My husband looked down at my bleeding, broken body on the kitchen floor—and calmly stepped right over me.

"You can't fire me!" Connor screamed, his voice cracking violently as panic completely shattered his composure. "I am the face of Nexus Mind! I am the keynote speaker! Five thousand people are sitting out in that auditorium right now waiting to hear ME speak!"

"They are waiting to hear the CEO of Nexus Mind speak," Victoria corrected coldly, handing a black bound folder to each board member at the table. "And as of 9:30 AM this morning, the board has officially removed you for gross corporate fraud."

"Fraud?!" Connor gasped, stepping back until his spine hit the wall. "What fraud?!"

Victoria opened her folder, reading aloud in a clear, sharp tone that echoed through the silent room.

"Exhibit A: Siphoning two point four million dollars of corporate research capital to LXM Media Group—a shell entity owned by your mistress, Lexi Montgomery," Victoria stated. "Exhibit B: Using corporate lines of credit to purchase a fifty-thousand-dollar diamond ring at Tiffany & Co. Exhibit C: Fraudulently transferring eighty thousand dollars out of corporate accounts to put a deposit down on a personal residence in Atherton."

Connor's mouth opened and closed like a fish suffocating on dry land. He looked wildly at the board members. "Board members! Arthur! Sarah! You know me! It was just aggressive business development! It was marketing! Lexi's father is Richard Montgomery! I was securing the Series-A deal!"

Arthur Pendelton, the senior board member, looked at Connor with pure, unadulterated disgust. "You stole from your own company to buy a mistress a ring and impress her father, Connor. You compromised our entire corporate integrity. You're lucky we don't have federal agents waiting in the hallway right now."

"No... please..." Connor begged, his hands trembling violently as he looked back at me. "Eleanor... please. We were married for seven years. You loved me. You can't do this to me on the biggest day of my life! Think about what this will do to my reputation! Think about my career!"

I stood up slowly from the head of the table.

The blood-red dress flowed smoothly down to my ankles. I walked over to where Connor was standing against the wall. He shrank back slightly, terrified of the quiet, unstoppable force radiating from the woman he had treated like a doormat.

I stopped two feet away from him.

"You asked me to think about your career, Connor," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, yet carrying a weight that crushed him. "Did you think about my life when you looked at me bleeding on the kitchen floor last Friday morning?"

Connor froze.

The silence in the room became absolute. The board members looked between us, sensing the dark, terrifying secret hanging in the air.

"Did you think about my survival," I continued, my eyes narrowing into two slivers of pure silver ice, "when you stepped right over my thighs so you wouldn't scuff your loafers? When you left me to bleed to death from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy so you wouldn't be late for a real estate appointment with Lexi?"

A collective gasp echoed across the boardroom. Arthur Pendelton's eyes widened in horror, staring at Connor like he was a monster.

Connor swallowed hard, his throat dry, his hands shaking so violently he had to grip his trousers to hide it. "Eleanor... I... I didn't know... I thought you were just... I thought you were exaggerating..."

"You knew," I said softly. "You just didn't care. You calculated that my life was worth less than five minutes of your arrogant fantasy."

I leaned in closer, until my lips were inches from his ear.

"You thought you left a helpless, dying woman behind, Connor," I whispered. "You had no idea she was the author of your entire existence."

Before Connor could answer, the green room side door opened, and the summit stage manager stuck his head inside. "Two minutes to keynote presentation! Is Mr. Sterling ready to walk?"

I stepped back, turning my back on Connor completely, and looked at David Chen.

"David," I commanded.