Chapter 2

Years ago, Bianca Fox had been one of the poor students Brett Sanchez sponsored.

Later, after she graduated, she used a break during the graduation photos.

On the field, she rose up on her toes and kissed Brett, and I caught the whole thing.

I slapped her across the face right there and left her with a warning.

"We gave you money to help you through school, not so you could learn how to throw yourself at a man."

"If you've got that kind of dirty ambition, you'd be better off figuring out how to land a spot at a Fortune 500."

That fight tore everything open. The two of us, once as close as sisters, split for good on the spot.

Everyone knew we couldn't stand each other after that.

So when Bianca got herself accidentally locked inside an office.

And missed an important interview, letting a top-five-hundred opportunity slip right past her.

She cried that it was my doing.

And Brett believed her without a moment's doubt.

"Yvonne!"

Brett came storming after me, furious.

"Bianca's just a girl fresh out of college. She thinks of me like a brother. She's grateful because I put her through school."

"That kiss was only her way of saying thank you."

"Why did you have to be so vicious?"

"Why did you have to ruin her job?"

That was the first time the two of us, always so loving, stood there red-faced and shouting at each other.

Back then my career was climbing fast, and I was riding high.

I wasn't about to let anyone pin something like that on me.

So I threw it back at him, cold.

"I ruined her job?"

"Brett, open your eyes and take a good look. She's just a scholarship kid. Do you really think she's worth me stooping to that?"

Brett didn't catch what I really meant.

He only heard the contempt in my voice.

"Yvonne, so now that you're pulling in a seven-figure salary, you think you're something, and you can look down on a girl fresh out of college, is that it?"

"Fine. Let's see if you can hold your head that high all the way to the end."

He said it, then turned and walked out.

The next day, he made a call himself.

And in no time Bianca became his personal secretary.

Twenty thousand a month, easy work, pouring tea, running odd errands.

The whole company whispered that the two of them had something going on behind closed doors.

They even said Bianca had been kept by Brett back in her college days,

that that was how she'd landed such an easy, well-paid job.

It made my blood boil, and I warned Brett about it more than once.

He never took it seriously.

Just brushed me off with, "A clean conscience needs no defense."

But I knew that from that kiss on the field, there had never been anything clean between them.

For the sake of the company's name, and to keep the stock from tanking too hard.

I went to Brett's office for the first time.

And walked straight into it.

Bianca was using the same spoon to scoop up the cake Brett had already eaten from.

I fired her on the spot.

Brett tried to stop me, but I was too angry.

I even said that if he didn't fire her, we'd divorce, and things along those lines.

Brett had no choice but to go along with it.

He could only sign his name on her termination notice.

It wasn't until later, when I left the company for reasons I couldn't bring myself to speak of and became a housewife.

That Brett brought Bianca back again.

Thinking back on all of it now, I shut my eyes in despair.

"I'm sorry."

When you're under someone else's roof, you have to bow your head.

Even if I once had every reason to stand up straight.

Now, in this humiliating position.

I was the one who had to apologize first.

"You're saying sorry only now? Too late."

Brett stared at me, cold.

And pushed the divorce agreement a little closer to me.

"Sign it. Now."

"Sign it, and then I'll see if your apology means anything."

In that document, the words walk away with nothing glared up at me, stinging my eyes.

I gripped the pen tight.

"Can you not make me walk away with nothing?"

"Even just a portion of the money. Twenty thousand dollars would be enough."

I lifted my head and forced the words out.

"I'm pregnant…"

Brett didn't so much as blink.

"No."

Someone slammed a hand down and shot to their feet, furious.

"Brett! Have you got any decency left?"

"Didn't you hear Yvonne say she's pregnant?"

"That's your wife. That's your child."

Brett suddenly leaned back against his chair, raised his eyes lazily, and gave a mocking smile.

"The wife's mine."

"The child, though, that's another matter."

The air went silent for a few seconds.

The people who'd been pleading for me traded glances.

My eyes were burning red.

And I was almost trembling as I forced out the question.

"Brett, what are you trying to say?"

Brett's smile turned even more cutting.

"Yvonne, back when you had that group of men assault Bianca, what did you use to get them to do it for you so willingly?"

"Money? Or your body?"