Chapter 2

Emma Carpenter POV:

The email confirmation flashed on my new burner phone, a crisp, clean line of text: Your new identity documents have been processed and shipped.

A huge exhale left my lungs, a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. It felt like shedding an old skin, like finally being able to breathe after being underwater for too long. My new life. Portland, Oregon. A small, authentic farm-to-table restaurant. It wasn't a dream; it was a blueprint, meticulously planned in the dark hours after Collin' s betrayal.

I started clearing out our shared life. Not violently, not with anger, but with a clinical detachment that surprised even myself. Every item, every photo, every gift – each one weighed heavily with a memory, a lie.

I picked up the framed photo from our wedding day. Collin, handsome and beaming, looking at me as if I was his entire world. You are my world, Emma. The words echoed in my head, a cruel mockery. Remember how he' d held my hand that day, promising forever? Forever. What a joke.

I stared at the picture, my fingers tracing the outline of his face, then mine. The girl in that photo, so full of hope, so blindly in love – I barely recognized her. She was a different person, someone who believed in fairy tales, someone who hadn't learned that some monsters wore charming smiles.

With a deep breath, I turned the photo frame over, the glass cold against my palm. I tossed it into a box marked "charity." No, not charity. This wasn't charity. This was cleansing.

Most of our possessions were 'ours,' jointly acquired, tainted by his touch. I would leave them. They were part of a life I was surgically removing from my existence. But there were a few things that were unequivocally mine, things I refused to take with me.

The ornate silver locket, a gift from Collin on our first anniversary. Inside, two tiny photos: young Emma, young Collin, faces bright with possibility. This represents our future, Emma. Always together. Another lie. Another bitter laugh. I considered crushing it under my heel, but even that felt like giving it too much power.

Instead, I found a small, antique jewelry box from my grandmother. It held the few pieces she' d left me, simple, meaningful things. I placed the locket inside, then sealed the box with tape, writing "Anonymous Donation" on it in bold, black marker. It deserved to be free, not a prisoner of my grief.

Only one thing I couldn't bear to part with: my grandmother's old, worn cookbook. Its pages were stained with decades of recipes, her faint, looping handwriting a comforting presence. This book wasn't about Collin. It was about heritage, about love, about the pure joy of creation. It was a piece of me, untainted. It was coming with me.

As for the rest, the lingering ghosts of our life together? The love letters, the movie stubs, the little trinkets from our travels? I gathered them all in a large, metal bin I dragged onto the penthouse balcony. The Chicago skyline shimmered in the distance, oblivious to the pyre I was building. With a flick of a lighter, the paper curled, the ink blackened, and the flames danced, consuming the memories, turning them to ash. The smoke curled into the night, carrying away the last vestiges of Emma Carpenter, wife of Collin Sweeney.

Later that night, the front door clicked open. Collin. He smelled of expensive cologne and, faintly, something sweet and floral – Casey's perfume. He walked into the living room, paused, and looked around with a slight frown. "Did we... redecorate?"

I was sitting on the sofa, a book open on my lap, my bandaged arm propped on a pillow. "Just decluttering," I said, my voice calm, almost serene. "Feels good to get rid of some things. Makes the space feel lighter."

He shrugged, already distracted. "Whatever you say, Em. Just don't get rid of anything important." He didn't even notice the gaping empty spaces where our shared photos used to hang. He didn't notice the absence of my personal touches. He only noticed what was on the surface, or what he thought was on the surface.

He walked past me, his eyes already on his phone. I caught a glimpse of a text message, a smiling selfie of Casey, her arm slung playfully around his shoulder. My heart didn't clench. It felt... nothing. A cold, empty space where pain used to reside.

"Oh, by the way," he said, turning back, a performative smile on his face. "I'm throwing a party next week. To celebrate our hard work on the Golden Spoon. And, you know, us."

Us. The word tasted like ash in my mouth. "Okay," I said, my voice flat, emotionless. The party wasn't for us. It was for him. It was a stage. And I would play my part, one last time.

The night of the party arrived. I wore a simple black dress, elegant and understated, my casted arm a stark, white contrast. I floated through the crowd, a ghost at my own wake, exchanging polite smiles, nodding at compliments about the "resilience" of our restaurant. I saw Collin, radiant, basking in the attention, a puppet master pulling invisible strings.

Then, she walked in. Casey. Dressed in a shimmering emerald green gown that accentuated her curves, her dark hair styled perfectly, her eyes bright with a predatory ambition. She scanned the room, her gaze settling on Collin, a possessive smile curving her lips.

Someone nudged me. "Emma, darling, is that your new sous chef? Goodness, she looks exactly like you did years ago! For a moment, I thought you'd had a sudden makeover." The voice was jovial, but the comparison, the casual dismissal of my presence, stung. A younger me. That' s all I was now in their eyes. A fading memory for a fresh, new copy.

Collin, ever the showman, pulled Casey to his side. "Everyone! May I introduce Casey Nash, our incredibly talented new protégé!" He wrapped an arm around her, his hand resting intimately on the small of her back. His words were a public declaration, a deliberate slight.

I felt a flush creep up my neck, a burning shame that had nothing to do with my own actions. My skin felt too tight, too small for my body. It was a public humiliation, perfectly orchestrated.

Collin and Casey, a grotesque echo of what he and I once were, laughed together, their bodies brushing, their eyes locked in a conspiratorial gaze. They were a perfect pair, two ambitious souls feeding off each other's hunger.

I forced a smile, my face aching. I accepted more compliments, more empty assurances. But snippets of conversation, fragments of gossip, began to pierce through my carefully constructed shield.

"Did you hear? Collin and Casey were spotted at The Rosewater last week. Very cozy."

"Oh, darling, everyone knows. Emma's been so busy with her arm, poor thing. And Collin... he needs a certain kind of attention, doesn't he?"

The Rosewater. The exclusive, romantic restaurant where Collin and I had celebrated our fifth anniversary, where he had whispered about our future. The place I had thought was sacred to us. Now, it was just another venue for his deceit.

It wasn't just the affair. It was the calculated cruelty of it all. The missing birthdays, the ignored anniversary, the abandonment after my injury, his casual dismissal of me in favor of her. Each memory, each whisper, clicked into place, forming a complete, horrifying picture.

My marriage, my life, the beautiful facade I had so desperately clung to – it had all been a carefully constructed lie from the very beginning. And I, Emma Carpenter, had been the biggest fool of all.