my voice cold. "A happy, newly single chef, creating dishes for the public face of the restaurant empire. It's quite the narrative."

Harlow laughed, a brittle, unpleasant sound. "Oh, Francesca. Didn't Antonio tell you? The divorce was finalized months ago. You're not his wife anymore. You're just... an employee. A very broken employee."

"And you, Harlow," I countered, my eyes fixed on hers, "are just a mistress. Antonio's mistress. A very pregnant mistress. The divorce may be final, but the public hasn't heard that part yet, have they?" I let the implication hang in the air.

Her smile faltered, a flicker of unease in her eyes. "Don't tempt me, Francesca. You have no idea what Antonio is capable of. He protects his investments. And I am his biggest investment now." She patted her belly, a clear, unmistakable threat.

The night of the grand food and wine gala arrived, a glittering spectacle of culinary elites and hungry media. I stood backstage, a phantom among the bustling crew, my heart a cold, steady drum. My body felt light, almost ethereal, a stark contrast to the heavy weight of my purpose.

Antonio, ever the showman, stood on stage, his arm around Harlow, who was positively beaming, her hand on her swollen stomach. "My beautiful partner, Harlow, is truly the inspiration behind our new expansion," he announced to applause, his voice smooth, charismatic.

I watched him, a bitter laugh caught in my throat. Partner. Inspiration. Lies, all of it. A performance for the cameras, for the franchising deal. He was a master manipulator, a puppeteer pulling strings.

He caught my eye then, from across the crowded room, his gaze lingering for a moment. He smiled, a practiced, charming smile, and mouthed, "You look beautiful, darling."

Darling. The word, once a caress, now felt like a curse. I remembered his low whispers, his promises of forever. How easily he'd discarded them. How easily he'd discarded me.

"You really are a monster, Antonio," I thought, the words a silent bullet in my mind. "Everything you say, everything you do, it's all a lie."

Suddenly, the massive screen behind Antonio and Harlow flickered. The live feed of the gala vanished, replaced by a grainy, black-and-white image. A private security camera.

Gasps rippled through the crowd. Murmurs erupted.

The footage showed Antonio, laughing, kissing Harlow passionately, while a tiny, pristine white baby bootie lay forgotten on a bedside table. The date flashed on screen: the very night Shannon died. Then, another clip: Antonio on the phone, his voice hushed, instructing someone to "handle the nanny cam."

The crowd erupted in a cacophony of shouts and whispers. Cameras flashed, microphones thrust forward.

Harlow shrieked, clutching her stomach, her face contorted in a grotesque mask of shock and terror. "Antonio! My baby! Oh, my God!"

Antonio, pale and visibly shaken, immediately turned his attention to her, cradling her as she collapsed. "Harlow, darling! Are you alright? My love, my baby, are you okay?"

Harlow looked up, her eyes blazing, not with pain, but with fury. "Francesca! You bitch! You did this!" She pointed a trembling finger at me, my name tearing through the chaos.

The crowd turned, their gazes, once filled with curiosity, now burning with accusation. "She's unstable! A psychopath!" someone shouted. "She's trying to ruin him!" another cried.

Antonio's eyes, filled with a primal, animalistic rage, found mine. He pushed Harlow gently into the arms of a waiting assistant and stormed towards me, his jaw clenched, his fists visibly clenching and unclenching.

"You suicidal bitch!" he roared, his voice low and dangerous, "You think you can destroy me? You think this is justice?" He grabbed my arm, his grip bruising, and dragged me towards the edge of the elevated stage, a sheer drop of at least twenty feet to the marble floor below. "You want to disappear, Francesca? I'll make you disappear!"

He held me over the edge, my body dangling precariously, the crowd below a blur of terrified faces. The pain in my arm was excruciating, but it was nothing compared to the cold, dead certainty in his eyes. He would drop me. He would enjoy it. This was his final act of erasure.

He kept me suspended there, a spectacle of cruelty, for what felt like an eternity. Each second was a slow, agonizing torment, a rehearsal for the final fall. My life, my love, my child, all flashing before my eyes.