Chapter 1

My husband, Colton, wired all fifty thousand dollars from our online store account straight to his sister. He didn't even bother to mention it to me.

This wasn’t the first time.

Only this time, I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream.

I just told him, “My mom misses me. I’m going to stay with my parents for a few days.”

Then, I picked up the bag I had already packed and walked out the door.

Colton was lounging on the couch playing games on his phone. He didn’t even look up. All he gave me was a dismissive grunt.

He assumed that after a few days, I’d come crawling back on my own, just like always.

What he didn’t know was that I had already changed every single password to our joint pet supplies store—the one pulling in fifteen thousand dollars a month.

And what Colton knew even less was that I still had the evidence from when he forged my signature to get that loan for his BMW.

By day five, his phone was blowing up with debt collection calls for the car.

By day ten, hundreds of furious customers were hunting him down, screaming that he was a scammer.

Finally, it dawned on him.

My trip home wasn’t a temporary goodbye. It was the start of a total reckoning.

“Chloe, I got the cash! Fifty grand, every single cent! You really are the best sister-in-law ever!”

At three in the afternoon, right as I finished taping up a batch of custom cat trees, a voice note from Colton’s younger sister, Sierra, popped up on my phone.

I froze.

Fifty thousand dollars?

I immediately opened my banking app to check our joint business account, the one dedicated to receiving payouts from our online store.

A brand-new transaction stabbed right through my chest.

[Outgoing Wire Transfer: $50,000.00]

Recipient: Sierra Shaw.

The balance had plunged from over fifty grand down to a pitiful five hundred and twelve bucks and change.

Instantly, my hands and feet went ice-cold.

That fifty grand was money I had scraped together and saved in secret, cent by cent, since last year.

I had spent endless sleepless nights researching new designs, coordinating with manufacturers for prototypes, and answering customer support messages until two or three in the morning until my eyes burned raw.

All of it was so I could finally save enough to open the brick-and-mortar pet cafe of my dreams.

And now, a whole year of my blood, sweat, and tears had been handed over by Colton to his sister—who had just run her trendy bubble tea shop so deep into the ground she barely had a shirt left on her back.

I gripped my phone so hard my knuckles turned stark white.

“Babe, are those packages ready yet? Today’s batch is running late, and the buyers are getting impatient.”

Colton walked out of the bedroom.

Catching sight of my pale face, his tone instantly turned dismissive and irritated.

“Saw Sierra’s text, huh? Look, she just needed some cash to keep things afloat. What’s the big deal?”

He spoke with complete entitlement, as if it weren't fifty thousand dollars, but fifty bucks.

“She’s my sister. She’s going through a rough patch. Are we supposed to just hang her out to dry?”

“Besides, I took money from our own store, not from a stranger.”

“Our store?” A bitter laugh escaped my throat. “Colton, who stayed up all night drawing the product blueprints?”

“Who tracked down and negotiated with every single factory?”

“Who packs and ships orders until midnight every single damn day?”

Colton fired right back. “Oh, and what about me? I’m out there every day networking, pitching partnerships, bringing in business for you! You think that’s easy?”

His voice rose, his face practically screaming that he was the real hero here.

My anger flared. “Networking? Is that what you call it?”

“You call driving the BMW I paid for, sipping lattes with your deadbeat buddies, and playing golf ‘networking’?”

His idea of “networking” was blowing my hard-earned money to curate his fake persona as a young, successful entrepreneur.

Meanwhile, I was the invisible, unpresentable sweatshop worker trapped behind the scenes, handling all the manufacturing and grunt work.

“Chloe, watch your mouth!” Stung where it hurt, he lashed out in embarrassment.

“You’re just a woman—what do you even know about running a real business?”

“Without me, do you really think this rinky-dink shop would’ve survived? It would’ve crashed and burned ages ago!”

“You women are all the same: short-sighted and petty. You have zero vision.”

“Once Sierra’s shop takes off, we’ll be shareholders. It’s called a long-term investment! Not that you’d ever understand business!”

It was always like this.

He always belittled everything I did until it seemed completely worthless.

Looking at his furious face, the very last ember of warmth in my heart went cold.

After fighting for three years, I was bone-tired.

I took a deep breath, swallowed every shred of emotion, and let my face settle into total calm.

“You’re right. I don’t understand.”

I turned, walked into the bedroom, and pulled a duffel bag from the back of the closet.

Watching me pack, a mocking smirk spread across his lips.

“What? Running away again? Chloe, you’ve pulled this stunt eight hundred times. Don’t you get bored?”

He leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed, looking at me with pure condescension.

“My mom isn’t feeling well. I’m going to stay with her for a bit,” I said, zipping the bag shut.

“Fine by me. Go ahead,” he dismissed me with a wave of his hand.

“Works out great. I made plans to go fishing with the guys anyway. It’ll be peaceful without you around.”

“Just letting you know, though: three days max. If you aren’t back in three days, you can clean up this store’s mess all by yourself.”

He was convinced I couldn't live without the shop.

Just like he was convinced I could never leave him.

I didn't waste another breath on him. I picked up my bag and brushed past his shoulder.

At the front door, slipping on my sneakers, I took one last look at the place I had poured three years of my life into.

The living room was cluttered with our inventory and packaging boxes.

And Colton was already lounging comfortably on the couch, queuing up for a video game match.

He didn’t even bother looking up to see me go.

The door clicked shut behind me with a soft thud.

Standing out in the hallway, I pulled out my phone and logged into our pet supplies store dashboard.

[Reset all store login credentials and payout methods]

[Confirm]

[Deactivate and delist all store products]

[Confirm]

[Publish Announcement: Due to an internal system upgrade, the store is temporarily closed. Reopening date TBD.]

[Paid orders will be processed within one week. Please do not message repeatedly.]

[Post]

Once that was done, I blocked all contact information for Colton, my mother-in-law Brenda, and Sierra.

Then, I texted my best friend and top divorce attorney, Maya.

“Maya, you can pull the trigger now.”