I got to the office at six a.m. on January third. The building was empty. The cleaning crew had left the lights on in the hall, and the carpet still smelled like industrial vacuum cleaner.
I unlocked my old office. The one Jazmin had taken. The door swung open and I stood there for a moment, looking at her things. Her laptop. Her cashmere coat draped over the chair Carter had carried in for me seven years ago. A framed photo of her and Carter at some charity gala, both of them laughing.
I didn't touch anything.
I went to the small interior room at the end of the hall. Ten by twelve. No windows. A metal desk someone had left behind when we renovated. A single overhead light that buzzed when you turned it on.
I made three trips. I carried my monitors. My files. The boxes they'd shoved into the corner. I set everything up carefully. I plugged in the lamp I'd brought from home. I installed a second lock on the door—the kind you had to have a key for, even from the inside.
When I was done, I sat down and opened my laptop.
Raymond Cole walked past at eight-fifteen. I saw him slow down when he noticed my old office was still Jazmin's. Then he saw the light under my new door. He didn't knock. He kept walking.
Nobody said anything.
I worked straight through until noon. Then I locked the door behind me, took the elevator down, and got in a cab.
"Fifty-Third and Lex," I said.
The driver nodded.
I pressed my thumb against my wrist and counted my pulse. Steady.
Helena Park's office was on the forty-second floor of a glass tower in Midtown. No name on the door. Just a number. You had to know where you were going.
The receptionist was a man in his fifties with silver hair and a face like a closed file. He looked at me once, nodded, and said, "Ms. Morgan. She's expecting you."
I followed him down a hall with white walls and no art. He opened a door at the end and stepped aside.
Helena was standing at the window with her back to me. She was tall. Dark suit. Hair pulled back so tight it looked painful. She didn't turn around.
"Close the door," she said.
I did.
She turned. She was older than I'd expected. Late fifties, maybe. Sharp jaw. No jewelry except a watch that looked like it cost more than my first car.
"Sit," she said.
I sat.
She stayed standing. She looked at me for a long time. Not unkind. Just measuring.
"You're pregnant," she said.
I blinked. "How—"
"You're holding yourself differently. And you haven't had coffee." She nodded at the cup the receptionist had offered me in the waiting room. Still full. "You turned it down without thinking."
I didn't say anything.
She sat down across from me. She folded her hands on the desk. "Are you going to use it?"
"No."
"Good," she said. "It muddies things. Makes you look desperate. Makes him look sympathetic." She leaned back. "How far along?"
"Eight weeks."
"Does he know?"
"No."
"Anyone?"
"No."
She nodded. "Keep it that way. Now. Show me the prenup."
I pulled the folder from my bag and slid it across the desk. She opened it. She read in silence for four minutes. I timed it.
Then she looked up.
"This is airtight," she said. "Whoever drafted this knew what they were doing."
"Carter's father's lawyer," I said. "Seven years ago."
"He was protecting his son's assets in case you turned out to be a gold digger." She smiled. It wasn't warm. "Ironic."
She flipped to the third page. She tapped a paragraph with one manicured nail.
"Infidelity forfeiture clause," she said. "If either party engages in extramarital sexual conduct during the marriage, all jointly held assets revert in full to the non-offending party. No dispute. No negotiation." She looked at me. "You have proof?"
"Yes."
"Documented?"
"Yes."
"How documented?"
I opened my laptop. I turned it toward her. I'd spent the last week building the file. Hotel receipts. Credit card statements. Photographs pulled from third-party social media accounts, timestamped and geotagged. Security footage from the office building showing Jazmin entering Carter's private office at eleven p.m. on a Tuesday I'd been in Boston for a pitch meeting.
Helena scrolled through it all. Her face didn't change.
When she finished, she closed the laptop and looked at me.
"This is enough," she said. "More than enough. When's the IPO?"
"Three weeks. January twenty-fourth."
"We move before that," she said. "The day of, ideally. Maximum impact. Minimum time for him to mount a defense." She leaned forward. "I'm going to ask you something, and I need you to answer honestly."
I nodded.
"Do you want him back?"
I thought about the hospital room. The phone ringing twelve times. His hand on her back.
"No," I said.
She smiled. This time it reached her eyes.
"Good," she said. "Then let's take everything."
