Chapter 1

1.

"Sign it, Elena. You get nothing."

Julian slid the divorce papers across the conference table. They stopped right in front of me.

He spoke with the same cold detachment he used when closing a business deal.

His personal lawyer sat beside him. And next to the lawyer was his new girlfriend, Sienna, her belly already showing a slight curve.

Sienna looked at me with the pity of a winner. "Elena, Julian is being generous. The agreement doesn't even make you share the company's debt. Just sign it. Don't make this awkward for everyone."

I picked up the pen.

Julian frowned. "Aren't you going to read the terms? You're waiving your rights to everything."

"No need."

I didn't even hesitate. I signed my name: Elena Vance.

Then, I looked up and smiled.

The color drained from Julian's face.

It was three o'clock in the afternoon when Julian said the words "you get nothing."

The Palo Alto sun streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, shining on the divorce agreement. Outside was the bustle of Sand Hill Road, the heart of the venture capital world.

Looking at my signature, I felt a strange sense of distance.

Elena. I'd had that name for thirty-two years.

I'd been with Julian for five.

When we got married five years ago, he wasn't some hotshot founder and CEO.

Back then, he was just a product manager who'd been laid off from a second-rate tech company, with nothing but three months of severance in his pocket.

I remember we were at a cheap taco joint for dinner when he told me, his eyes shining, that he wanted to start his own company.

I asked him what he wanted to do.

He said he'd build an enterprise-level SaaS platform.

"That market is crowded," I said, chewing on a chip. "The existing products are solid, and they have all the big names behind them."