Chapter 3

Ellery POV:

Brendan laughed, a rich, confident sound that filled the kitchen. He thought I was joking, being dramatic. The arrogance of it was staggering.

"You' d never leave me, El," he said, squeezing my shoulders. "We' re endgame. You and me."

He tried to pull me into a hug, but I resisted, a subtle tensing of my muscles that he, for once, seemed to notice. A flicker of something-annoyance? suspicion?-crossed his face before he smoothed it away.

I could smell her perfume on his shirt, mingled with the scent of pancakes and stale sex. It was suffocating.

"I' m going to be late for my meeting," I said, slipping out from under his hands and moving towards the door. I needed to get out of there before I shattered into a million pieces.

"Wait, El," he called after me. "What about your designs for the waterfront project? You said you needed to drop them at the city planning office. I can take them for you."

My blood ran cold. He was testing me. Checking to see if my routine was unchanged, if his world was still securely in its orbit.

"It' s fine," I said without turning around. "I can handle it."

"You' re sure?"

"I' m sure," I said, pushing the door open and stepping out into the cool morning air, gasping for breath as if I' d been held underwater.

I didn' t go to the office. I didn' t go to the city planning department. I drove, aimlessly at first, the pristine glass and steel towers of the city I had helped shape blurring past my window. My city. My life. A beautiful, intricate facade built on a foundation of lies.

I drove until I found myself in a part of town I rarely visited, a gritty, anonymous neighborhood of pawn shops and check-cashing places. I parked in front of a small, nondescript office with a sign that read "Documents & Duplicates."

Inside, a man with tired eyes and a practiced, incurious expression looked up from his computer.

"I need a new identity," I said, the words feeling foreign and powerful on my tongue.

He didn't blink. He just nodded toward a chair. "It'll cost you. Rush job costs more."

"I don't care about the cost," I said, pulling a bundle of cash from my purse-the emergency fund I had always kept, a relic from my foster care days when I knew I could only ever truly rely on myself.

An hour later, I walked out with a pristine driver' s license, birth certificate, and social security card. The face in the photos was mine, but the name was different.

June Bennett.

I said the name aloud in the confines of my car. It felt clean. Unburdened.

That afternoon, I met Evans at his lab. It was a sterile, white space, humming with the quiet energy of cutting-edge technology. He looked at my pale face and the dark circles under my eyes, and his professional demeanor softened.

"Ellery," he said gently. "Talk to me."

So I did. I told him everything. The sounds in the night, the name I heard, the sickening discovery. I told him about the four years of mentoring Kiya, the tuition I paid, the trust I' d placed in her. I told him about Brendan' s lies, the way he' d looked at me that morning as if I were the center of his universe while his mistress sat feet away in his t-shirt.

I didn' t cry. I was beyond tears. My voice was a flat monotone, reciting facts, each one another shovelful of dirt on the grave of my old life.

When I finished, he was silent, his expression a mixture of pity and horror.

"The procedure..." I began.

He held up a hand. "Wiping the memories is the easy part, relatively speaking. The serum-the 'special element' -is what makes a true clean slate possible. It creates a state of temporary, heightened neuroplasticity. It helps the brain accept a new narrative, a new identity, without the psychological schisms that would normally occur. It essentially... reboots your sense of self."

He looked at me, his eyes full of a terrible weight. "It' s never been tested on a human. The risks are astronomical. We' re talking about the very fabric of your consciousness, Ellery."

"I' ll take the risk," I said without hesitation.

He nodded slowly, as if he' d expected this. He knew me. He knew that when I made up my mind, it was set in stone. "I can have the serum synthesized and shipped. It will have to be done discreetly, through international channels. It will take a few days."

"How many?"

"Three," he said. "It will arrive on the 24th."

Brendan' s birthday. The universe had a sick sense of humor.

"Fine," I said. "I' ll book my flight."

When I got home that evening, Brendan was waiting for me, his face a mask of anxious relief.

"Ellery! Where have you been?" he exclaimed, rushing to me and pulling me into a suffocating hug. "Your phone was off, you weren' t at the office... I was about to call the police!"

I stood stiffly in his arms, the smell of him making my stomach turn. "My phone died," I said, my voice flat. "I went for a drive."

He pulled back, his hands still gripping my arms, his eyes searching my face. "A drive? All day? But... I saw the boxes in your closet. The ones you packed with your clothes."

Fear, sharp and sudden, pierced through my numbness. He' d been snooping.

"I' m donating them," I said quickly, the lie coming easily. "To the women' s shelter. It' s time for a clear-out."

The relief that washed over his face was instantaneous and absolute. He believed me. He wanted to believe me.

"Oh," he said, his grip loosening. "Oh, thank God. El, you scared me. Don' t you ever do that to me again. Don' t you ever, ever leave me." His voice was thick with emotion, a masterful performance of a terrified, loving husband.

I just looked at him, my heart a dead, heavy stone in my chest. "I won' t," I promised.

He would leave for his "business trip" with Kiya in two days. I had until then to finish erasing Ellery Rich.

The next day, I took my wedding ring to a custom jewelry shop in a part of town Brendan would never visit. It was a simple, elegant platinum band with a flawless three-carat diamond, a ring he had designed himself.

I slid it off my finger. It felt strange, my hand suddenly light and free.

"I need you to melt this," I told the jeweler, placing the ring on the velvet mat.

He stared at me, then at the ring, his eyes wide. "Melt it? Ma' am, this is a beautiful piece. Platinum, a VVS1 diamond at least... Why would you want to melt it?"

"Just do it," I said, my voice leaving no room for argument. "Melt the platinum band into an unrecognizable lump. Give me the diamond back separately."

He looked like I' d asked him to commit a murder. But the look in my eyes, and the cash I slid across the counter, convinced him.

I left the shop with a small, black velvet box. Inside was a single, perfect diamond and a small, ugly lump of gray metal that had once symbolized forever.

When I pulled up to the house, the scene was one of chaos. Two police cars were parked in the driveway, their lights flashing. Brendan was on the front lawn, talking animatedly to an officer, his expression frantic.

He saw my car and his face crumpled in what looked like profound relief. He ran to me as I got out, pulling me into a crushing, desperate hug.

"Ellery! Oh my God, Ellery!" he cried, his voice breaking. The police officers and our housekeeper watched with sympathetic expressions.

"What' s going on?" I asked, my body rigid in his embrace.

"I came home, you were gone, your car was gone... I thought..." He buried his face in my neck, his body trembling. Another command performance.

"I told you, my phone died," I said, pulling away. "I went to run some errands."

"All day? Without a word?" one of the officers asked, his tone skeptical.

Before I could answer, Brendan jumped to my defense. "It' s my fault. I' ve been smothering her. She just needed some space." He turned back to me, his eyes pleading. "But please, El, just tell me where you' re going next time. I can' t lose you. I would die if I lost you."

He was a phenomenal actor. I almost had to admire the commitment.

Then his eyes fell on the small black box in my hand.