Silence Was Her Last Answer

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1.

While Claire Ashworth was losing their baby and desperately needed a signature, her husband, Damian Sterling, was with Lily Cooper during her CT scan.

After that day, Claire, who had once tolerated everything for love, became a different woman.

Before, if Lily had a headache, Claire would book her an appointment at Manhattan's most expensive private clinic and stay by her side, all because Lily had once saved Damian's life.

Now, as the clinic's chief benefactor, she wrote a letter to the board, revoking Lily's VIP status and freezing all the medical funds Damian had been paying for Lily from their joint account.

Before, when Damian spent a fortune on Lily, Claire accepted it as his way of showing gratitude.

Now, she had her legal team audit every single cent Damian had spent on Lily and filed a lawsuit to reclaim it all from their joint account.

Before, no matter how wronged she felt, she always considered Damian's feelings, terrified of putting him in a difficult position.

Now, she openly defied him at every turn.

When he wanted a piece of land, she outbid him.

When he favored a project, she undercut him to snatch it away.

She even hijacked a board meeting he was presiding over, projecting an image of him cradling a sobbing Lily onto the massive screen for everyone to see.

The image froze on Lily, nestled in Damian's arms, her voice trembling as she said, "Damian, I'm so scared..."

The conference room fell into a dead silence.

Damian's face darkened, his jaw clenched so tight it looked like it would snap. His icy gaze swept over the silent board members. "Everyone, get out."

The door closed, leaving only Damian and Claire in the room.

Claire didn't look at him. She elegantly switched off the projector, pulled out the flash drive, and turned to leave.

Damian blocked her path.

"Claire," he said, his voice laced with suppressed fury. "Are you done with this shit?"

Claire finally turned her head. "Not even close."

Those three words ignited the rage that had been simmering in Damian for days.

He grabbed her wrist and slammed her against the conference table.

"I've let you get away with everything these past few weeks," he snarled, leaning in close. "But you don't drag Lily into this. You don't humiliate me and her in front of the entire company. What the hell do you want?"

Claire looked at him as if he'd told a joke.

"What do I want?" she shot back, yanking her hand free. Her voice turned frigid. "Damian, when I was on that operating table waiting for your signature, a hundred times more people were laughing at me. You think I wasn't humiliated?"

"I already explained," Damian snapped, reaching for her face. She jerked away.

His hand froze in mid-air before he dropped it, his tone softening slightly.

"Lily hit her head saving me. She has amnesia. Her old injury flared up that day, and she was in agony. She has no one else in this city. I couldn't just leave her."

The same old excuse.

His guilt over Lily outweighed their marriage, outweighed the life of their unborn child.

"Right, you couldn't leave her," Claire said, shoving him away with all her strength.

"So every time she has a headache, a panic attack, or a sleepless night, it's more important than me."

"Claire!" Damian's anger flared at her sarcasm. "Are you still pissed at me about the baby?"

"I know I shouldn't have left you. But I promised you, we can try again. This has nothing to do with Lily, so stop taking it out on her."

Claire's composure finally broke. "A baby we waited two years for, and you just dismiss it with a casual 'we can have another one'?"

Tears welled in her eyes, but she bit her lip, forcing them back.

"You want a baby? Go have one with Lily!" she choked out, each word a razor blade in her throat.

That sentence shattered Damian's last shred of control.

He grabbed her shoulders, his grip so tight she cried out in pain.

"Say that again."

She met his furious gaze without flinching. "I saidDlet Lily give..."

Before she could finish, Damian lifted her onto the conference table. Her back hit the hard surface with a painful thud.

He pinned her hands, tore off her jacket, and his lips found the side of her neck.

"You wanted a baby, didn't you?" he growled, his mouth pressing down on hers. "I'll give you one right now."

A wave of humiliation, sharper than anything she had ever felt, washed over Claire.

Her body went cold, her heart pierced by an icy spike of pain that left her numb.

She struggled fiercely, driving her knee up into his gut. As he grunted in pain, her fingers brushed against a folder on the table. She grabbed it and slammed it against the side of his neck with all her might.

A sharp pain shot through Damian's neck.

He loosened his grip, his hand flying to the bleeding gash.

Claire scrambled away, breathing heavily, the hand holding the folder trembling.

She pulled a set of divorce papers from the folder and slapped them on the table.

Just like the countless times before, Damian didn't even glance at them. He ripped them to shreds.

He looked at her, his eyes a mixture of anger and disappointment.

