Chapter 2 No.2

Frida bent down and retrieved the paper bag from the floor. "I brought you soup," she said, her voice small. "The spicy one from that place on 5th. Your favorite."

Kalea looked at the bag. Her stomach gave a violent lurch at the thought of food. "I can't," she said softly. "I'll ruin the lipstick. And... I don't think I can keep it down."

Frida set the bag on the unmade hospital bed with a force that made the mattress bounce. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, her thumbs flying across the screen with aggressive speed. "You need to see this. Before you walk into that lion's den."

She shoved the screen into Kalea's line of sight.

It was a paparazzi photo, grainy and taken from a distance, but the subjects were unmistakable. Franco Preston was walking out of the revolving doors of the St. Regis Hotel. His hand was resting possessively on the lower back of a woman in a short, tight dress. Jennie Spence.

Kalea stared at the image. She waited for the jealousy to hit. She waited for the heartbreak. But there was nothing. Just a dull, aching fatigue.

"He was with her this morning," Frida said, her voice rising in anger. "While you were lying here with tubes down your throat, he was at the St. Regis with his uncle's secretary."

"I know," Kalea said. She turned to the bedside table and picked up her clutch, sliding her phone inside.

Frida grabbed Kalea's wrist. Her fingers were warm, a stark contrast to Kalea's icy skin. "You know? That's it? Kalea, you have to dump him. You have to walk away. This isn't a marriage, it's a humiliation ritual."

Kalea looked down at Frida's hand on her wrist. "I have a prenup, Frida. And a merger contract. My signature on that marriage license is worth three hundred million dollars to the Alexander Group. If I walk away now, without cause that holds up in their court, they will bury me. Financially, socially... completely."

"You are a human being, not a commodity!" Frida yelled, tears springing to her eyes. "You are expensive merchandise to them!"

"Yes," Kalea said, her voice hollow. "I am."

Her phone buzzed again inside the clutch. She pulled it out. The screen read: Franco.

Frida reached for the phone. "Don't answer it. Let him rot."

Kalea moved her hand away gently. She took a deep breath, her posture straightening, her face smoothing into a mask of polite detachment. She swiped answer.

"Hello, Franco," she said. Her voice was steady, pleasant, the voice of a well-trained fiancée.

"I'm outside," Franco's voice was impatient, accompanied by the background noise of traffic and a car horn. "The traffic is a nightmare. Come down now. We're already running late."

"I'm just-"

"Ten minutes, Kalea. Don't make me wait."

The line went dead.

Kalea lowered the phone. She looked at Frida and gave a small, helpless shrug.

Frida began to pace the small room, muttering curses under her breath. "He's a monster. They're all monsters. I hate them."

Kalea walked to the chair where her shoes were waiting. Four-inch stilettos. Putting them on felt like stepping into torture devices. Her ankles wobbled, weak from dehydration and stress. She reached into her bag and pulled out a small bottle of painkillers. She shook two into her palm and swallowed them dry, the pills scraping against her throat.

"Kalea..." Frida whispered, watching her. "Why do you endure this?"

Kalea walked to the door. She paused, her hand on the metal handle. She didn't turn around.

"Because I have nowhere else to go," she said.

She stepped out into the hallway. The air was cooler here. She walked to the elevator, the click-clack of her heels echoing in the quiet corridor. She pressed the button for the lobby. The elevator descended, and Kalea watched the numbers count down, feeling like she was sinking into deep water.

When the doors opened, the lobby was bright and busy. She walked out the automatic doors. The evening air was biting.

A black stretch limousine was idling at the curb, looking like a sleek, dark predator. The windows were tinted so dark they were like mirrors.

The driver, a man Kalea recognized as Franco's personal chauffeur, stepped out and opened the rear door. He didn't look at her face.

Kalea bent down and slid into the backseat.

The smell hit her instantly. It wasn't Franco's cologne. It was a sweet, floral scent. Heavy. Cloying.

It was Jennie Spence's perfume.

Franco was sitting in the corner, half-hidden in the shadows. The blue light of his phone illuminated his sharp jawline. He was typing furiously. He didn't look up when she entered.

Kalea pulled the door shut. The heavy thud sealed them in. The air was thick with the scent of betrayal, and the silence was louder than a scream.