Chapter 1

My team lead looked at the termination letter on his desk, then at me, and couldn't meet my eyes.

"Ava, this came from the top. There was nothing I could do."

The official reason was a supposed error in a recent case, a mistake that required the entire legal department to take the fall.

And I was the scapegoat.

Everyone in the company knew about me and Nathan Hayes. I was his unofficial girlfriend, the woman who lived in his penthouse and organized his life.

No one here would dare fire me.

If anyone had the nerve, it was Nathan himself.

Chloe Davis was back. His high school sweetheart, his company' s co-founder, the woman he always called his savior. Her return meant my departure. I understood. He was giving his one true love a sense of security.

But after I was gone, I heard Nathan' s perfect world started to fall apart.

My lead kept apologizing, his voice low. "They said it was your mistake, so you had to be the one to go."

I looked at him, a man I' d worked with for three years, and gave him a small, reassuring nod. It wasn't his fault. He was just the messenger.

I knew who sent the message.

My dismissal was abrupt, a sudden shock to everyone on my team. They watched in silence as I started to clear my desk, their faces a mixture of pity and fear. They felt bad for me, but they were also terrified for their own jobs. If Nathan could discard me so easily, what chance did they have?

I didn't feel anger, not yet. Just a hollow space opening in my chest and, strangely, a sense of relief.

It was finally over.