Chapter 2

Blake Harrison stepped forward, a triumphant sneer on his face.

"Yeah, Miller. How did a nobody like you even get past the lobby? Did you sneak in with the catering staff?"

Chloe' s friends tittered, their eyes sharp and mocking.

"Chloe, sweetie," another friend, Jessica, cooed, "Blake was just saying how he could really help you. He has connections. He could introduce you to people who matter."

Blake puffed his chest out. "I can give Chloe the life she deserves, Miller. Something you clearly can't."

He looked at Chloe, his expression softening into a look of supposed devotion. "I'd treat you like a queen, Chloe. Not like... this." He waved a dismissive hand in Ethan' s direction.

Chloe looked from Blake to Ethan, her expression a whirlwind of confusion, shame, and a flicker of something that might have been guilt. She didn't defend Ethan. She didn't tell Blake to back off.

Ethan felt a cold wave wash over him. Vance' s words echoed in his mind: "top-tier company... a sophisticated lady from a good family."

Chloe.

Vance, or someone, had arranged for Chloe to be his "company."

The realization was a punch to the gut. He thought of their morning, Chloe laughing as he made her coffee, her hand lingering in his. Just hours ago.

Was she in on this? Was this her idea of networking? Or worse?

The pain was sharp, intense. He' d built walls around his true life to protect their relationship from exactly this kind of superficiality, this transactional view of people.

And now, it seemed the very person he was trying to protect was part of the charade.

His love for Chloe was a deep, anchoring force in his life. But this public humiliation, her accusation, the implication that she was being offered to him like some prize...

His mind, usually so quick and analytical, felt clouded with hurt.

But beneath the hurt, a cold, hard decisiveness began to form, a trait that had made him a billionaire.

He looked directly at Chloe, his voice devoid of its usual warmth, flat and final.

"Chloe," he said, the words cutting through the smug chatter. "I want a divorce."

The room fell silent.

Chloe' s eyes widened in genuine shock. The color drained from her face.

"What... Ethan, what are you saying?"

Blake and his friends, however, looked momentarily stunned, then burst into derisive laughter.

"A divorce?" Blake scoffed. "You? Divorcing Chloe? Don't make me laugh, Miller. You're lucky she even gave you the time of day."