Chapter 1 1

The rain battered against the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Koch Tower conference room, a relentless, rhythmic assault that mirrored the pounding in Aislinn Reese's chest. But on the outside, she was a statue. A dull, grey, lifeless statue. She sat at the long mahogany table, the leather chair swallowing her slight frame. The air conditioning was set too low, a standard tactic in corporate negotiations to make the weaker party uncomfortable. It was working. Her fingertips were numb, but she didn't rub them together. She kept her hands folded in her lap, hidden beneath the table.

Across from her sat Gavin, Eric Koch's personal assistant. He was a man whose entire personality was curated to reflect his boss's efficiency, though he lacked Eric's terrifying presence. Gavin pushed a black fountain pen across the polished surface. It slid with a soft hiss and stopped exactly three inches from her right hand.

"Mr. Koch has authorized the immediate transfer of the initial alimony payment upon signature," Gavin said, his voice carrying a professional pity that stung worse than open mockery. "Five million dollars annually for the next five years. The properties in the Hamptons and the Aspen chalet are also yours, provided the NDA remains unbreached."

Aislinn stared at the document. Divorce Decree. The words should have looked heavy, final. Instead, they looked like liberation.

She reached for the pen. Her hand didn't tremble. She picked it up, feeling the cold weight of the metal against her skin. She didn't look at the signature line immediately. Instead, her eyes scanned the paragraph detailing the financial settlement. Five million. It was the price Eric was willing to pay to erase two years of a marriage he never wanted. A marriage forced by a grandmother's dying wish and a grandfather's ancient debt.

But Eric didn't know that she didn't need his money. He didn't know about the offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands, the blind trusts, or the royalties from the 'Rose' design empire that had been quietly accumulating interest for years. To him, she was a destitute orphan. Taking his money would only validate his assumption that she was a charity case.

Aislinn flipped the pen. With a swift, decisive motion that made a scratching sound against the paper, she drew a thick line through the alimony clause. Then another line through the property transfer.

Gavin blinked. His professional mask cracked for a fraction of a second. "Mrs. Koch-Ms. Reese. I don't think you understand. This is standard. It's what you're entitled to."

"I don't want it," Aislinn said. Her voice was low, raspy, and deliberately flat. It was the voice she had cultivated for two years-the voice of a woman who had nothing interesting to say. "I want a clean break. No money. No houses. Just the signature."

"But-"

"If I take the money, he thinks he bought me off," she interrupted, keeping her gaze on the paper. "If I take nothing, I just leave."

She signed her name at the bottom. Aislinn Reese. The letters were small, cramped, and unassuming. It was a forgery of her true self. If she had signed as she naturally did-as Rose-the signature would have been a bold, sweeping scrawl that demanded attention. But Aislinn Reese was invisible.

She set the pen down. Then, she reached for her left hand. The platinum band on her ring finger felt like a shackle she had grown used to, the metal warm from her body heat. She slid it off. The skin underneath was pale, a ghost of the commitment that never really existed.

Clink.

She placed the ring on the marble table. The sound echoed in the empty room, sharp and final.

"He's in Europe, correct?" Aislinn asked, standing up. She picked up her worn canvas tote bag, hunching her shoulders slightly to diminish her height.

Gavin cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable as he collected the papers. "Yes. Mr. Koch is in Zurich for the banking summit. He sends his... regards."

A lie. A polite, corporate lie. Aislinn knew Eric's schedule better than Gavin did. Eric wasn't in Zurich. He was twenty floors down, in the private cigar lounge of the exclusive club that occupied the building's lower levels, likely nursing a scotch and complaining about the weather. He couldn't even be bothered to take an elevator ride to end their marriage.

"Goodbye, Gavin," she said.

She turned and walked out. She didn't look back at the ring. She didn't look back at the view of the city she had ostensibly ruled as the wife of New York's most powerful man.

The elevator ride down was silent. Aislinn watched the floor numbers tick down. 50... 40... 30... With every passing floor, the invisible weight on her shoulders lightened. When the doors opened to the lobby, the security guards nodded at her with vague recognition, the way one acknowledges a piece of furniture that is being moved out.

