Chapter 5

The black Rolls-Royce glided silently into the private underground garage of the penthouse building.

The ride from the hospital had been suffocating. The air inside the luxury cabin was thick with toxic silence. Neither of them had looked at each other; neither of them had spoken a single word.

The elevator doors opened directly into the penthouse foyer. Cooper stepped out first, his long strides eating up the distance across the marble floor.

Claire followed quietly, closing the door behind her.

Cooper stopped in the middle of the hallway. He shrugged off his custom Tom Ford suit jacket-the exact jacket whose sleeve Claire had brushed against in the hospital room.

Instead of handing it to the waiting butler, Cooper walked straight past him and headed directly into the massive, pristine kitchen.

Claire watched from the hallway as he lifted the lid of the stainless-steel garbage can. Without a second of hesitation, he shoved the five-thousand-dollar jacket into the trash, pushing it down among the coffee grounds and food scraps.

He turned his head, his cold eyes locking onto Claire. He looked at her exactly the way he looked at the garbage.

Without a word, he walked down the hall, entered the master suite, and slammed the heavy door shut. The violent sound echoed through the empty, cavernous apartment.

Claire walked slowly into the kitchen. She stood over the garbage can, looking at the ruined fabric.

She didn't cry. Her tear ducts felt completely dry. She reached in, pulled the stained jacket out, and quietly placed it into a recycling bag.

Three days later. Sterling had been moved back to the Hamptons for strict bed rest.

Claire sat alone at the massive dining table, staring blankly at a mug of cold black coffee.

Her phone screen suddenly lit up, vibrating aggressively against the wood. A barrage of push notifications flooded the lock screen.

She tapped the first one. It opened the Page Six app.

The headline felt like a physical blow to the stomach: CENTURY REUNION: COOPER GUTHRIE AND KENDALL HESS DAZZLE AT THE MET GALA.

Beneath the bold text was a high-definition photograph. Kendall was wearing a plunging, backless haute couture gown, leaning intimately against Cooper's chest.

Cooper was looking down at Kendall. The expression on his face was one Claire hadn't seen in two years. It was soft. It was indulgent. It was pure, unadulterated love.

Claire's thumb hovered over the screen. Her face remained completely expressionless. She didn't care about Kendall's victorious smile. She didn't care about the public humiliation.

She placed two fingers on the screen and zoomed in tight on the right side of the photograph.

She stared at the crystal glass in Cooper's hand.

She studied the thick, amber liquid sloshing against the square ice cubes. The color and viscosity were unmistakable.

It was pure, uncut single malt whiskey.

A cold sweat broke out across the back of Claire's neck. Her heart rate doubled instantly, hammering against her ribs.

No.

The post-transplant protocol was absolute. Zero alcohol. Especially not hard liquor. The immunosuppressants he took daily were already heavily taxing his liver. Adding high-proof alcohol to the mix was a death sentence for the transplanted organ.

Claire closed the app immediately. She opened her encrypted notes app.

Her fingers flew across the keyboard, logging the date, the event, and the visual evidence of the whiskey. She reviewed the entries from the past month. His skin had been looking slightly sallow in the mornings. He had been rubbing his chest more frequently.

She locked her phone and stood up, her chair scraping loudly against the floor.

She needed data. She needed to see his latest blood work, and she needed it today.