Chapter 6 Samuel pushed his gold-rimmed glasses up, his eyes crinkling into crescents. "It's compelling to see someone with broken wings manage to find freedom through their designs. I was on the jury that year, and I gave you the highest score, Ms. Stockwell. "Start at our studio tomorrow. I'll pay you triple your last salary, but there's one condition. You have to finish the "Caged Bird" series." "Deal!" I said. Avery Langford, Kyle's assistant, hovered in the doorway, unsure whether to speak. "Mr. Grayson, Ms. Callahan is here again..." "Tell her to get lost!" Kyle hurled his phone away. It hit the floor with a crack, the glass screen shattering as Ruby's stilettos clicked toward him. "What's wrong, Kyle? Did Holly actually dump you?" Leaning against the wall with a brand-new Hermès on her arm, she gave him a mocking smile. "So now the whole world knows that you ditched your newlywed wife for an old flame. How loyal of you." Kyle clamped down on her wrist. "You've got some nerve bringing her up! If you hadn't said you were being forced into a marriage and begged me to get into a fake one with you, Holly wouldn't have walked out on me!" Ruby went pale, but her smile didn't budge. "Who was the one who swore to stand by me forever? Who said we'd file for divorce the minute we were done with my family? And now this is all somehow my fault?" She tore her hand free. Her meticulously styled hair had become disheveled, the stray strands clinging to her lips. "Kyle, you built your business with my father's backing all these years. And now, after you've taken your cut, you're tossing me aside?" The glass partition warped their reflections like a funhouse mirror. Kyle stared at Ruby, the woman he'd grown up with and treated like a sister. All of a sudden, she felt like a complete stranger to him. "You planned this from the start, didn't you? You timed it so we got married when Florence was at her worst and then you posted the photo of our marriage certificate just to get to her-" "So what if I did?" Ruby cut him off, her tears smudging her eyeliner into black tracks. "Since the day you patched up my knee when I was 12, I swore I'd make sure I was the only one you ever saw. And who is Holly, really? Some broke grad who shared instant mac and cheese with you in that rental? "And now that your company's taken off, she suddenly deserves to be the CEO's wife? Please. You squeezed the seed money for 1/2 Chapter 5 +25 Bonus this startup out of my father. If we're settling accounts, let's talk about those off-the-books numbers you're hiding-" "Shut up!" Kyle's slap landed harder than it had a few days ago. Ruby's diamond stud earring tore free, dazzling as it caught the light. Winnie Preston from the finance department shot to her feet. "Mr. Grayson, how much was the personal transfer you made to Ms. Callahan last quarter?" A hush rippled through the office and whispers rolled in like a tide. "I heard Ruby blew the corporate card on handbags last month." "The day Ms. Stockwell quit, the cameras caught Ruby dumping coffee on her computer." "No wonder Mr. Grayson's been in and out of the legal department lately." by suddenly snatched my framed photo and flung it into the crowd. "Shut up, all of you! You two-faced, fair-weather bitches! en't you the ones who called Holly the homewrecker before? What's with the righteous act now?" crash of shattering glass, Luke Holcomb from the marketing department scoffed. "We're not blind. At last month's ng, someone saw you walk out of Mr. Grayson's room after midnight, wrapped in a bath towel-" BS?" apler and made to hurl it at him, but Kyle caught her wrist. picture in the broken frame-me, beaming in a graduation gown-and swallowed. "Did you touch Holly's So what if I did?" Ruby yanked her arm free. Her stiletto came down hard on the photo, grinding it into the floor.