Chapter 1 His new flame

The heavy glass door of Vane & Co. swung open, allowing a gust of biting Manhattan wind to slice through the climate-controlled warmth of the jewelry store. Carly Farmer adjusted her sunglasses. She didn't shiver. She had trained her body to ignore the cold long ago.

A sales associate looked up, her eyes widening in immediate recognition. She rushed forward, her heels clicking a frantic rhythm on the marble floor.

"Mrs. Salazar," the associate breathed, her voice dripping with the specific kind of reverence reserved for the wife of a billionaire CEO. "We weren't expecting you. Would you like some sparkling water?"

Carly didn't answer. She didn't remove her leather gloves. She simply raised a hand and made a sharp, cutting motion. Then, she pulled a small notepad from her Hermès clutch and scribbled a name. She tore the page off and held it out.

Lola Vane.

The associate hesitated, glancing toward the back office. "The manager is currently-"

Carly tapped the paper. Once. Hard.

The associate swallowed and hurried away. Moments later, Lola Vane emerged. She was beautiful in a way that required high maintenance, her blonde hair perfectly coiffed, her smile practiced. But Carly saw the tightness at the corners of her eyes. It was the look of a woman who thought she was winning a game nobody else knew was being played.

"Mrs. Salazar," Lola said, smoothing her skirt. "What a surprise. Brice didn't mention you were coming."

It was a subtle power play. Using his first name. Implying they spoke more often than husband and wife did.

Carly ignored it. She walked to the velvet-lined counter and reached for her left hand. She gripped the platinum band on her ring finger. It was a custom piece, a flawless five-carat diamond that Brice had designed for the cameras three years ago.

She slid it off. It hit the velvet tray with a heavy, muffled thud.

Lola blinked, her smile faltering for a fraction of a second. "Oh, does it need cleaning? Or perhaps resizing? The winter air can make fingers shrink a bit."

Carly pulled out her iPad mini. She opened a text-to-speech app, but she didn't play the audio. She just typed, the soft clicks of her nails against the screen echoing in the silent VIP room. She turned the screen toward Lola.

Melt it.

Lola stared at the screen. She looked back at the ring, then up at Carly's impassive face behind the dark lenses. "Excuse me?"

Carly typed again.

I don't like what it represents. Melt it down. Make it into a dog tag.

A gasp rippled through the room. The two sales associates standing near the display cases froze. The air conditioning suddenly seemed very loud.

Lola's face flushed a pale pink. "Mrs. Salazar, surely you're joking. Brice designed this himself. It's... it's a symbol of your union."

Carly looked at Lola. She didn't need to speak. Her silence was a heavy, suffocating blanket. She tapped the screen again, harder this time.

Do I need to call corporate?

Lola's hands trembled slightly as she reached for the ring. It was a tremor of rage, not fear. She was being treated like a servant by the woman she was sleeping with. The humiliation was precise. Surgical.

"No," Lola said, her voice tight. "Of course not. The customer is always right."

Carly produced a matte black, unmarked debit card from a hidden pocket in her clutch-funded by an account Brice knew nothing about- and placed it on the counter. She typed one last instruction.

Put the recasting fee on this. And order afternoon tea from the Plaza for your staff. Everyone except you.

Lola took the card. Her knuckles were white. She had to process the transaction. She had to serve the wife. She had to swallow the insult because her position as the "other woman" gave her no leverage in the daylight.

Carly watched the ring disappear into the back workshop. She felt a phantom weight lift from her finger. It wasn't happiness. It was the relief of removing a tourniquet that had been on too tight for too long.

She turned and walked out. As she passed Lola, she paused. She lowered her sunglasses just an inch, revealing eyes that were dead calm. She looked at Lola the way a surgeon looks at a tumor before excision. Then she pushed the glasses back up and left.

Outside, her phone buzzed. A text from Brice.

Working late. Don't wait up for dinner.

Carly sat in the backseat of a waiting town car she had summoned, not her own vehicle. She didn't cry. She didn't throw the phone. She opened a tracking app buried deep in a sub-folder. The blue dot representing Brice's phone was blinking.

He was directly above her. In the penthouse apartment Vane & Co. owned.

She typed a reply. Okay. Don't work too hard.

She started the engine. She wasn't going up there to scream. Screaming was for people who had hope. She checked the rearview mirror, her eyes shifting from the wife to the operative. She put the car in gear and drove toward the law offices down the street.