Chapter 1

The email landed with the thud of a guillotine blade: "Company-Wide Announcement: Acquisition & New Leadership." My stomach twisted. Another tech buyout in Austin. More upheaval. Then I saw the new CEO's name: Isabella Rossi. My ex-wife.

A mandatory all-hands meeting was called for that afternoon. The air in the conference room was thick with nervous chatter. I found a seat in the back, hoping to blend into the cheap office chairs.

Then she walked in. Isabella. Power suit, sharp heels clicking on the polished concrete, a predatory grace. Her eyes scanned the room, cold and assessing. They landed on me. No flicker of recognition. Just a boss surveying her new assets.

Later, a memo about a "Team Cohesion BBQ" for single employees appeared on everyone's screen. Our team lead, Dave, clapped his hands. "Alright, single folks! Your chance to mingle! Free brisket and beer at Zilker Park this Friday!"

My name was already on the sign-up sheet Dave had circulated. A little bit of forced fun, sure, but a break was a break. I was about to log off when my office phone, a relic I rarely used, rang.

"Jake, my office. Now." Isabella's voice. Unmistakable.

I walked into the newly claimed CEO suite. It already smelled of her expensive, suffocating perfume. She was standing by the panoramic window, looking out over the Austin skyline.

"That BBQ," she said, not turning around. "You're not going."

"Excuse me?"

She finally faced me. "You have a critical project deadline. You'll be working late. Friday, and probably the weekend."

"This is the first I'm hearing about it."

"It's the first you *need* to hear about it." She picked up a printout of the BBQ sign-up sheet. My name was highlighted. With a red pen, she drew a thick line through it. "And Jake," her voice dropped, a silken threat, "stay away from the new interns. Or any woman in this company. Understood?"

I just stared at her. The audacity.

Back at my desk, Sarah from marketing leaned over my cubicle wall. "Dude, what was that about? The new ice queen called you in already?"

"Just work stuff," I mumbled, trying to focus on my code.

"Work stuff that gets you uninvited from the singles' brisket-fest?" Mark, another engineer, chimed in from across the aisle, his voice low. "Heard she personally scratched your name off the list."

Sarah's eyes widened. "No way! Is she... into you? Like, doing that power-play-flirting thing?"

A few other heads popped up. The office gossip mill was already grinding.

"Seriously, Jake," Sarah persisted, "she barely looked at anyone else in that meeting, but she zeroed in on you. And now this? It's like something out of a bad romance novel."

"She has a boyfriend," I said, my voice flat, louder than I intended. "They're practically engaged. Alex. Her college sweetheart." I packed my bag, the cheap nylon crinkling. "I'm out of here."

The elevator ride down was filled with their curious glances. As the doors opened to the lobby, Sarah asked, "How do you know so much about her personal life, Jake?"

"Yeah, man, spill," Mark added.

I paused at the building exit, the Texas sun already baking the pavement. "Because I'm the ex-husband she cheated on for five years with him." I let that hang in the air, then walked out.

Driving home to my small rental, the city lights blurring past, I felt... nothing. Not anger, not sadness. Just a vast, echoing emptiness where Isabella used to be. We'd had five years of marriage, four years of dating before that. Nine years. A lifetime, it felt like. We didn't even make it to the seven-year itch of marriage, but if you counted the whole charade, we'd crawled past it. The end result was the same. Estrangement. Complete and total. My heart was a dead thing in my chest when it came to Isabella Rossi.