Chapter 2

Rewind six years. Lakeport City, the lakeside luxury apartment.

Eight in the evening. Sheila Pruitt pushed open the front door. In her right hand she held a sheet of A4 paper stamped with a red official seal.

Cecil Delgado's mother, Lily Mason, sat in a deep purple dress, upright in the single leather armchair at the center of the living room.

Cecil sat on the three-seater sofa. An open laptop rested on his knees, his right finger sliding evenly across the trackpad as he read through an English financial report.

In the exact center of the marble coffee table lay two printed documents: Voluntary Divorce Agreement.

Beside the agreement, a bank cashier's check held them in place.

"Did you pass the review?" Lily lifted the bone china cup from the table and took a sip of black tea.

Her gaze went over the rim of the cup and landed on the A4 sheet in Sheila's hand. "Even if you did, you're nothing but a clinical doctor on a fixed salary. Sheila, your parents are both low-level workers in the medical system. A family background like yours offers Cecil's coming business empire no help on any level."

Sheila stopped, standing in front of the table.

"Jetstream Group is moving into the high-end medical device market next month, across the board. It needs exclusive channel support from Taikang Medical Group's hundred and twenty top-tier hospitals across the eastern region."

Lily set the cup down. "Taikang's chairman has one daughter, Jessica Swanson. She comes back into the country on the tenth of next month. This is the only shortcut for Jetstream to take that ten-billion market share."

Lily extended her index finger and tapped the agreement on the table.

"Sign it. The agreement lays it out clearly. You get a seven-hundred-square-foot apartment in the city, plus two million in cash as compensation." Lily watched Sheila.

Sheila did not look at Lily. She turned her head, her gaze landing straight on Cecil where he sat on the sofa.

"And you?" Sheila asked.

Cecil's fingers stopped on the keyboard. He closed the laptop screen and set it on the arm of the sofa.

He raised his head and met Sheila's eyes.

"I've already signed." Cecil put out his right hand and pointed at the black signature in the lower right corner of the agreement's last page. "Nine tomorrow morning. The main hall of the county clerk's office."

Sheila laid the seal-stamped report card flat on the white shoe cabinet by the entrance.

She stepped forward, picked up a black fountain pen from the table, and pulled off the cap.

On the line for the wife's signature, she quickly wrote three words: Sheila Pruitt.

When she was done, she reached over with her right hand, pinched the diamond wedding ring on her left ring finger, and pulled it off in one hard motion.

She pressed the ring down onto the check made out for two million.

Ten minutes later, she walked out carrying a twenty-inch silver suitcase.

She pulled the front door open and stepped through. It closed behind her.