Chapter 2 2

A bitter smile tugged at Gabriella's lips. So this was what she'd always been to him.

An hour later, Gabriella and Damian Nunez stepped out of the New York City Civil Courthouse, each holding a finalized divorce decree in their hand.

Hayleigh Blair waited eagerly by the curb, eyes lighting up the second she saw the divorce papers in Damian's hand. She'd finally earned the right to be Damian Nunez's wife, fair and square.

She put on a fake look of concern as she glanced at Gabriella. Something had shifted in the woman-her striking features were even more captivating now, but there was a cold, unapproachable edge to her that made it hard to meet her eye.

Hayleigh had always been jealous of that face. Now, she'd never have to look at it again.

"The family doesn't want you anymore, and you walked away with nothing," Hayleigh simpered, voice sickly sweet. "Do you even have anywhere to go?"

In her eyes, Gabriella was nothing but a backwoods hick from the Ohio Rust Belt. It had been a blessing for her to even be tied to the Blair household, and now that blessing was gone.

Gabriella let out a cold, humorless laugh. Even now, Hayleigh was still pretending to care about her.

Memories flashed through her mind, sharp and unforgiving: when the Blairs found out she'd been switched at birth, they'd shipped her off to live with distant relatives in the Rust Belt the second she was born, never checking in, never caring. They'd only brought her back to New York when she turned 18-the same year she'd met Damian Nunez.

Hayleigh, the Blairs' real daughter, had been found two years prior, immediately sent to an elite private boarding school in Switzerland, all to make her worthy of old-money heir Damian Nunez.

It wasn't until Hayleigh returned to New York for good that Gabriella learned the truth: the family had found their real daughter, and they wanted nothing to do with her anymore.

They'd never raised her. Cutting ties meant nothing to her. She'd only come back to New York to find out what had happened to her birth parents.

She'd also finally learned why she'd been sent away in the first place: she was never a Blair, not by blood.

And just a few days prior, she'd overheard Damian's friends talking, and learned the truth: Damian had met the sweet, innocent Hayleigh on a business trip to Europe, and fallen head over heels at first sight. When Hayleigh came back to New York, they'd fallen into a whirlwind romance.

Hayleigh had even sent Gabriella explicit photos of her and Damian in bed, over and over, just to taunt her, to humiliate her.

A homewrecker, bold and unapologetic to the extreme.

Gabriella shot her a single, indifferent glance. "Don't trouble yourself, Miss Blair. Where I go is none of your business."

She didn't spare Damian a single look. Spine perfectly straight, she hailed a yellow cab on the side of the road and climbed inside, the door slamming shut behind her.

She'd walked away so decisively because she knew the other terrible thing Damian had done.

Damian's hand tightened around the divorce decree until his knuckles turned white, veins bulging in his forearm. She'd left without even glancing at him. Not once.

But why had her gait been so off? So strange?

He stared at the cab as it disappeared into New York traffic, gaze fixed on the empty road long after it was gone, unable to look away.

"Damian, this is perfect!" Hayleigh gushed, clinging to his arm. "That backwoods hick is finally gone, and we can be together, properly, for everyone to see."

She was so overjoyed, she could barely wait to call her parents and tell them the good news.

A cold glint flashed through Damian's eyes, but his voice was soft and tender when he spoke. "Hayleigh, let me drive you home."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Hayleigh beamed. "Daddy will be so happy when he hears you're divorced. Let's go home and tell him the good news right now!"

Damian's eyes swirled with barely restrained emotion, unreadable to anyone but himself. He looked down at the sweet, innocent young woman in front of him, and smiled a soft, gentle smile. "Of course, Hayleigh. Let's go tell your father right now."

"Yes!" Hayleigh was ecstatic. She'd finally gotten rid of Gabriella for good. Gone completely. It was all thanks to her mother's flawless plan, the one that had gotten Damian and Gabriella divorced once and for all.

Damian pulled the car to a stop in front of the Blair family's grand Upper East Side townhouse. His phone buzzed in his pocket, caller ID flashing the CEO of H.Y. Holdings. He told Hayleigh to get out of the car and wait for him inside.

Hayleigh nodded obediently, climbing out and waiting on the front steps.

"Hello?" Damian answered, voice low and gravelly, features sharp and cold.

A mocking, yet deeply impressed voice came through the line. "Well, well. Your sales director's got some real nerve. Showed up at my warehouse with a knife to my throat, made me sign that damn contract. I put a bullet in her side, and she dug that slug out with her bare hands right in front of me. I've never admired a woman in my life, but your Gabriella? She's the one. She still breathing?"

Damian's pupils constricted violently, his blood turning to ice in his veins. "What did you just say?"