Chapter 4 4

The next day, Olivia Montgomery became Mrs. Alexander Reed in a ceremony attended by eight hundred of Boston's elite. Photographs captured her radiant smile, her perfect gown, and her handsome husband.

None captured the emptiness in her eyes or the trembling of her hands as she spoke vows she didn't mean. None showed the bruises on her upper arms where Alexander had gripped her too tightly the night before, warning her to be convincing.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife," the priest declared to thunderous applause.

As Alexander claimed her mouth in a possessive kiss, Olivia's gaze drifted to the back of the cathedral, a reflexive, hopeless search for a face she knew wouldn't be there. Couldn't be there.

FIVE YEARS LATER

"Mr. Chen? They're ready for you."

Ethan Chen glanced up from his tablet, the quarterly reports momentarily forgotten as his executive assistant hovered in the doorway of his private jet. At thirty-five, Ethan had transformed from the desperate young man beaten in a parking garage to one of the most powerful tech moguls in the country.

Chen Innovations had revolutionized medical technology, and his patented neural interfaces are now standard in hospitals worldwide. The fortune he'd amassed made the Montgomerys look like small-time players.

"Tell them I'll be five minutes," he replied, his voice carrying the quiet authority that had become his trademark.

The assistant, whose name he should probably remember but didn't bother to, nodded and retreated, leaving him alone with the memories that had unexpectedly surfaced.

Five years. Five years of single-minded focus, of severing every emotional connection that might distract him from his goal. Five years of building an empire specifically designed to crush the people who had destroyed him.

His mother hadn't lived to see his success. Grace Chen had survived three years after receiving the Rothman Protocol, three good years where she'd watched Victoria graduate college and Ethan launch his first startup. But in the end, her heart had given out despite everything.

Her final words still haunted him: "Don't let bitterness consume you, Ethan. Find love again."

Love. The very thought left a bitter taste in his mouth. He'd had affairs, discreet, emotionless encounters that served physical needs but never touched the frozen wasteland where his heart had once been.

The tablet chimed with a news alert, drawing his attention back to the present. His finger froze above the screen as a familiar face stared back at him from the business section: "OLIVIA REED FINALIZES DIVORCE, STEPS DOWN FROM MONTGOMERY-REED FOUNDATION."

She looked different, thinner, her face more angular, her eyes holding a wariness that hadn't been there five years ago. But still beautiful. Still capable of causing a momentary hitch in his breathing before he ruthlessly suppressed it.

The article detailed the "amicable separation" after five years of marriage, citing "irreconcilable differences." Ethan's mouth twisted in a cold smile. He knew the real story, how Alexander Reed had been systematically embezzling from the Montgomery fortune, how his affairs had become increasingly public, how the last one had resulted in a pregnancy that couldn't be hushed up.

Ethan had made sure of that, placing his own people in the Reed household staff, gathering evidence of Alexander's misdeeds for years. The anonymous tip to the financial authorities had been timed perfectly, just as Alexander was attempting to secure financing for a project.

Revenge served cold, calculated, and complete.

So why didn't it feel more satisfying?

The tablet chimed again, his sister this time.

Victoria: Did you see the news about Olivia?

Victoria was the only person who still occasionally mentioned that name to him. The only one brave enough.

Ethan: Irrelevant.

Victoria: She's applying for positions. Word is she's broke, her father cut her off when she filed for divorce, and the prenup left her nothing.

Ethan's jaw tightened. Not my concern.

Victoria: She sold her jewelry to pay for mom's burial plot maintenance two years ago. Anonymously, but my source confirmed it was her.

His fingers froze above the screen. That couldn't be right. Why would Olivia..

Victoria: Just thought you should know. She's interviewing at Jensen Corp tomorrow. For an ASSISTANT position, Ethan. After everything, she's still trying to do more damage.

He shut off the tablet with more force than necessary, a strange discomfort settling in his chest. It didn't make sense. Nothing about Olivia Montgomery, Reed, he corrected himself, had ever made sense.

"Mr. Chen? The board is getting impatient," his assistant's voice came through the intercom.

Ethan stood, buttoning his impeccably tailored jacket, forcibly redirecting his thoughts to the acquisition he was about to finalize. Jensen Corp, a mid-sized tech company with promising medical imaging technology that would complement Chen Innovations' portfolio perfectly.

The same Jensen Corp where Olivia was apparently interviewing tomorrow.

Pure coincidence. Nothing more.

"Tell them I'm on my way," he responded, sliding the tablet into his briefcase. "And contact HR. Tell them we'll need a new executive assistant for me when we land in Boston. Immediately."

It was time to return to the city where everything had begun and ended. Time to confront the final players in the game he'd been methodically winning for five years.

Time to face Olivia Montgomery Reed one last time, and finally exorcise her from his system completely.

Across town, in a modest apartment that was a far cry from the Montgomery mansion or the Reed estate, Olivia sat alone at her kitchen table, staring at a news alert of her own: "TECH BILLIONAIRE ETHAN CHEN RETURNS TO BOSTON FOR JENSEN CORP ACQUISITION."

Her trembling fingers traced his face on the screen, harder now, his eyes holding none of the warmth she remembered, his success evident in every confident line of his posture. The boy she'd sacrificed everything to save had become exactly the man she'd always known he could be.

And he would hate her more than ever if he knew the truth.