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I was the perfect fiancée to Archer Sterling, a tech mogul who demanded I be as polished as his marble countertops. I gave up my art and my identity to fit his world, believing our upcoming wedding was the start of our forever. A mysterious text led me to a hidden folder in a calculator app on Archer's phone. Inside were photos of him with his assistant, Mia, and texts calling me a "dead fish" and "manageable" collateral for his upcoming IPO. The humiliation peaked at my final bridal fitting. Archer ditched me for a hotel tryst with Mia, leaving me to overhear the salon staff mocking me as a "clueless gold digger." When I collapsed in the hallway, barefoot and broken, Archer didn't offer a hand. He only scolded me for "making a scene" and ordered me to be "supportive" of his busy schedule. The seven years I spent molding myself into his ideal woman were a lie. I wasn't his partner; I was a character in a play he wrote for his investors. My love had been met with calculated contempt, and my sacrifices were treated as his due. That night, I found Mia's silk stockings shoved in my guest bathroom. The scent of her perfume in my home was the final breaking point. When Archer tried to touch me, my skin crawled with a physical rejection I couldn't mask. I locked the door, shredded the stockings, and called the one man Archer feared: Julian Van Der Bilt. "Does your offer for help include getting me out of here?" I asked. "Pack a bag," Julian's voice rumbled through the dark. "I'll be there in twenty minutes. Don't let him see you leave."
Contents
Chapter 1 1
The phone vibrated against the marble countertop, a low, angry hum that disrupted the silence of the penthouse. Harper Quinn stood in the center of the expansive walk-in closet, her fingers lingering on the silk of a navy blue tie. She was trying to decide if this was the shade of blue Archer liked, or the shade he said made him look washed out. It was becoming harder to remember the list of things Archer liked because the list seemed to change with the wind.
The vibration came again.
She glanced toward the nightstand. Archer was in the shower. The sound of the water hitting the tile was a rhythmic, distant thrumming, accompanied by his off-key humming of a classic rock song. He was happy. He was always happy when he thought he was winning.
Harper walked over to the phone. It wasn't a call. It was a text message on the lock screen, but the sender ID was blocked.
The truth is in the calculator app. The code is the day he started the company.
Her breath hitched in her throat. It was a physical sensation, a sharp pinch in her airway that made her cough once, dryly. She stared at the words, waiting for them to rearrange themselves into something innocent, something like a wrong number or a spam bot. But the specificity of it-the calculator app, the company date-felt like a cold hand wrapping around the back of her neck.
She looked toward the bathroom door. The humming continued. Steam was beginning to curl out from beneath the doorframe.
Harper picked up the phone. Her hands were shaking. Not a subtle tremble, but a violent shiver that made it difficult to hold the sleek device. She stared at the blank screen, knowing Archer wasn't the type to use a simple sequence like 1-2-3-4. He prided himself on digital hygiene, a trait he preached about in every interview. But Harper knew his vanity exceeded his caution. She tilted the screen against the light, searching for the tell-tale oily residue of his thumbprints. The smudges clustered in a specific pattern, worn deep into the oleophobic coating. Top right, bottom center, middle. The date of his first successful acquisition. The day he believed he became a god.
She keyed in the six digits. The lock clicked open.
His background was a photo of the two of them in the Hamptons last summer. They looked perfect. Tan, smiling, successful. Harper looked at her own smiling face in the photo and felt a wave of nausea roll through her stomach.
She swiped to the second page of apps. There it was. The calculator. It looked standard. Gray buttons, black background. She hesitated, her thumb hovering over the glass. If she did this, if she opened this door, she could never close it. Ignorance was a warm blanket, and she was about to strip it off in the dead of winter.
She tapped the icon. The keypad appeared.
She typed in the date. Six digits. The day Sterling Ventures was incorporated.
The screen didn't show a math equation. It flickered, the interface dissolving into a dark gray grid. A hidden folder system.
