Chapter 1 - THE VALENTINE'S MASSACRE
Cradling crimson roses and first-class tickets to Paris,
my chest fluttered with giddy anticipation.
After fourteen years,
I still believed our marriage needed romantic surprises.
I smiled walking into my husband’s corporate lobby,
picturing his delighted reaction.
But my smile died at the sound of roaring applause.
My husband,
Jake,
was on stage with Amanda—his flawless young CEO.
He looked at her with a terrifying softness.
A cold spike of suspicion hit my spine.
No,
it’s just a PR stunt,
a theatrical morale booster,
I reassured myself,
biting my lip to steady my racing heart.
Then,
Jake dropped to one knee.
Total darkness suffocated my sanity.
Amanda burst into tears.
Jake produced a velvet box,
the flashing diamond inside shredding my last clinging hope.
He slid the ring onto her finger and kissed her with the desperate,
consuming hunger of a man who had rehearsed this betrayal a thousand times in the dark.
"God, they’re absolutely perfect,"
a coworker beside me sighed.
The words severed my tether to reality.
The roses slipped from my hands.
Thorns tore my fingers,
drawing blood,
but I felt nothing.
The movement caught Jake’s eye.
Across the cheering crowd,
the blood drained from his face like a polished corpse.
Yet,
he didn't drop her hand.
In that fraction of a second,
my agonizing devastation solidified into razor-sharp ice.
The weeping wife died;
only the cold stillness of an executioner remained.
I walked to my car and dialed my attorney.
"Withdraw my full equity position from his holding company."
"Emma?"
Martin gasped.
"Pulling that capital will trigger an immediate liquidity crisis.
His empire will go bankrupt instantly!"
I stared at the Paris tickets,
my voice thin but lethal:
"Do it,
Martin.
Burn it to ashes."
By the time I merged onto the highway,
my phone lit up with the first incoming call from Jake.
Then a second.
Then fifteen.
By the time I pulled into the driveway of my home,
May you like
he had called one hundred and fifty-two times,
unaware that the kingdom he was calling from was already crumbling to ash.
