Chapter 5

Natalie Smith POV

Back at the apartment, I dragged a large black moving box out of the storage closet.

I started packing.

Honestly, I didn't have much that was truly mine. Most of what filled this apartment was the "love" Ethan had furnished it with, gifts I hadn't asked for, things that had always felt more like his than mine.

I opened the desk drawer and found an old tin box.

Inside was a thick stack of paper. Bus tickets.

From college, the ones Ethan had saved from riding overnight buses to see me on weekends, each trip taking over ten hours. Back then he was barely getting his first company off the ground, so broke he sometimes skipped meals, and yet every dollar he managed to scrape together went toward a bus ticket so he could spend a weekend holding me.

I looked at them for a moment. No feeling moved through me. I dropped them in the box.

Next, a plain silver ring.

The ring Ethan had proposed with. He couldn't afford a diamond then. He had looked at me with his jaw tight and his eyes a little red and made me a promise. "Natalie, one day when I have the money, I'm going to buy you the biggest diamond in the world and make you the happiest woman alive."

He did eventually buy me diamonds, more than I could count. But the ring I had always treasured most was this worthless little silver band.

Still. It didn't matter anymore.

I put the ring in the box. The letters. And the small wooden house he had carved by hand.

I let that go too, without hesitating.

If I was leaving, I was going to leave clean. No traces of anything left behind.

The following morning, I met with a lawyer at a coffee shop.

"Ms. Smith, are you certain you want to walk away with nothing?" The lawyer looked up from the divorce agreement I had drafted, clearly struggling to keep the disbelief off her face. "Given Mr. Finch's current net worth, you would be entitled to an extremely substantial settlement. Even the villa. If you pushed for it, you'd have a real chance of recovering it."

"I don't want any of it." I raised my coffee cup and took a small sip. The bitterness spread through my mouth and stayed there. "I don't want anything that came from him. It would feel dirty."

Not a cent of Ethan's money. That was the one thing I was sure of.

All I wanted now was to cut every last thread connecting me to this man, as fast as possible.

"I understand." The lawyer exhaled and gathered the papers, handing them across the table. "Once Mr. Finch signs, the process can begin."

I took the documents and tucked them carefully into my bag.

That evening, Ethan came home early for once.

He was holding a box from the bakery I loved most, the one with the dark chocolate layer cake. He had a small, winning smile on his face. "Natalie, I waited in line for two hours for this. Eat it while it's still fresh."

I sat on the couch and watched him standing there looking like a man trying very hard to be sincere. All I felt was a deep, quiet contempt.

Six months ago, that gesture would have undone me completely. I would have thrown my arms around him.

Now it just looked like performance.

"I'm not hungry," I said flatly.

The smile flickered. He set the box down and came to sit beside me, reaching out to pull me close. "Still upset about yesterday? I promise. Vivian won't touch any of your things again. Okay?"

He looked around and frowned slightly. "The apartment feels emptier than usual. Did you put things away somewhere?"

"I threw some things out," I said, keeping my voice neutral. "Things I didn't need anymore."

"Fine, I'll have new stuff sent over tomorrow." He didn't notice anything was wrong. He just pulled me into his arms, resting his chin against the curve of my neck, his voice dropping low and rough. "Natalie. Stop pulling away from me. Can't we just go back to how we were?"

I lowered my eyes and let nothing show in them.

Ethan. We can never go back to how we were. That's already gone.

"Oh, that reminds me." He pulled back suddenly, like something had just occurred to him. "Tomorrow night is the annual architecture industry charity gala. You're nominated for Outstanding Young Architect of the Year, right? I'll come with you."

I paused.

I had planned to go alone. It was going to be my last public appearance in New York before I left the country.

"You don't have to. You're busy."

"I'm never too busy to be there when my wife accepts an award." He pressed a kiss to my forehead, eyes soft with an emotion that looked almost real. "Tomorrow night, I want all of New York to see how proud I am to call you mine."

I looked at him and said nothing.

If Vivian had never come into our lives, I might have believed him when he said things like that.

But there was no version of events where she hadn't.