"You've got some real nerve, Claire."

Just then, his phone rang with a custom ringtone. It was Lily.

Damian suppressed the storm of emotions churning inside him.

"Divorce? Don't even fucking think about it."

He stormed out, slamming the door so hard the walls seemed to tremble.

He was just as resolute as the day he proposed, when he'd said, "Claire, you're stuck with me for life."

Claire stood frozen, staring at the pieces of paper scattered across the floor.

A single, hot tear finally escaped and traced a path down her cheek.

She took out her phone and made a call.

"Dad, I want to rejoin the family trust."

"I remember you standing before the family board, publicly burning your inheritance letter, signing a two-hundred-page declaration, and even collapsing from hypoglycemia just to leave the Ashworth family and marry Damian Sterling."

Robert sighed heavily on the other end of the line. "If you want to come back, you have to prove your commitment. The board has one condition for reinstatement: you must independently close a deal worth no less than two hundred million dollars in your own name, without using a single family resource, within six months. You just lost a child. I'm not sure you can handle that kind of pressure..."

Claire's hand tightened around the phone, her fingertips trembling.

She had already lost everything she could possibly lose. What could be harder than that?

Her voice was a whisper, but it was crystal clear. "I can do it."

2.

Claire had known since she was a child that the Ashworth and Sterling families had been feuding for three generations.

She and Damian were rivals from the start.

If he was first in their class, she had to win the National Academic Decathlon.

If she won gold at the National Junior Piano Competition, he had to win an international one.

They competed in academics, arts, business venturesDanything and everything they could.

They were like two young wolves, each vowing to crush the other.

Everyone in their Greenwich circle assumed the Ashworth and Sterling heirs would be at each other's throats forever.

No one ever expected their rivalry to end in the most scandalous way imaginable.

At a charity gala, twenty-two-year-old Claires drink had been spiked.

By the time she realized something was wrong, a fire was spreading through her veins.

Fighting to stay upright, she slipped away from the crowd and pushed open the door to a private lounge.

She locked it behind her, stumbled to the bathroom, and plunged herself into a tub of cold water.

When she opened her eyes, she locked eyes with a pair of equally burning dark pupils.

It was Damian.

Water droplets traced paths down his muscular chest.

Their eyes met.

Drip.

A single drop of water shattered their hazy senses.

Closer, touching, embracing, gasping...

Damians lips brushed against the corner of her mouth, his voice a low, seductive rasp. "Are you sure... you want this?"

Claires mind was a blank slate, her world reduced to the sight of his lips.

She pushed herself up, straddling him, her soaked dress floating around them in the water.

She kissed him, a fierce, defiant kiss that answered his question.

One night of reckless passion.

It turned into an addiction.

They became two infernos, consuming each other from presidential suites to private beach houses, from mountaintop cabins to Tuscan villas.

Claire would steal a billion-dollar merger Damian had spent a year planning, then bake him a bourbon caramel cake for his birthday.

Damian would crush her profit margins at the negotiating table, then book her favorite track at Laguna Seca for a private race day.

To get marriedD

Claire stood before the Ashworth family board and burned her trust inheritance documents, signing a declaration that severed her ties, pushing herself until she collapsed from hypoglycemia.

Damian stood at the Sterling familys annual summit and returned his family shares, renouncing his inheritance.

His father, Richard, threw a glass of whiskey in his face in front of everyone, disowning him on the spot. The Sterling family lawyers officially removed him from every trust and will.

They had a magnificent wedding.

Damian lifted her veil and kissed her with a sincerity that stole her breath. "From now on, you're stuck with me for life."

She smiled and kissed him back.

They both believed their passionate love would last forever.

Until two years ago.

Damian was in Colorado for a renewable energy project. On his way back, a sudden blizzard caused a mudslide, sweeping his car off a mountain road.

The news reached Claire just after she found out she was eight weeks pregnant.

Ignoring everyone's warnings, she led a search party into the mountains herself.

The snow fell harder, the roads turned to treacherous mud. She searched for a day and a night, screaming his name until her throat was raw.

The next evening, she received a call that Damian had been found and taken to a hospital.

A wave of relief washed over her, and the adrenaline that had kept her going vanished. A sharp pain shot through her abdomen.

She was rushed to the hospital, but it was too late to save the baby.

Damian hurried to her side, tears streaming down his face for the first time in his life.

He held her hand, whispering "I'm sorry" over and over.

