Chapter 2

The taxi pulled up to the wrought-iron gates of the Baker estate in Long Island and came to a halt on the wet gravel driveway.

Aliana stepped out into the damp evening air, paid the driver in cash, and walked toward the towering limestone entrance. Before her hand could reach the brass handle, the heavy front door swung open.

The butler, Evans, stood in the foyer with a tense expression. "Mrs. Baker, Mr. Baker returned from his trip an hour ago. He is in the main living room, and he is extremely displeased."

Aliana did not answer. She walked past him, her wet heels leaving quiet marks on the white marble floor, and stepped into the sprawling living room.

Aaron Baker stood near the roaring fireplace, his tall frame clad in a tailored charcoal Tom Ford suit. He was violently loosening his silk tie, his grey eyes flashing with irritation the moment he saw her enter.

"Where the hell have you been?" Aaron snapped, tossing his tie onto the leather sofa. "I just endured a twelve-hour international flight, and you weren't here to greet me. Your phone was switched off."

Aliana looked at his right hand. He was rubbing the bridge of his nose—a subconscious habit he displayed whenever he felt inconvenienced. On his left ring finger, the platinum wedding band had already been slipped back into place.

Her gaze drifted down to the floor beside the coffee table. Several luxury shopping bags from duty-free boutiques were piled neatly on the rug, crowned by an orange Hermès box tied with a brown ribbon.

Aaron followed her gaze and frowned, his voice taking on an aggressive edge. "Charline has been suffering from severe clinical depression since my brother passed away. I took her and Chloe to the Maldives for **a week** so she could breathe. Don't start making a scene over nothing."

Aliana let out a soft, dry laugh. "A family getaway? With another man's widow and my child?"

Aaron's jaw tightened. He took two long strides across the room and reached for her wrist. "She is family, Aliana! Have some basic human sympathy. You are always so insecure, so obsessively jealous over things that don't exist."

Aliana stepped back before his fingers could touch her skin. The avoidance was so sharp, so deliberate, that Aaron's hand remained frozen in mid-air.

"Sympathy?" Her voice was low and steady, cutting through the warm room like a blade. "**Did you show me any sympathy when I was lying on an operating table just a few days ago?**"

Aaron paused, a flicker of confusion crossing his brow, but his arrogance returned almost instantly. "What ridiculous drama are you fabricating now? My assistant told me you only had a standard prenatal appointment scheduled. Stop exaggerating minor discomfort to guilt-trip me."

Aliana looked at the man she had lived with for three years. Every word out of his mouth felt like stale poison. She did not argue. She gathered her trench coat around herself and turned toward the curved staircase.

"I am talking to you, Aliana!" Aaron's temper flared. He lunged forward and grabbed her left shoulder, spinning her around to face him. "My patience has limits! You don't walk away from me in my own house!"

**A dull ache shot through her lower abdomen and down her spine as he jerked her around. The damage from the D&C had not magically healed in a week, and her body was still recovering from the physical toll of losing her pregnancy. She forced herself to stand straight, refusing to let him see how much the sudden movement hurt. The pain was real, and it would take time to heal. But one day, she would make Aaron and Charline feel a fraction of the suffering they had inflicted on her. She would repay them for every tear, every betrayal, and every moment they had mistaken her silence for weakness.**

Aliana lifted her chin, her dark eyes locking directly into his with an icy stillness that made the air between them turn frigid.

"Take your hands off me," she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Right now."

Aaron stared at her. For three years, she had been gentle, accommodating, and soft-spoken, yielding to every demand of the Baker family. The raw, predatory coldness in her eyes caught him completely off guard.

His fingers loosened, and he stepped back half an inch.

Aliana smoothed down the fabric of her coat, as if brushing off dirt, and turned back to the stairs. She climbed them one step at a time, her posture rigid, disappearing onto the second-floor gallery.

Behind her, Aaron kicked a crystal floor lamp in frustration. The glass shattered across the hardwood floor, sending sharp fragments scattering against the baseboards.

Aliana walked into the master bedroom and locked the door behind her.

She pulled a black hardshell suitcase from the top shelf of the walk-in closet and threw it onto the king-sized bed. She did not touch the designer evening gowns or the diamond jewelry Aaron had purchased for high-society galas. She only packed her practical wool sweaters, her research notebooks from her Ivy League graduate years, and her personal legal records.

From the bottom drawer of her vanity, she pulled out an encrypted silver thumb drive containing the complete proprietary algorithms for her targeted gene-therapy patent.

Just as she zipped the suitcase, a child's high-pitched voice echoed from the hallway outside.

"Mommy is a bad person! Aunt Charline said Mommy doesn't want me anymore because she wants a new baby!"

Chloe's crying was immediately followed by Aaron's soft, soothing voice. "Don't cry, sweetheart. Aunt Charline is much nicer than Mommy anyway, isn't she? Come, let's open your new presents."

Aliana stood beside the bed. A single tear slipped down her cheek, hot and heavy, but she wiped it away with the back of her hand until her skin burned red. Her expression hardened into stone.

She took out her phone and called Maya back.

"Did you get in touch with Bryan's firm?" Aliana asked, keeping her voice low.

Maya typed rapidly in the background. "I'm trying, Ali. But Donnell Bryan is the top corporate and litigation heavyweight on Wall Street. His firm usually represents sovereign funds and multi-billion-dollar trusts. They rarely take domestic divorce disputes unless there is serious capital backing behind it."

Aliana looked at her own reflection in the vanity mirror. "Tell them I don't just want a divorce. I am bringing them the core patent that powers Baker BioTech's next valuation."

"I'll push through his senior clerk tonight," Maya promised.

Aliana hung up and walked over to the tall bay window overlooking the front courtyard.

Down on the gravel driveway, a black Mercedes had just arrived. Aaron was standing by the passenger door, holding a large umbrella to shield Charline as she stepped out into the rain. Charline was wearing an ivory cashmere wrap, leaning delicately against Aaron's chest, her face buried in his shoulder.

Aaron's arm was wrapped firmly around Charline's waist, pulling her close against the wind.

Aliana raised her phone, disabled the shutter sound, and zoomed in through the glass. She snapped twelve high-resolution photos of the embrace, watching the small cloud icon spin as they synced directly to her private server.

She lowered the phone, gripped the handle of her suitcase, and unlocked the bedroom door.