Chapter 2

Adella Palmer POV:

The hours that followed were a blur of cold rooms and colder words. Fitzgerald' s lawyers, men with eyes like sharks and smiles that never reached them, put a thick legal document in front of me. I signed it without reading. Then, Fitzgerald himself drove me to the police station. He sat in the car while I went inside and delivered the humiliating, pre-rehearsed speech, my voice a monotone drone as I apologized for my "hysterical" behavior. The officers looked at me with a mixture of pity and annoyance. I was just another rich woman with too much time on her hands.

When I finally got to the private clinic, a place so sterile and white it felt like a tomb, a doctor met me in the lobby.

"Mr. Palmer is stable for now," he said, his tone clipped and professional. "But the damage is severe. The interrogation... the sustained stress... it induced a major cardiac event. He has extensive damage to the heart muscle. We also found evidence of electrical burns on his chest. What exactly happened to him?"

Electrical burns. They had used a defibrillator on him. Not to save him, but to torture him. The thought was so vile, so monstrous, it made me physically sick.

"He confessed," I said, the words Fitzgerald had drilled into me coming out automatically. "He confessed to what he did."

The doctor gave me a long, searching look, but I kept my face blank. I couldn't afford to break. Not yet.

I remembered the early days of Nexus Corp. The nights I' d spent by Fitzgerald' s side, fueled by coffee and ambition, helping him perfect his pitch decks. I remembered the endless dinners with venture capitalists, my chronic stomach condition flaring up as I forced down another glass of wine, smiling until my face ached, charming them, making them believe in the brilliant, charismatic man I presented. He was the genius; I was the glue, the quiet diplomat who smoothed over his social awkwardness and insecurity. I sacrificed my health, my own dreams of opening a small bakery, for his. He had promised it would all be worth it.

Now, standing in this cold, white clinic, I saw the true cost. My father' s life hanging by a thread. My own soul hollowed out.

"The prenup," I whispered to myself, the thought a tiny, sharp point of light in the darkness.

The prenuptial agreement. It had been his idea, right before the IPO that made him a billionaire. It was meant to be a grand gesture of his gratitude. "This isn' t to protect me from you, Addy," he' d said, his eyes earnest. "It' s to protect you. To ensure you are always rewarded for what you gave me."

I' d barely glanced at it. I trusted him. But I remembered my lawyer at the time, a shrewd old woman my father had insisted I hire, pointing to one specific clause. Clause 11-B. In the event of a divorce initiated by either party for any reason, forty percent of Fitzgerald' s shares in Nexus Corp-a controlling interest-would be transferred to me immediately and irrevocably upon the finalization of the decree.

At the time, it felt like a meaningless piece of legal jargon. Now, it was a weapon.

I took a deep, shuddering breath and walked to a quiet corner of the waiting room. I pulled out the burner phone I kept hidden in my purse for emergencies.

My first call was to my old lawyer. I explained the situation in clipped, urgent tones. "The prenup," I finished, my voice shaking. "Is it still valid?"

There was a pause on the other end. "Adella," she said, her voice grim. "It' s ironclad. He signed it when he was still just a man in love with the woman who saved him, not a billionaire trying to protect his assets. It' s the stupidest, most romantic, and legally binding document I' ve ever seen. If you file for divorce, those shares are yours."

Hope, cold and sharp, pierced through my despair.

"File it," I said. "File it today. Don' t serve him the papers. Just get the process started. Quietly."

My next call was to a number I' d been given years ago by a discreet financial advisor, a name whispered in circles of the ultra-wealthy for handling... sensitive transactions. The kind that needed to happen quickly and outside the public eye.

"I need to arrange a private auction," I told the smooth, calm voice on the other end of the line. "For a significant block of shares in a major tech company."

"Which company?"

"Nexus Corp," I said.

There was a sharp intake of breath. "That would be... a monumental sale. The controlling interest."

"Yes," I said. "Forty percent. I need it done as soon as possible. And I need it to be a surprise."

"The owner, Mr. Jones, he won' t know?"

"He will be the guest of honor," I said, a bitter smile touching my lips for the first time in days.

The voice on the other end chuckled, a dry, appreciative sound. "I see. Consider it done, Mrs. Jones. We live for this kind of theater."

As I hung up, I heard a nurse cooing in the hallway. "Oh, you are just the bravest little soldier, Kassie! So strong!"

I peered around the corner. Kassie was being wheeled out of a room, a small, neat bandage on her nose. She was holding court with two nurses, recounting a wildly fabricated story of how she' d been assaulted by a "crazed fan" and how Fitzgerald had heroically saved her.

The rage that filled me was so pure, so potent, it was almost clarifying. I saw the path forward with perfect, terrifying clarity.

I spent the next two days camped outside my father' s ICU room, sleeping in a hard plastic chair. Fitzgerald never came. He sent flowers with a card that read, "Hoping for a speedy recovery for your father. Stay strong. - F." It was the kind of generic, soulless message a corporation sends to a sick employee.

On the third day, my lawyer called.

"It' s done, Adella. The divorce was finalized by a judge this morning. The shares have been legally transferred to your name. The auction is scheduled for tomorrow night."

I hung up the phone and walked back to the mansion that had been my prison. I needed to play my part one last time.

I found Fitzgerald and Kassie in the living room. She was lying on the sofa with her head in his lap, watching a movie on the giant screen. He was stroking her hair.

When he saw me, his face tightened. "How is he?"

"The same," I said, my voice carefully neutral.

"Good. That' s good." He looked relieved that he wouldn' t have to deal with any more messy emotions.

He used to do that for me. When my stomach cramps were so bad I' d be curled up in a ball, he would stroke my hair for hours, whispering promises that one day, he' d be rich enough to find me the best doctors in the world, that he' d cure me. The irony was a bitter pill in my throat.

I felt a familiar cramp begin in my abdomen. The stress was eating me alive. I walked to the kitchen, my movements stiff. I opened the cabinet where I kept my prescription medication for the chronic stomach condition I' d developed during years of high-stress living and alcohol consumption for his business. It was a vicious cycle-the stress caused the pain, and the pain caused more stress.

I swallowed the pill with a glass of water, the chalky taste familiar. I leaned against the counter, waiting for the relief that usually came within minutes.

But it didn't come. Instead, a new, horrifying sensation began. A fire ignited in my gut, searing and sharp. It felt like I had swallowed broken glass. A wave of nausea hit me so hard I doubled over, gasping. My vision blurred, the pristine white kitchen tilting violently.

I collapsed to the floor, my body convulsing. This wasn' t my normal pain. This was something else. Something was terribly wrong.

Through the haze of agony, I saw a small, almost empty bottle of capsules on the counter that wasn't mine. They were clear, filled with a fine white powder. Identical to my own medication, except for a tiny label I couldn' t quite read. I crawled towards it, my fingers shaking, and managed to grab it. The label was from a specialty chemical supplier. The main ingredient listed was not my medication. It was capsaicin concentrate-pure, powdered heat.

Someone had replaced my pills.

Just then, Kassie appeared in the doorway, a smirk on her face. "Oh dear," she said, her voice dripping with fake concern. "Looks like you' re having a bad reaction. Maybe you should switch to a plant-based diet. It does wonders for the digestive system."

Her eyes flickered to the bottle in my hand, and in that moment, I knew. She had done this.