Chapter 1 - The Twentieth Strike
The twentieth strike never landed.
Adrian Vale raised the leather riding crop over his shoulder, but this time I looked straight at him instead of lowering my head. My knees were on the marble floor beneath our chandelier. My back burned. My lip tasted like blood. Beside him, Vanessa Crane stood in a champagne dress with one hand resting on a stomach that did not yet show.
“Go ahead,” I said.
Adrian froze.
Vanessa’s smile tightened. “Claire, don’t be dramatic.”
I laughed once, and even that hurt. “He hit me nineteen times because you said I embarrassed you. I think we passed dramatic a while ago.”
Adrian’s face hardened. “You humiliated her in front of my board.”
“She told them I was barren.”
“She said people were asking why we don’t have children.”
“She said you needed a real woman to give you an heir.”
Vanessa stepped closer. “And now he has one.”
She pressed her palm to her flat stomach.
For one second, the room went completely silent.
Adrian dropped a divorce folder beside me. “Sign it tonight. You’ll get the condo on Brook Street and a settlement. More than you deserve.”
I stared at the papers, then at the man I had spent three years protecting from his own ambition.
He thought the banks had suddenly trusted him because his presentations improved. He thought investors had discovered his genius. He thought the private lenders who rescued Vale Meridian from bankruptcy had done it because of him.
He never asked why all of those doors opened after our wedding.
Vanessa crouched in front of me. “You should be grateful. Most women in your position would leave with nothing.”
“My position?” I asked.
“The poor wife Adrian rescued.”
I reached for my phone.
Adrian laughed. “Calling the police?”
“No.”
“A lawyer?” Vanessa asked.
“No.”
I found the number I had promised never to use unless my marriage became dangerous.
Adrian folded his arms. “Then who?”
I pressed CALL.
My father answered on the second ring.
“Claire?”
My throat closed at the sound of his voice.
“Dad,” I whispered. “You were right.”
His tone changed instantly. “Are you hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Did he do it?”
I looked at Adrian.
“Yes.”
My father went silent.
Then I said the words that ended my marriage before Adrian even understood what they meant.
“Take back everything you gave him.”
My father’s answer was calm.
“Five minutes.”
May you like
Adrian laughed.
At four minutes and thirty-eight seconds, his phone rang.
