Chapter 4

Claudia Sims POV

I stepped out of the shadows.

My heels clicked against the marble floor, a sound I had trained myself to make softly, unobtrusively. But now I let them ring out, sharp and clear. The journalists turned. Ashton's face went pale, then flushed with a rising tide of anger that I could see spreading up from his collar like a stain. Bianca's perfectly glossed lips parted in shock, then twisted into a mask of wounded innocence that I suspected she had practiced in front of a mirror.

"The stag was discovered in a private collection in Thessaloniki," I said, my voice calm and steady. I had spent years in boardrooms full of men who wanted to see me fail. I had learned to speak in a way that cut through noise. "It had been misattributed to a Roman workshop for over a century. I spent eighteen months working with forensic archaeologists and metallurgists at the University of Athens to authenticate its true origin. We used X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to analyze the trace elements in the bronze, and the isotopic signature matched ore deposits known only from a specific region in ancient Macedonia. It's one of only three known examples from that particular atelier. The other two are in the British Museum and the Louvre."

The room went silent. Not the polite silence of people waiting for the next speaker, but the profound, weighty silence of a moment that everyone in the room understands will be remembered. The journalists turned to look at me, their pens hovering, their eyes bright with the scent of a story that was about to get much more interesting.

"Ash." Bianca's voice was a theatrical tremble. "Who is this woman? She's ruining my moment."

Ashton stepped forward, his smile tight and dangerous. I had seen that smile before. It was the smile he wore when he was about to make someone disappear-from a deal, from a guest list, from the narrative he controlled with such obsessive precision.

"Claudia, this is neither the time nor the place. You've had too much to drink. Go get some air."

"I haven't had a drop." I turned to the ArtForum journalist and smiled. It was not a nice smile. It was the smile of a woman who had spent five years swallowing her own voice and had just remembered what it sounded like. "I'm Claudia Sims. I was the lead curator and authenticator for the Artemis Collection. Bianca Burks was brought on as a public face. I'm happy to provide you with the full provenance documentation for any piece in the exhibit-including the metallurgical analysis, the archival research, and the correspondence with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture."

The journalist's eyes lit up. "You're the Claudia Sims? The one who authenticated the lost Caravaggio in Naples? The David with the Head of Goliath that had been sitting in a private chapel for two hundred years?"

"The same."

Ashton grabbed my arm. His fingers dug into the flesh of my bicep with deliberate force, the pressure calibrated to hurt without leaving a mark that would be visible in the morning. I had felt that grip before, in private moments when he wanted to remind me of my place. This was the first time he had done it in public.

"Excuse us," he said to the room, his voice a low growl that didn't match the polished smile still fixed on his face. He dragged me through a side door into an empty corridor. The door swung shut behind us, muffling the sudden buzz of excited conversation that erupted in our wake.

The corridor was dim and cold, lined with marble busts of long-dead benefactors whose names were engraved on plaques throughout the museum. They stared at us with blank stone eyes as Ashton backed me against the wall, his face inches from mine, his breath hot and sour with champagne.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed.

"Correcting the record," I said, my voice level. I could feel my heart hammering against my ribs, but I would not let him see it. I would not give him that satisfaction. "I did the work. Not her."

"She's the brand ambassador! That's how this works. We've discussed this."

"No, Ashton. You discussed it. You informed me. You never asked."

He laughed. It was a short, ugly sound, utterly devoid of humor. "Asked? You're a consultant, Claudia. A freelancer. I pay you for your expertise. That doesn't give you the right to hijack a press event and embarrass my star talent."

Pay me. The words landed like a slap, even though I had been expecting them. Every dollar he had ever "paid" me-every check he had written with such magnanimous flourish-had come from a shell company I owned. The irony was so bitter it coated my tongue like copper.

I pulled my arm free. The skin was already reddening, the imprint of his fingers a livid brand. "I'm leaving."

"Fine. Go home. Sleep it off. We'll talk about this tomorrow, when you've calmed down and can apologize to Bianca properly."

"I'm not going home, Ashton. I'm done."

He stared at me. For a moment-just a fraction of a second-genuine confusion flickered across his handsome features. He looked like a man who had been walking confidently across a floor he believed to be solid, only to feel the first tremor of an earthquake.

"Done? What does that mean?"

"It means I'm leaving you. The engagement is off. I'll send for my things."

I turned and walked down the corridor. My heels clicked against the marble, each step a small, sharp report. I didn't run. Running would have given him the satisfaction of seeing me rattled. I walked with my spine straight and my head high, even as my heart slammed against my ribs and my vision blurred with tears I refused to let fall.

"Claudia!" His voice echoed after me, sharp with command. "Claudia, don't you dare walk away from me!"

I didn't stop. I kept walking until I reached the emergency exit at the end of the corridor, pushed through the heavy door, and stepped out into the cold October night. The air hit my face like a slap, clean and sharp, and I sucked it into my lungs like a drowning woman breaking the surface.

Above me, the city glittered, a kingdom of glass and steel and lies. And somewhere in that kingdom, in a penthouse apartment I hadn't visited in five years, there was a man who had once pressed an encrypted phone into my palm and told me he would keep the seat warm.

I reached into my purse, past the lipstick I never wore, and my fingers closed around cold, smooth plastic.