His bloodshot eyes were filled with a guilt so profound it broke her heart.

But she knew it wasn't his fault.

It was an accident.

The day Claire was discharged, Damian brought a shy-looking woman to New York.

He explained, "She was hit by a falling rock while saving me. She has amnesia. I have to take responsibility for her until she gets her memory back."

Claire nodded. "It's the right thing to do."

At first, everything was normal.

Lily had caretakers for her daily needs, and Claire and Damian would visit occasionally.

But soon, Lilys "discomforts" became more frequent.

Headaches, insomnia, heart palpitationsDand every time an episode occurred, she would only call for Damian.

Damian always rushed to her side.

Claire went from understanding to silent endurance.

People started whispering that Damian's concern for Lily went far beyond gratitude.

They said it was only a matter of time before Mrs. Sterling was replaced.

Claire refused to believe it.

Until she was pregnant again, and she and Lily fell at the same time.

He scooped up Lily, who had only scraped her knee, and rushed away, leaving Claire on the ground.

On the operating table, she called him again and again.

As the phone rang unanswered, she finally signed her own name on the consent form, feeling the life of their second child slip away. In that sterile, silent room, her hope died.

The day she got out of the hospital, she drove to the Sterling family estate with a knife.

But outside the study, she heard Richard's furious voice. "You sabotaged family deals and married an Ashworth, all to get back at me and this family for letting your mother die, didn't you?"

After a brief silence, Damian's voice came, cold and clear. "What if I did?"

In that moment, Claire's entire world went black.

She was just a tool in his war against his family.

All his affection, all his promises, were built on a foundation of lies and manipulation.

The most pathetic part was that she had fallen completely, irrevocably in love with him.

Fighting a wave of dizziness, Claire kicked open the study door and threw the knife onto the desk.

"I want a divorce."

Damian, thinking she was just overwhelmed with grief, had her sedated.

Claire fell into a deep, drug-induced sleep.

When she woke up, he was there, soothing her. "I know you're hurting. We can have another baby."

Over the next month, Claire asked for a divorce countless times.

Each time, Damian tore up the papers, dismissing it as another one of her dramatic tantrums.

Only Claire knew the truth.

All the love she had for Damian SterlingD

Like a vast lake in a drought, had withered into dust.

The Ashworth family had a rule: any member who left and wished to be reinstated had to prove their worth by independently closing a major deal within a set time, without using any family resources.

In a few months, her trial would be over.

And then, she and Damian would be finished for good.

3.

Claire used her free time to have her lawyers meticulously separate her assets from Damian's.

She packed up everything in her name that had belonged to him and sent it to the Sterling estate.

That afternoon, Claire had a meeting with a business partner, Mr. White, at a golf course.

They discussed the details of their deal as they played.

Suddenly, a shrill scream cut through the quiet afternoon.

"Don't touch me!"

Claire looked up to see Lily, tears in her eyes, shoving away a man in a leather jacket.

It was Chad Weston, a notorious Greenwich playboy.

A month ago, Claire would have rushed to protect her, to put Chad in his place.

But now, she acted as if she hadn't seen a thing. She calmly reset her stance, swung the club, and sent the white ball flying in a perfect arc, landing it straight in the hole.

At that exact moment, Damian strode onto the course.

The instant he saw Lily being harassed, his eyes turned to ice.

The man who always put business first charged forward and sent Chad sprawling with a single punch.

Then another...

He lost all control, beating Chad with a savage, primal fury.

"I can't believe Sterling brought Lily here. This is a members-only event, you're supposed to bring your wife."

"Looks like he's found a new favorite. Did you see that? Chad just asked for her number, and he nearly killed him."

The murmurs from the other members buzzed in Claire's ears.

Chad spat out a mouthful of blood and passed out.

The club manager quickly had him carried away for medical attention.

Damian rushed to Lily's side, his voice tight with worry. "Are you hurt?"

Lily threw herself into his arms, sobbing pitifully. "Damian, I was so scared..."

Damian awkwardly patted her back, a gesture so gentle it was like a knife in Claire's chest.

In the span of a minute, Claire saw a storm of emotions cross Damian's face: anxiety, rage, concern, fearD

All the emotions that had once been reserved for her were now directed at another woman.

She let out a bitter, self-mocking laugh. The golf club slipped, grazing her ankle and tearing the skin.

She winced, squatting down to clean the wound with a wipe, when a hand clamped down on her wrist.

Damian was standing in front of her, his face a thunderous mask.