Harper's legs felt weak. She sat down on the edge of the bed, the mattress dipping under her weight. She tapped the first folder labeled simply: Work Expenses.
It wasn't receipts.
The first photo was of a dinner plate. Oysters. Two glasses of white wine. In the background, out of focus but unmistakable, was Archer's hand resting on a woman's thigh under the table. The woman was wearing a red dress. Harper didn't own a red dress. Archer said red was too aggressive for his partner.
She swiped.
The next photo was clearer. It was a selfie taken in a mirror. Archer was kissing the woman's neck. The woman was laughing, her head thrown back. It was Mia St. Claire. His executive assistant. The girl Harper had bought coffee for. The girl Harper had mentored on how to handle Archer's moods.
Harper felt bile rise in her throat. She swallowed it down, burning her esophagus.
She kept swiping. It wasn't just photos. There were screenshots of text messages.
Archer: Harper is perfect on paper. She looks good at galas. That's her job.
Mia: Does she suspect anything?
Archer: She's too busy planning the wedding. Besides, she's grateful. Where would she be without me? Teaching art to kindergarteners?
Mia: You're bad.
Archer: You love it. Harper is a dead fish in bed anyway. No passion. Just duty.
The phone slipped from Harper's fingers and landed on the duvet.
Dead fish.
The words echoed in her ears, drowning out the shower. She looked at her hands. They were pale, the veins showing blue under the skin. She had given up her studio for him. She had stopped sculpting not because she lost the passion, but because Archer claimed the clay dust triggered his asthma. He would cough dramatically for hours after she returned from the studio, guilt-tripping her until she scrubbed her skin raw. He told her that her hands, rough from the work, felt like sandpaper against his skin. So she had stopped. She had smoothed herself out, erased her edges, became the polished stone he wanted.
And he called her a dead fish.
The water turned off.
Panic, sharp and electric, shot through her. She snatched the phone up. She had to close it. She had to lock it. Her thumbs fumbled over the screen, exiting the hidden interface, swiping back to the home screen. She placed the phone back on the nightstand.
It was crooked.
She nudged it two millimeters to the left, aligning it with the edge of the coaster, just the way he left it.
The bathroom door opened. A cloud of steam billowed out, carrying the scent of sandalwood soap. Archer walked out, a towel wrapped low around his hips. He was rubbing his wet hair with a smaller towel, his muscles flexing. He looked vibrant. Alive.
"Babe?" he called out, tossing the hand towel onto the chair. "Did you pick the blue one? The navy?"
Harper stood up. Her knees locked to keep her upright. She turned to the closet, grabbing the tie she had been holding. She felt like she was moving through water, everything slow and heavy.
"Yes," she said. Her voice sounded thin, like paper tearing. "The navy."
Archer walked up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her back against his damp chest. He kissed the sensitive spot right below her ear.
Usually, she would lean into this. Today, her skin crawled. It felt like thousands of ants were marching across her dermis where his lips touched.
"You're tense," he murmured against her skin.
"Just the wedding planning," Harper managed to say. She stared at their reflection in the full-length mirror. He looked like a loving fiancé. She looked like a statue.
Archer pulled away, oblivious. He walked over to the nightstand and picked up his phone.
Harper held her breath. Her heart hammered against her ribs so hard she thought he must be able to hear it.
He tapped the screen. Checked a notification. Smiled.
It was a small smile. A secret smile. The kind of smile she used to think was reserved for her.
"Just a work email," he said, tossing the phone onto the bed. "Felix is asking about the quarterly reports."
Harper looked at the phone. She knew Felix didn't send emails with winking emojis. She knew Felix wasn't the one making Archer smile like that.
"That's good," she said.
Archer began to get dressed, whistling that same off-key tune. Harper watched him, realizing that the man she had loved for seven years didn't exist. He was a character in a play, and she was the only one who didn't know the script was a tragedy.
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