Chapter 6

The penthouse was dead quiet. Cooper had left for the corporate headquarters an hour ago.

Claire stood in front of the heavy walnut doors of Cooper's private study. She turned the brass knob slowly, pushing the door open.

The room smelled of aged leather, expensive cigars, and the faint, lingering scent of his cold cologne.

She walked straight to the massive mahogany desk. She bypassed the top drawers and crouched down to the bottom right drawer-the one he always kept locked.

She knew he kept the spare key taped to the underside of the desk lamp. She retrieved it, slid it into the lock, and turned it.

Inside, beneath a stack of financial portfolios, she found a manila folder bearing the crest of Mount Sinai Hospital.

Claire pulled it out and opened it on the desk. It was his quarterly post-operative metabolic panel.

She flipped rapidly past the basic counts, her eyes scanning the dense medical jargon until she hit the hepatic and cardiovascular enzyme pages.

Her breath hitched.

Next to the AST and ALT liver enzymes, and the cardiac troponin levels, were bright red, bolded warning asterisks. The numbers were terrifyingly elevated.

At the bottom of the page, the chief cardiologist had scrawled a harsh note: Patient's continued alcohol consumption is inducing early-stage hepatotoxicity. Risk of secondary cardiac stress is critical. Immediate lifestyle intervention required.

Claire's hands began to shake violently. The thick paper rattled in her grip.

The heart that had loved her, the heart she had kissed a thousand times, was drowning in poison inside this man's chest.

She shoved the report back into the folder, locked the drawer, and replaced the key exactly where she found it. She wiped her fingerprints off the desk and backed out of the room.

Back in her bedroom, Claire booted up her laptop. She logged into the Ivy League medical database she still had access to from her pre-med days.

For three straight hours, she cross-referenced cardiac rehabilitation diets with hepatic recovery protocols. She calculated exact sodium limits, mapped out complex protein structures, and built a hyper-specific, medicinal meal plan.

At 2:00 PM, she drove the Porsche to the flagship Whole Foods. She spent four hundred dollars on the highest-grade organic, low-sodium ingredients she could find.

When she returned to the penthouse, she tied an apron around her waist and stepped into the chef's kitchen-a room she almost never used.

Maria, the head maid, walked in to grab a bottle of water. She stopped, eyeing Claire's apron and the spread of vegetables with a look of open disdain. She didn't offer to help. She simply sneered and walked out.

Claire ignored her. She picked up a knife and began to prep.

She weighed every single gram of wild-caught cod. She measured the exact drops of olive oil. She steamed the vegetables to preserve their micronutrients.

Two hours later, the kitchen was filled with the clean, savory scent of a perfectly executed heart-healthy meal.

She carefully transferred the food into a sleek, black Japanese bento box, sealing the thermal lid tightly.

She stood at the counter, staring at the box.

If she handed this to Cooper, he would throw it directly into the trash, just like the suit. He would rather starve than eat something she had touched.

An image of Kendall's perfectly glossed, smirking lips flashed in her mind.

A wave of intense nausea hit Claire. The plan forming in her head was the most humiliating thing she had ever considered. But it was the only way to get the nutrients into his bloodstream.

She pulled out her phone and dialed Joshuah, Cooper's executive assistant.

"Joshuah," she said, her voice low and tight. "I need you to meet me in the underground garage of the Guthrie building in twenty minutes. Please."

She hung up before he could ask questions, grabbed the heavy bento box, and walked to the elevator.