"Claire, Lily saved my life," he said, his voice low and seething with anger. "Stop making things difficult for her."

Claire yanked her hand away, looking him straight in the eye. "So you think I hired him to harass her?"

Damian was silent for a moment.

Those three seconds of silence were more damning than any accusation.

"You've been targeting her for the past month," he finally said, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Transfer the Montauk Point beach house to her name as compensation."

The pain in Claire's ankle spread to her heart.

Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the golf club, her voice trembling with disbelief.

"You know... you know I bought that for our baby!"

She had picked it out herself during her first pregnancy.

It faced the ocean and had a beautiful garden.

When Damian found out, he bought ten more houses in her name.

"Our baby will have anything they want," he had promised.

And now, he wanted to give it to Lily.

She took a deep breath, her voice hoarse. "If you want to give her a house, give her your place on the Upper East Side."

Damian's face darkened.

That was the home she had designed and decorated for them.

Every piece of furniture, every painting on the wall, was a testament to her love for him.

She had once called it their forever home.

Now, she was giving it away without a second thought.

Lily peeked out from behind Damian. "Is that the one I'm living in now? If Claire wants it back, I can move out..."

Claire's blood ran cold. He had already given her heart away.

Damian saw the vacant look on Claire's face and sneered, as if to punish her for her recent rebellion.

"Fine. She gets both houses. A gift."

Claire's body trembled with a rage so intense she could no longer control it. She swung the golf club with all her might, aiming for both of them.

CLANG!

Damian threw himself in front of Lily, taking the full force of the blow.

A sickening crack echoed as his wrist broke, but he didn't even flinch.

But when he saw Lily clutching her head, pale and sweating with fear, his expression turned deadly.

"Claire!" he roared, flinging the bent club away. "You better get your temper under control. This is the last time I'm putting up with your shit."

The force of his shove sent Claire sprawling to the ground. Her palms scraped against the gravel, stinging with a raw, burning pain.

Damian didn't even glance at her bleeding hands or her injured ankle. He wrapped a protective arm around Lily.

"If you're so broken up about it, then sign the damn divorce papers," Claire spat from the ground.

Damian ignored her, shielding the terrified Lily as he quickly walked away.

Claire used the discarded club to pull herself to her feet.

All around her, people were staring, savoring the drama.

She lifted her chin, straightened her back, and surveyed the crowd.

"Anyone who wants to see me fall," she announced, her voice ringing with cold authority, "better make sure their fortune is big enough to pay for the privilege."

4.

When Claire got home, the lights were on.

Seeing who was inside, she remembered: it was the Sterling family dinner night.

Richard, Damian's father, sat at the head of the table. The moment she walked in, he slammed his whiskey glass down, sending ice skittering across the polished wood.

"Come and sit," Richard commanded.

Claire didn't move.

"Lily saved Damian's life. Not only are you ungrateful, but you hire someone to harass her in public. You're a disgrace to this family!"

Claire finally looked up.

Damian was in the seat next to his father. And next to him, where Claire had sat for three years, was Lily.

He had kept his word.

Just a few hours ago he'd said it was the last time he'd tolerate her behavior, and now he was letting his father publicly humiliate her.

"Mr. Sterling, please don't be angry," Lily said softly. "Claire just acted impulsively. She misunderstood my relationship with Damian."

She turned to Claire, her eyes filled with a sincerity that made Claire's stomach turn. "Claire, don't worry. As soon as I get my memory back, I'll leave. Then you won't have to fight with Damian about me anymore, and his reputation won't be affected."

Before she could finish, Claire stood up abruptly. She placed her hands on the table, her gaze sweeping like a blade across the three of them.

She didnt flip the table. She didnt even raise her voice. She simply placed her silverware neatly on her plate, folded her napkin, and set it beside them.

Then, in a voice colder than ice, she said, "Lily, you know damn well how long you plan on staying here."

She turned to Richard. "And you, Richard. You're covering for your son while he keeps a mistress, and then you have the audacity to lecture his wife? Who's the real disgrace here?"

Richard's face turned a furious shade of purple.

"This is the woman you insisted on marrying! No class, no respect!" he bellowed at Damian, then turned his wrath back on Claire. "It's a good thing you lost those two children. With a mother like you, they would have grown up to be worthless anyway!"

The words hit Claire like a physical blow. The world swam before her eyes.

The agonizing grief of losing her children washed over her again, threatening to pull her under.

Her eyes flickered to Damian.

