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Chapter 3

The marble floor was cold against my cheek, a stark contrast to the warmth spreading beneath me. Blood—my blood—pooled around my torn dress, seeping from the surgical wound that had completely ruptured when I hit the ground. The pain was unlike anything I'd ever experienced, a white-hot agony that made each breath feel like drowning.

"Help me," I whispered, then louder, "Please, someone help me."

Grayson stood frozen by the bar, his beer still clutched in his hand, staring down at me with an expression I couldn't quite read. Not horror. Not concern. Something closer to... annoyance.

"Jesus Christ, Megan." His voice cut through the stunned silence of the room. "Are you seriously doing this right now?"

I tried to push myself up, but my arms trembled and gave out. The movement sent another wave of agony through my core, and I could feel more blood flowing from the torn stitches.

"Grayson, please," I gasped, reaching toward him with a shaking hand. "Something's really wrong. I need—"

"You need to stop making everything about yourself!" He slammed his beer down on the marble bar top, the sound echoing through the silent apartment. "Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is? You've completely ruined everyone's evening."

The words hit harder than the fall had. I stared up at him—this man I'd married, this man I'd sacrificed everything for—and saw nothing but cold irritation in his eyes.

"I'm bleeding," I said, my voice barely audible. "Grayson, I'm bleeding."

"You're always bleeding or hurting or needing something," he snapped, running his hands through his hair in that familiar gesture of frustration. "It's constant drama with you. Constant."

Nadia appeared at his side like a shadow, her hand sliding possessively up his arm. Her face was a mask of false concern, but I caught the glitter of satisfaction in her eyes as she looked down at me sprawled on the floor.

"Oh, Gray," she murmured, her voice honey-sweet and sympathetic. "You poor thing. This must be so stressful for you, having to deal with... this... all the time."

Her fingers traced soothing circles on his forearm, the gesture intimate and practiced. Too practiced. How long had she been touching him like that? How long had I been blind to what was happening right in front of me?

"I can't do this anymore," Grayson said, his voice rising with each word. "I can't keep pretending that this is normal, that you're not completely falling apart. Look at yourself, Megan. Just look."

I did look. I saw the blood soaking through my dress, saw my hands shaking as I tried to press them against the wound. I saw myself broken and helpless on the floor while my husband stood above me like a judge pronouncing sentence.

"Maybe we should go," Nadia suggested softly, her voice carrying just enough volume for everyone to hear. "You don't need to be subjected to this kind of... scene."

The room full of people—people who had once competed for invitations to my family's galas, who had once hung on my every word—watched in fascination as my marriage disintegrated before their eyes. Some had their phones out, probably already posting about the drama on social media.

"You're right," Grayson said, his decision swift and final. "I'm done."

He moved toward the door, and Nadia went with him, her hand still on his arm, her body pressed close to his side in a way that spoke of intimacy and possession.

"Don't leave me," I called after them, hating how desperate I sounded but unable to stop the words. "Please, Grayson, don't leave me like this."

He paused at the door, looking back at me with something that might have been pity if it hadn't been so cold.

"You did this to yourself," he said simply. "You always do."

Then they were gone, leaving me bleeding on Marcus Thompson's marble floor while his guests stood around debating my fate like I was a piece of broken furniture they weren't sure how to dispose of.

"Should someone call an ambulance?" a woman's voice asked uncertainly.

"I don't know," Marcus replied, sounding more annoyed than concerned. "She's probably just being dramatic again. You know how she gets."

"But there's so much blood..."

"She can figure it out herself," James chimed in with a laugh that held no warmth. "She's a big girl. Rich girl problems, right?"

The darkness was creeping in at the edges of my vision, and I realized with crystalline clarity that these people—these friends of my husband's—were actually going to let me bleed out on the floor rather than inconvenience themselves with a phone call.

That's when my phone, somehow still clutched in my hand from when I'd fallen, began to ring.

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