My mother-in-law smiled as she watched me t3mble d0wn the stairs. When I woke up in a hospital bed, I signed the divorce papers and disappeared without giving anyone an explanation

The days leading up to the gala were a nightmare for Dominic. Paige had completely disappeared the moment she realized his bank accounts were frozen, taking several expensive watches and pieces of jewelry he had bought her with him.

Dominic tried to find Audrey. He went to her old apartment, her friends' houses, but no one had seen her. It was as if she had vanished off the face of the earth.

Every night, he woke up in a sweat, remembering her last text: Enjoy the family you chose. The weight of his sterility and the loss of his unborn child haunted him. He began to realize how much Audrey had shielded him from his mother’s toxicity. But it was too late for regrets. He needed survival.

Meanwhile, I spent my days preparing. I hired the best stylists in the city. I didn't wear thrift-store dresses anymore.

"You look breathtaking, Audrey," Alex said as he arrived at my penthouse on the night of the gala. He was wearing a perfectly tailored tuxedo, acting as my escort for the evening.

I looked at myself in the mirror. I wore a emerald-green silk gown that flowed like water. My hair was swept up, exposing the faint, fading scar near my eyebrow—a permanent reminder of why I was doing this. The eighty-million-dollar trust was fully active now. I was no longer hiding.