Chapter 1 - The pink SUV
The hot-pink SUV looked ridiculous.
Perfectly ridiculous.
Exactly the way Mariana had once described it.
A custom Brabus with black trim, cream leather, and an oversized satin bow across the hood sat in front of Vithera Logistics while employees drifted toward the windows to stare.
I stood beside it holding two hundred pink roses, a Louis Vuitton bag, and a diamond ring I had bought even though Mariana already wore a wedding band.
Eight years together.
Five years married.
One impossible afternoon.
That morning, an old man at a gas station had talked me into buying a lottery ticket.
At 1:17 p.m., I scanned it.
Grand prize.
Eighty million dollars.
Even after taxes and the lump-sum calculation my advisors kept repeating, the number was still large enough to rearrange every room in my life.
I had told no one.
Especially Mariana.
I wanted her face before money changed it.
At 4:30, I entered the glass headquarters of Vithera Logistics.
The receptionist saw me.
Then looked away too quickly.
People weren't staring at my pink SUV anymore.
They were staring toward the executive hallway.
I walked slowly.
Near Mariana’s office, I heard Rodrigo Santillan laugh.
Rodrigo was fifty-five, rich, married, and Vithera’s vice president of operations.
Mariana had always called him arrogant.
Apparently not too arrogant to kiss.
“You worry too much,” Mariana whispered.
“Ethan still thinks I’m completely obsessed with him.”
My fingers tightened around the flowers.
Rodrigo answered:
“After today, you won’t need him anymore.”
Then I heard the kiss.
Something inside me went silent.
I pushed the door open.
Mariana turned.
Her face went white.
“Ethan?”
Rodrigo smiled.
Not embarrassed.
Interested.
Mariana rushed toward me.
“Darling, this isn’t what it looks like.”
Of all the possible sentences, she chose the stupidest.
Rodrigo reached casually toward the gift bag.
He saw the velvet ring box inside.
“Well,” he said. “Someone came prepared.”
I dropped the bag onto the desk before he touched it.
Then my phone rang.
Samuel Price.
My lottery attorney.
I answered on speaker.
“Mr. Hale,” he said urgently, “your wife just attempted to claim the ticket without you.”
Mariana froze.
Rodrigo’s smile vanished.
I slowly looked at her.
“So that was the plan.”
For the first time that day, Mariana looked more frightened by my phone than by being caught kissing another man.
May you like
Then Samuel said:
“Ethan, there’s something worse.”