He stood there, his face a mask of indifference.

No explanation, no defense. Not even a flicker of emotion.

A low, bitter laugh escaped her lips, filled with an endless, desolate sorrow.

From agony to guilt, and now, to utter indifference.

That was the sum of Damian's feelings for her and their children.

Fighting through the pain, she gracefully pushed back her chair and stood.

Her ankle throbbed, but she walked tall and straight.

She didn't throw things. She didn't scream. She just picked up her handbag, as if leaving any other tiresome dinner party, and walked slowly toward the door.

At the entrance, she paused without turning back, her voice barely a whisper.

"They probably can't stand to see me in this house anymore either."

And with that, she walked away without a backward glance.

5.

Just as she reached her car, she heard footsteps behind her.

Lily had followed her out.

Her face was still streaked with tears, but her eyes held a new, triumphant glint.

"Claire," she said softly, her tone dripping with pity. "Why hold on to a marriage where you're not loved by his family, or cherished by your husband?"

A cool night breeze swept through.

Lily took a step closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper only Claire could hear. "You don't deserve Damian. Let him go."

"Damian needs a wife who supports him, not an enemy who fights him at every turn!"

"Is that so?" Claire leaned against her car door and laughed.

"Because I remember Damian taking a beating for me. And the seed money for his first company? I got that by pawning my jewelry."

Her voice was as sharp as a razor's edge. "Lily, is your standard for 'deserving' him to wait until he's successful, then use his guilt to make him abandon his wife?"

The color drained from Lily's face.

Claire opened her car door, her eyes catching the glint of an expensive bracelet on Lily's wrist.

"By the way," she said, her voice floating out the window as she settled into the driver's seat, "that bracelet was bought with our joint funds. There's a word for wearing things bought with other people's money. It's called charity."

The engine roared to life.

Lily stood frozen in the headlights, a look of desperate resolve hardening her delicate features.

The instant Claire's foot eased off the brakeD

Lily threw herself backward, landing hard on the gravel as if she'd been struck by the car.

Her head hit the ground, and blood immediately started to trickle from a gash on her forehead.

"Aaaah!"

A bloodcurdling scream pierced the night.

Damian, who had been rushing out with a first-aid kit, saw the whole thing.

His face turned to stone, his eyes churning with cold, bitter disappointment.

"Claire!" he roared, sprinting forward. "Lily was just trying to talk to you, and you run her over? How could you do something so vile?"

Claire just stared at him.

Her gaze was so unnervingly calm it sent a strange shiver of unease through him.

She didn't explain. She didn't even react.

She justD

Pushed the clutch, shifted into gear, and released the handbrake.

The car shot forward, tires screaming on the gravel.

Lily was still huddled on the edge of the driveway. Claire's car tore past, the side mirror missing her shoulder by an inch.

Lily screamed in terror, instinctively rolling away and slamming into the low stone wall bordering the driveway with a sickening thud.

Damian's pupils contracted, rage and fear obliterating all rational thought.

He spun around, jumped into his own car, and floored it, chasing after Claire's disappearing taillights.

On the narrow, winding private road, Damian's car swerved violently, trying to force Claire to a stop.

The two cars were practically glued together, racing at high speed. Damian wrenched the steering wheelD

CRASH!

His car slammed into the rear of Claire's vehicle.

Claire's car spun out of control. The steering wheel was ripped from her grasp as the car plowed head-on into a stone pillar at the end of the driveway. The chassis crumpled, and glass exploded everywhere.

The airbag deployed with a violent bang. The immense impact sent blood streaming from her nose and mouth, and a searing pain tore through her insides.

White smoke billowed from the crumpled hood.

Through her blurry vision, Claire saw Damian stumble out of his wrecked car. He didn't even look at her. He ran back towards the house, gathering the bloodied Lily into his arms.

He paused for a second, his voice reaching her, cold and distant.

"Lily's hurt worse. I'll come back for you after I get her to the hospital."

Claire slowly closed her eyes.

The pain in her body was becoming excruciating, but her heart was completely numb.

That night taught her one, final, brutal lessonD

The man who had once sworn to protect her for the rest of his life was gone.

Her consciousness faded into darkness.

6.

Claire was unconscious for five days.

When she woke up, she was in a hospital.

Her head throbbed as if it were about to split open. Every bone in her body ached, and each breath sent a fresh wave of tearing pain through her.

"You're awake."

The deep voice at her side was so familiar it made her chest ache.

