Chapter 4

I pulled on my perfect corporate smile, looking like I was facing a tough business rival. "You're welcome, Mr. Sterling. It was just business. We both got what we wanted."

He went quiet for a second, then let out a very soft chuckle. There was a tone in that laugh I couldn't quite read, and it made my fingers twitch.

"Right. We both got what we wanted," he repeated. He stood up, his tall figure casting a long shadow that completely wrapped around me. "Well, I wish you a very successful future, Ms. Vance. I hope you get everything you ever wanted."

He called me "Ms. Vance," not "Chloe."

I kept my cool, watching him walk away without a single backward glance. The heavy office door clicked shut, cutting off his tall figure.

The faint scent of his cedarwood cologne still hung in the air, cold and distant.

I slowly sat back down in my leather chair, spinning around to look out at the sprawling, glittering city skyline below. The single piece of paper in my hand felt light, but it carried the weight of a mountain. It held all my calculations, my lies, and my patience from the past three years. In exchange, it gave me the massive wealth I needed to secure my future.

I won, didn't I?

I slowly swirled the amber liquid in my crystal glass and downed it in one go.

The burning sensation scorched my throat, but it felt incredibly satisfying.

Goodbye, Sebastian.

Actually, let's make it "never see you again."

Over the next few days, I moved fast. I took over my newly acquired shares and stepped into a highly promising tech startup I had been eyeing for months, becoming its majority shareholder and actual boss.

I moved into a luxury penthouse overlooking the river. My walk-in closet was stuffed with the latest designer clothes. I never had to look at a price tag again.

I got everything I ever dreamed of.

Until a week later, when my head secretary knocked on my door with a weird look on her face.

"Ms. Vance, we just received a... package. It’s addressed directly to you."

It was an old, elegant rosewood box. There was no card, no return address, just a faint, incredibly familiar scent of cedarwood.

My chest tightened, but I kept my face blank. "Who sent it?"

"The courier didn't say. They just said it was... to return something to its rightful owner," the secretary replied hesitantly. "Should I run it through security?"

I waved her off and waited for her to leave before opening the box, my fingers slightly cold.

Resting on the black velvet lining inside was a very familiar, simple platinum ring. It was the wedding ring I had "accidentally" dropped behind the headboard of our hotel suite—the ring I had worn for three years, with "Chloe & Sebastian" engraved on the inside.

Why the hell was it here?!

I thought he would have thrown it in the trash long ago!

Under the ring, there was a folded piece of white paper.

I took a deep breath and opened it.

There was only a single line of printed text, but it felt like an icy dagger piercing straight through my armor.

*“Your paycheck is cleared, but is the show really over, my Best Actress?”*

There was no signature at the bottom.

My blood ran cold. My fingers clenched around the ring, the hard metal digging painfully into my palm.

What did he know?

Since when did he know?!

What the hell did this mean?!

The air in the room felt thick and suffocating. The only sound was my own ragged breathing.

He knew.

He wasn't the clueless, guilt-tripped husband I thought he was.

These past three years, he hadn't been nearly as blind as I thought.