Chapter 1

The roar of the private jet's engines was a constant, deafening hum, but the silence inside the cabin was worse.

It pressed down on me, heavy and suffocating.

Across the polished table, Ethan Vance, my husband, watched me with cold, unblinking eyes.

His handsome face, the one I had once loved so desperately, was a mask of detached cruelty.

"Sign it, Chloe." His voice was low, calm, which made it all the more terrifying.

The document lay between us.

A single sheet of paper that would transfer my half of our billion-dollar tech company, our life's work, to him.

To her.

My hands were shaking so badly I had to clench them in my lap.

"Ethan, please. We built this together. It's my future, my security."

He didn't even blink.

"Your security is not my concern right now."

My gaze flickered past him, to the open door of the jet.

Two of his massive bodyguards stood there, holding my younger sister, Lily.

She was sixteen, her face pale with terror, her eyes wide and pleading.

The wind whipped her hair around her face.

We were thousands of feet in the air.

"This is insane," I whispered, my voice cracking.

"You can't do this."

"I can," he said, his voice dropping even lower.

"I will. Scarlett needs this. She needs to be taken care of, after everything she's been through. It's the least I can do."

Scarlett Hayes.

His long-lost ex-girlfriend, the ghost who had haunted our marriage from the beginning.

She had reappeared a month ago, a tragic figure rescued from a supposed kidnapping, riddled with PTSD.

And in that month, my world had been systematically dismantled.

Ethan's guilt over her suffering had become a weapon he used against me.

"Scarlett has you," I said, a desperate plea.

"She has your money, your devotion. Why does she need my company? My legacy?"

"Because I want her to have it," he stated simply, as if that was the only reason that mattered.

"She deserves to have everything she lost, and more. You were just holding her place, Chloe. It's time to give it back."

His words hit me, a physical blow that knocked the air from my lungs.

Just holding her place.

So that's all I had ever been.

A substitute.

A placeholder until the real thing came back.

The love, the promises, the life we built-it was all a lie.

I looked at Lily again.

She was crying now, silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

I had raised her since our parents died.

She was my whole world, my only reason for living.

Ethan knew that.

He was using my greatest love as a weapon to destroy me.

"Sign it," he repeated, his patience wearing thin.

One of the guards gave Lily a slight shake.

She whimpered.

My heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vise.

I picked up the pen.

My signature was a shaky, unreadable scrawl, a testament to my broken spirit.

I slid the paper across the table.

"There. It's done. Now let her go. Let her come back inside."

Ethan picked up the document, his eyes scanning it with a flicker of satisfaction.

He gave a curt nod to the guards.

For a split second, relief washed over me.

It was over.

Lily was safe.

But then, the guard holding Lily's arm tightened his grip.

The other guard moved forward.

And with a single, brutal shove, they pushed my sister out of the open door.

Her scream was torn away by the wind.

I stared, frozen, at the empty doorway.

The world went silent, the roar of the engines fading to a distant buzz.

My mind refused to process what I had just seen.

It wasn't real.

It couldn't be real.

"No," I breathed.

The word was a faint puff of air.

"NO!"

I lunged across the table, my hands clawing for his face, but a bodyguard grabbed me from behind, his arm like a steel band around my chest, cutting off my air.

Ethan remained seated, perfectly composed.

"A deal is a deal, Chloe. You signed. But you needed to learn that defiance has consequences. You should have agreed immediately."

My mind fractured.

All I could see was Lily's terrified face as she fell.

All I could hear was her scream.

A guttural, animalistic sound ripped from my own throat.

I thrashed against the guard, but it was useless.

He had killed her.

He had taken my signature and then he had murdered my sister.

As darkness swamped the edges of my vision, a single, cold thought cut through the pain.

I remembered our first year together, a time I thought was perfect.

He had told me about Scarlett, the love of his life who died in a car crash.

He had cried in my arms.

I had comforted him, believing I was healing his broken heart.

Now I knew the truth.

He wasn't healing, he was just waiting.

And I was just the bandage he used to cover the wound.

The guard finally let me go, and I crumpled to the floor, a heap of empty agony.

Ethan stood up, straightened his suit jacket, and walked past me without a second glance.

The jet door closed, sealing me in with the ghost of my sister and the ruins of my life.

Lying on the plush carpet, a tiny, defiant spark ignited in the ashes of my heart.

He had taken everything.

My love, my company, my sister.

He thought he had broken me.

But as the jet began its descent, I made a silent promise to the memory of Lily.

I would survive this.

I would escape.

And I would make him pay.

My hand fumbled for my phone, hidden in the inner pocket of my coat.

My fingers, still trembling, typed a single word to a secure number I had memorized long ago.

A number belonging to Ben Carter, the one bodyguard who had quit Ethan's service out of disgust.

Now.