She slowly turned her head.

Damian was sitting by her bed. He looked exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes and a weary set to his shoulders.

Seeing her eyes open, he visibly relaxed, his voice hoarse. "Does your head still hurt?"

Claire closed her eyes again.

She didn't want to hear him. She didn't want to see him.

"That night..." Damian hesitated, searching for the right words. "I shouldn't have chased you. I lost control."

Lost control.

The words were like needles, pricking at her numb nerves.

She opened her eyes and looked at him, her voice a dry, rasping whisper.

"Fine. Why don't you go sit in a wrecked car and let someone leave you there to bleed out? Then you'll understand."

Damian's throat tightened.

He saw the cold hatred in her eyes, and the words he had prepared died on his lips.

A wave of helplessness washed over him.

"Is it..." his voice was raw, "...is the only way you'll calm down if I agree to a divorce?"

Claire said nothing.

Her silence was the answer.

Damian stared at her pale face for a long time.

He didn't believe she would actually go through with it.

They had sacrificed too much to be together.

They had both cut ties with their families, given up everything.

Knowing Claire's pride, she would never go crawling back to the Ashworths.

Convinced of this, he called his assistant and had a new divorce agreement drawn up.

The assistant arrived quickly.

Damian took the document and signed his name.

The scratch of the pen on the paper was a faint but jarring sound in the quiet room.

"It's signed," he said, pushing the agreement toward her. "I hope you'll leave Lily alone now."

Claire looked at the papers and almost laughed.

She had asked for a divorce a hundred times, and he had torn up the papers a hundred times.

Lily gets a scratch, and he agrees immediately.

How pathetic.

"Now that you've got what you want, get out," Claire said, her voice like ice.

Damian's chest tightened.

In all their years together, she had never looked at him with such contempt.

He was about to say something when Lily's soft voice came from the hallway. "Damian, is Claire feeling any better?"

A muffled groan followed from the doorway.

Damian's brow furrowed.

In the bed was a pale, injured Claire. In the hallway was a "recovering" Lily.

He heard another pained sound from the hall.

After a few seconds of indecision, he pressed the nurse's call button.

"The doctor will be here to change your dressing soon," he said, standing up. "I'll feel better knowing you're in a doctor's care."

He walked to the door and paused, his hand on the knob.

"Lily's headache is back. I'm taking her to a specialist," he said quietly. "And... I'll have my assistant arrange for the best physical therapist to look after you."

With that, he opened the door and left.

Claire didn't say a word to stop him.

Damian stood in the hallway for a moment, waiting.

He heard nothing.

No crying, no questions, not even a sigh.

The silence amplified the unease growing in his chest, threatening to swallow him whole.

But in the end, he turned and walked toward Lily, who was waiting at the end of the hall.

He told himself that once Claire cooled down, she would come back to him.

The hospital room was quiet again.

Claire stared at the ceiling. Slowly, she reached her free hand toward the bedside table for her phone.

Her independent business deal was already in its final stages. She was about to reclaim her power within the Ashworth family.

She knew what Damian was thinkingDin Greenwich, the Sterling family's influence was enough to make any court "cautiously review" a divorce case.

Unless she was an Ashworth again.

The pain in her body was immense; every movement felt like tearing flesh.

But she couldn't wait any longer.

She leaned against the wall, shuffling step by agonizing step toward the wheelchair.

By the time she lowered herself into it, her forehead was slick with cold sweat.

She wheeled herself out of the room, down the hall, and past the shocked nurses. She left the hospital, hailed a cab, and went straight to a law firm in downtown Manhattan.

The Ashworth family's lead attorney was waiting.

Claire pulled a thick stack of documents from her briefcase. For the past four months, using personal accounts and contacts Damian knew nothing about, she had single-handedly orchestrated a merger in the renewable energy supply chain, valued at over three hundred million dollars. Every contract, bank statement, and audit report proved one thing: the deal was done without a single cent of Ashworth money.

The lawyer reviewed the documents carefully and nodded. "This meets all the board's requirements for reinstatement."

Next, the divorce.

The Ashworth family's legal teamDone of the top three litigation firms in the countryDimmediately filed for an expedited process using the agreement Damian had already signed.

With the pre-prepared asset division plan, the signed agreement, and a cooperative family court judge, the divorce was finalized in three days.

Claire's hand was steady as she signed the last document.

She put down the pen and looked at the court's seal on the decree, letting out a soft breath.

From now on, she was just Claire.