Chapter 1 Divorce, leaving with nothing

June's brutal sun blazed down, warping the New York City skyline in a haze of sweltering heat.

Gabriella stepped out of the corporate skyscraper, her clothes streaked with drying blood. She stared down at the signed partnership contract in her hand, a bitter smile tugging at her delicate, porcelain features.

She'd taken a bullet to lock this deal down.

And it would be the last thing she ever did for Damian Nunez.

Damian had chased her relentlessly for three years. They'd been married for one, until he'd looked her dead in the eye and said he was bored of her. At first, she'd screamed, fought, sobbed-only to be met with his cold, cutting mockery. "Gabriella, you look hideous right now. You make me sick. Let's get a divorce."

She'd found out later it was never just boredom. He'd met his so-called soulmate.

He hadn't set foot in their Tribeca penthouse in two months, not since the day he'd first mentioned divorce.

There was no point in dragging this out any longer.

Gabriella changed out of her bloodied clothes, hailed a yellow cab, and rode straight to Damian's downtown Manhattan headquarters. She took the private elevator directly to the top-floor executive suite, and before she could reach the office door, a soft, breathy female voice froze her to the spot, drifting through the crack in the heavy oak door.

"Damian, stop it... you're gonna make my lips swell."

A sharp, searing pain seized Gabriella's chest.

To force herself to let go completely, she pushed the half-open door and stepped inside.

The lavish, sprawling office came into view. Hayleigh Blair was perched in Damian's lap, face flushed, lips swollen and marked, clear evidence of what they'd been doing only moments before.

The biological daughter of the Blair family that had taken Gabriella in-the same woman who'd always claimed this marriage was meant to be hers.

When she saw Gabriella walk in, panic flashed across her young face, and she scrambled off Damian's lap. "Sis, I-"

Gabriella didn't spare her a single glance. She walked straight to the solid mahogany desk, set down the signed partnership contract, and laid a divorce agreement on top of it.

Only then did she look up at the man across from her: Damian Nunez, the wealthiest man in New York City. He wore a tailored black dress shirt and slacks, exuding lazy old-money elegance, his features sharp and devastatingly handsome. Beneath his dark, swept-back hair, his face twisted into cold disgust as he stared at her-a look that sent a stabbing pain straight through her chest.

"The corporate partnership is locked down. Fully executed contract," she said, her voice eerily calm, as if this marriage meant nothing to her at all. "Beneath it is the divorce agreement. I've already signed it. It's 2 PM. We're going to the courthouse to finalize this today."

Only the deathly pallor of her face, and the way her thin, fragile frame swayed unsteadily on her feet, gave away the agony she was in.

A flicker of surprise crossed Damian's face, quickly replaced by his usual icy contempt. "Color me impressed, Gabriella. Half the firms on Wall Street couldn't close this deal, and you locked it down. I'm curious-how exactly did you get this over the line?"

His low, drawling voice dripped with disdain, as if he was already certain she'd used underhanded means to secure the contract.

Gabriella's hands clenched into fists at her sides, her gaze dropping for a split second to hide the raw pain in her eyes. She let out a cold, hollow laugh. "You only care about the end result, don't you, Mr. Nunez? Why do you care about the process? Are you gonna sign the divorce papers, or not?"

Hayleigh looked up at Damian anxiously, voice tight and pleading. "Damian, you promised you'd marry me. This marriage was never meant to be hers in the first place-it was mine. I'm back now, and you have to keep your promise."

Damian lifted a hand, brushing his fingers gently over her soft cheek, before glancing at Gabriella, expression dark and unreadable. "Marry you? Of course I will. I'm gonna finalize the divorce with this woman right now."

The tenderness in his eyes as he looked at Hayleigh cut through Gabriella's chest like a knife. In that moment, she realized with a sickening jolt that Damian had never looked at her with that much softness. Not once in all their years together.

"Damian, I knew you'd always choose me," Hayleigh cooed, snuggling happily into his chest, shooting Gabriella a triumphant, challenging smirk over his shoulder.

Gabriella dropped her gaze to the floor, refusing to look at the sight shattering her heart. She could barely tell if the searing pain was from the bullet wound in her side, or the one that had just split open her chest.

Damian picked up the divorce agreement, flipping through the pages until he landed on the clause Gabriella had amended. His pupils constricted violently, voice dropping to a dangerous, gravelly rumble. "You're waiving every single right to the Nunez family fortune? You're walking away with nothing? A clean break?"

Gabriella forced the words out through gritted teeth, voice hoarse and broken. "If we're getting a divorce, we're cutting ties completely. I want nothing from you."

Once she'd made up her mind, she never turned back.

Four years. Her four years with him were over. It was time to leave, for good.

Damian's handsome face shifted, a storm of conflicting emotions raging in his deep eyes, disdain plain to see. "That's so you, Gabriella. You always have to be this ruthless with everything. Let's go. The courthouse."