Chapter 1

For ten years, I, Ava Miller, lived a half-life.

My days belonged to Ethan Cole, CEO of Cole Innovations, tech scion, and the man I loved since childhood.

My nights were mine, spent sketching designs he' d never see, for a scholarship I' d deferred.

To the world, I was his executive assistant, hyper-efficient, almost invisible.

Friends, the few I had time for, called me a doormat.

They didn' t know Ethan and I were married, a secret arrangement by his parents years ago to give him a "stable" image.

A marriage he ignored, resented.

They didn' t know about the boy who, twenty years ago at a group home, stood up for a foster kid against bullies. That boy was Ethan. That foster kid was me.

That kindness was a debt I repaid daily.

This morning, like countless others, I was at his penthouse before dawn.

His preferred coffee, black, two sugars, was ready.

His schedule, meticulously planned.

Including his date tonight with Tiffany Hayes, socialite, influencer, his public girlfriend.

I' d secured the reservation at the city's most exclusive new restaurant.

Then I handled the return of a ridiculously expensive handbag Tiffany had bought on Ethan' s account and discarded.

This was the 98th time I' d swallowed my pride, my pain, for him.

My worn wooden keepsake box sat on my small desk in my tiny apartment.

A gift from Mrs. Gable, my late foster home director.

Inside, my journals, photos I' d secretly taken of Ethan over the years, a pressed flower from our first, brief meeting.

My real life was in that box.

A one-way flight ticket to another state was tucked inside my latest journal.

For a design fellowship at a university I dreamed of.

Booked. Confirmed.

Soon.