"Do you need the car, Mrs. Koch?" the doorman asked, reaching for an umbrella.

"No," she said. "And it's Ms. Reese."

She stepped out into the rain. It was a torrential downpour, the kind that soaked through fabric in seconds. She didn't care. She walked past the line of waiting black limousines and raised her hand. A yellow taxi screeched to a halt, splashing water onto the curb.

"Brooklyn," she told the driver as she slid onto the cracked vinyl seat. "DUMBO. The Clocktower Building."

The driver raised an eyebrow in the rearview mirror, eyeing her worn tote bag and soaked grey cardigan. "The Clocktower? You sure, lady? That's heavy rent for a..." He trailed off, looking at her shoes.

"I'm house-sitting," Aislinn lied smoothly, leaning back into the shadows of the seat. "For a very eccentric, very rich old woman. I just water the plants."

The driver grunted, accepting the explanation. It made more sense than a woman looking like a drowned rat actually living in one of the most expensive penthouses in Brooklyn. He hit the meter.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was Harper.

Voice Message: "Tell me it's done. Tell me the ink is dry and you are currently fleeing the scene of the crime. Drinks are on me. The Vault. Tonight. No excuses."

Aislinn leaned her head against the cool glass of the window. The city blurred into streaks of neon and grey. She closed her eyes and let out a breath she felt like she'd been holding for seven hundred and thirty days.

When she unlocked the door to her apartment, the silence that greeted her wasn't lonely; it was luxurious. She kicked off the scuffed loafers she wore to annoy Eric's mother and dug her toes into the deep pile of the authentic Persian rug that cost more than the alimony she had just rejected.

She dropped the canvas bag. She walked into the bathroom and turned on the tap. The water ran warm. She splashed it over her face, scrubbing hard. She reached for the bottle of specialized oil cleanser and began to rub.

Grey foundation dissolved. The fake, painted-on freckles that gave her a childish, unpolished look wiped away. The contouring that made her face look rounder and softer vanished. She grabbed a towel and patted her face dry.

She looked in the mirror.

The woman staring back was a stranger to Eric Koch. Her skin was porcelain, luminous and clear. Her cheekbones were sharp enough to cut glass. Her eyes, no longer hidden behind the thick, distorting lenses of her black-framed glasses, were a piercing, intelligent green.

She reached behind her back and unhooked the compression corset she wore every day. Her ribs expanded. She took a deep, full breath. Her body, freed from the constraints of "Aislinn the Dowdy Wife," settled back into its natural, statuesque curves.

"Goodbye, Mrs. Koch," she whispered to the reflection. Her voice wasn't raspy anymore. It was rich, velvet, and dangerous.

Her phone pinged again. An encrypted email notification.

Sender: Declan

Subject: Q3 Financials - Code Red

Aislinn picked up the phone, her eyes narrowing. She tapped out a reply with lightning speed, her thumbs moving in a blur.

Reply: Cut the marketing budget for the spring line. Reallocate to R&D. I want the new sketches on my server by midnight. - Rose.

Harper called again. "Pick up, you free woman!"

Aislinn answered, putting the phone on speaker as she walked into her walk-in closet-a space filled not with grey wool skirts, but with silks, velvets, and avant-garde pieces she had designed herself.

"I'm coming," Aislinn said.

"Good. Because I'm already in line and I told the bouncer my best friend is a newly single heiress. Don't make a liar out of me."

Aislinn ran her fingers along the rack of clothes. She stopped at a dress she had made three years ago. It was emerald green silk, backless, with a neckline that plunged dangerously low. It was a weapon of mass destruction in fabric form.

She pulled it on. The silk draped over her body like water. She opened a small, velvet-lined box on her vanity. Inside lay an antique emerald locket, suspended on a delicate gold chain. It was the only thing she had left of her mother.

She clasped it around her neck. The cool stone rested in the hollow of her throat.

She applied a coat of matte red lipstick. She looked at herself one last time. There was no trace of the timid girl who had signed the divorce papers an hour ago.

Tonight, she wasn't Aislinn Reese. She wasn't even Rose. She was just a woman who had been in a cage for too long, and the door had finally been left open.