Chapter 1
Three years ago, Gray Tech was about to go public. It was the company my boyfriend Cade Grayson and I built from scratch.
The night before the opening bell, I got the diagnosis. Brain tumor.
I didn’t want to drag him down, and I didn’t want to trigger a market panic. So I wiped my name from the company records, erased my tracks, and walked away.
The IPO was a massive success.
Cade became Silicon Valley’s youngest billionaire, and he married me just like he promised.
Everyone called me his first love, his treasured wife.
Only I knew the truth.
We’d been married for three years, and he spent almost every night with Lydia Monroe.
He did it to break me. To make me the biggest joke in our social circle.
I used to scream. I used to go hysterical.
Now, I just quietly told the housekeeper to clean up the mess he and his mistress leave behind.
But today, Cade completely snapped. He pinned me against the wall, eyes wild, growling in my face. “Why won’t you just explain yourself?”
He had no clue I was dying.
He spent every single day punishing me, while I just counted down my remaining hours.
As of today, I had exactly seven days left to live.
***
I lay awake on the twin bed in the guest room, listening to the torrential rain outside.
The tumor in my brain had been my roommate for three years.
I had a PhD in computer science. I was used to breaking the world down into variables and functions, using pure logic to override chaos.
But I didn’t factor in Cade. I didn’t realize three years of his cold shoulder would turn me into a walking corpse.
My phone buzzed on the nightstand.
6:00 AM. Time for my painkillers.
Only three pills left in the bottle. They were experimental samples from my doctor, Helena. The actual trial drug cost ten thousand dollars a round.
Luckily, I saved up enough.
For the past three years, I secretly took on anonymous algorithm consulting gigs. Cash only. I kept the money on a bank card Cade knew nothing about.
Ten grand wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to buy me a painless final week.
I popped a pill into my mouth just as the master bedroom door clicked open.
Lydia stepped into the hallway, barefoot. She was wearing my silk robe, fresh hickeys marking her neck.
Her blonde hair fell over her shoulders, her makeup flawless like a magazine cover. She looked every bit the sharp, polished Silicon Valley elite.
“Up early, are we?” Lydia leaned against the hallway wall, sipping a glass of orange juice from the kitchen. “I made breakfast for Cade. Want some? Oh, wait. I forgot. You don’t really eat these days, do you?”
“That robe doesn’t belong to you,” I said, ignoring her jab.
Lydia looked down at the silk and smiled.
“Cade gave it to me last night. He said you wouldn’t mind. After all, it’s not like you’re wearing things like this for him anymore, right?”
A sharp, blinding pain shot from my left temple straight to the back of my head.
Instinctively, I clamped a hand over my nose.
Too late. Warm, red blood spilled through my fingers, staining my gray tee.
Lydia took a step back, knitting her brows, though a flash of smugness danced in her eyes.
“You should see a doctor. You’re not bleeding just out of jealousy over me and Cade, are you?”
She sniffed, adjusting the robe. “Don’t try to pin this on me. Cade and I are the ones in love now.”
I didn’t say a word.
I turned back into the guest room, locked the door, and pressed the last clean towel to my nose. The woman in the mirror looked like paper. Prominent cheekbones, sunken eyes. My once-thick, dark brown hair was so thin I could see my scalp.
Three years ago, I was a healthy 128 pounds. Now, I barely cleared ninety.
Once the bleeding stopped, I grabbed my hidden bank card and left the house.
At Dr. Helena’s clinic, I handed her the card.
I wanted into that experimental trial. Call it the final piece of dignity I could buy myself.
But when she ran the card, the machine beeped with a harsh error.
“Account Frozen. Contact Issuer.”
I stared at the red text on the screen, my fingers starting to shake.
I tried running it three times, then called customer service. The answer was the same: the account was frozen due to “suspicious activity.”
It was Cade. He never let me work. I had no income. He controlled every single dime, and my only option was the credit card under his name.
And now, he found out about this hidden account. He froze it.
