They wanted to release him from me.

I decided, sitting in that wine-soaked room, that I would grant the request — and that I would do it so thoroughly that the empire they imagined would evaporate in the exact instant I let go.

Chapter 11 — The Dream Home

That night, lying beside the stranger I had married, I listened to the quiet rhythm of the city outside our window.

Around one in the morning, Christopher’s phone buzzed on the nightstand, and believing me asleep, he slipped out of bed and crept into the hallway.