Betrayed By Love, Erased From Memory

Ellery POV

The velvet box sat on my vanity table like a small, black coffin.

Inside lay his birthday gift.

Or rather, my parting gift.

It was my wedding ring—a heavy platinum band encrusted with diamonds that were, in all likelihood, paid for with blood money.

I had taken a blowtorch to it in the garage earlier that afternoon, while Brendan was occupied at a sit-down. Now, it was nothing more than a twisted, mangled lump of metal. The loose diamonds rolled around the bottom of the box with a hollow rattle.

A perfect symbol of what our marriage had become.

Ruined.

My phone buzzed against the marble top of the vanity.

Another unknown number.

Kiya.

She was relentless. She wanted me to break. She was desperate for me to scream at Brendan, to cause a scene, to give him the excuse he needed to cast me aside and replace me with the mother of his child.

She didn't understand the game.

She was playing checkers.

I was playing 4D chess.

I opened the message. It was a video of her posing in a high-end lingerie store.

*Does he prefer red or black?* the caption read. *I want to look good when he comes over tonight.*

I felt a dull throb in my chest, but it was distant, muffled.

Like a bruise that had already yellowed and faded.

I turned off the screen and walked downstairs.

Brendan was in the living room, pouring a scotch. He looked tired. Running a criminal empire was exhausting work, after all.

He looked up as I entered, a smile touching his lips.

"You look beautiful, El," he said.

I was wearing a dress he had picked out for me. High neck, long sleeves, completely backless.

Modest for the world. Accessible only to him.

"Thank you," I said softly.

I walked to the wet bar and poured myself a glass of water, keeping my back to him for a split second to compose my features.

"Is everything okay with the servers?" I asked, turning around.

I already knew the answer.

I monitored the network traffic in real-time. Every board was green.

"We have a crisis," he said, swirling the amber liquid in his glass. "A breach in the firewall. I have to go in tonight."

He looked me dead in the eye.

The comfort he found in his own deceit was almost impressive.

"Oh no," I said, feigning a perfect note of concern. "Will you be late?"

"Very," he replied. "Don't wait up."

He finished his drink in one swallow and set the heavy crystal glass down with a clink. He walked over, closing the distance between us, and cupped my face in his hands.

His thumb traced the line of my cheekbone.

"You are so good to me, Ellery," he murmured. "My sanctuary."

Bile rose in my throat. I fought the urge to gag.

He didn't see a person when he looked at me.

He saw a mirror that reflected a better, cleaner version of himself. He thought he could go sleep with his mistress and come home to his saint. He thought he could have it all.

"Go," I whispered, leaning into his touch one last time. "Handle business."

He kissed me—hard, possessive, marking his territory before leaving to invade someone else's.

I watched him walk out the door.

The moment the red taillights of his armored SUV disappeared down the driveway, I went straight to the security room.

I pulled up the logs.

There was no breach.

There was no crisis.

Just a man who was bored with his wife.

I sat in the glowing blue light of the monitors, the code scrolling across the screens in a rhythmic waterfall. I had built all of this for him. I had digitized his operation, secured his communications, and legalized his legacy.

And he was throwing it all away for a girl who couldn't even spell 'laundering'.

I opened my pocket and took out the velvet box.

I placed it on his mahogany desk, right on top of his ledger.

He would find it on his birthday.

The day I would be gone.

He would open it and find the wreckage of his marriage staring back at him.

And by the time he realized what it meant, June Bennett would already be on a bus to nowhere.