Chapter 1

The air in the hospital room was cold and smelled of disinfectant, a sharp scent that did little to cover the underlying odor of sickness. Rain lashed against the window, blurring the city lights into a watercolor mess. My own reflection was a pale, hollow-eyed stranger looking back at me.

I pressed my hand against my lower abdomen, a dull ache throbbing deep inside. The doctor' s words from earlier echoed in my head, a clinical, detached summary of what they had done. An induced abortion. The end of a life that had barely begun. The end of my marriage.

My phone screen lit up with a news alert. "Tech Giant Liam Sterling Announces Groundbreaking Partnership with Sterling Corp' s Biggest Rival." A picture of my husband, Liam, was attached. He was smiling, his arm wrapped tightly around my best friend, Chloe Davis. They stood on a stage, bathed in the flash of cameras, looking like the perfect power couple. He had not only betrayed me with her, he had stolen the design project I had poured my soul into and handed it to our competitor, a move that ruined my professional reputation overnight. The project was meant to be my masterpiece, the culmination of my career as a fashion designer, but now it was just another part of the wreckage of my life.

I turned away from the phone, my stomach churning with a mix of grief and rage. I had to get away from him, from this city, from everything that reminded me of the life he had destroyed. My thoughts drifted to a place I had sworn never to return to, my family' s remote vineyard. It was a place heavy with memories, a place I had run from years ago after a painful falling out with my grandmother. But now, it was the only sanctuary I could think of.

A rustle from the bed beside me drew my attention. My mother, her face etched with worry, was still unconscious. Seeing her fragile state, my resolve hardened. I had to be strong for her. I picked up my phone again, my fingers hovering over Liam' s contact. I thought about all the years we had spent together, the love I thought we shared. It all felt like a lie now.

With a final, decisive tap, I sent him a message. "I want a divorce." There was no room for negotiation, no space for his excuses. It was a declaration.

A wave of dizziness washed over me, and I gripped the side of the bed to steady myself. The physical pain was a dull counterpoint to the sharp agony in my heart. I closed my eyes, picturing the vineyard, the rows of grapevines stretching towards the horizon. It was a place of my past, but maybe, just maybe, it could also be the place of my future. My new beginning.