Chapter 4 - The Panic in Seat 4AEthan stared at the papers as if they were venomous snakes.
"Annullment? Are you out of your mind?!" he yelled, his voice echoing off the high ceilings. "We just spent fifty grand on a wedding! My parents flew in from Chicago! What are we going to tell people?"
"Tell them whatever makes you sleep at night," Clare said, turning her back on him and walking toward the bedroom. "You have until 5:00 PM to clear your clothes out of my apartment. If you're still here when I get back from my lawyer's office, I'll have the building security toss your designer loafers into the dumpster."
"Clare! Clare, wait! Don't do this!" Ethan lunged forward, grabbing her arm.
Clare didn't flinch. She simply turned her head and looked down at his hand gripping her wrist with a look of such absolute, chilling disgust that Ethan instinctively let go, stepping back as if burned.
"Have a wonderful trip to the Maldives, Ethan," she said evenly. "Give my regards to Vanessa."
Ten minutes later, Clare walked out of the apartment building into the crisp September air, sliding her sunglasses over her eyes. Her phone buzzed continuously in her pocket—calls from Ethan, frantic texts from Vanessa, and missed alerts from mutual friends who were already hearing whispers through the grapevine.
She put her phone on Do Not Disturb, climbed into her car, and drove straight to her attorney's office.
Meanwhile, forty blocks away in a high-rise office building, Ethan Cole sat at his desk, his hands shaking so violently he could barely hold his smartphone.
He dialed Vanessa’s number on the third try.
"Vee," he gasped the moment she answered. "We have a massive problem."
"What are you talking about?" Vanessa’s voice crackled through the speaker, sounding cool, smooth, and entirely unbothered. "I’m finishing my packing right now. Flight leaves tomorrow at 9 AM. Are we grabbing champagne at the lounge?"
"No!" Ethan groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Clare found out. She canceled the entire reservation. The resort booking, the seaplane, the return flights—everything is gone!"
There was a sharp silence on the other end of the line.
When Vanessa spoke again, her honeyed tone had vanished, replaced by a sharp, venomous hiss. "What do you mean, gone? Did you use your corporate card to rebook it?"
"I can't!" Ethan panicked. "She froze our joint accounts! Vee, she’s demanding an annulment. If I sign these papers, my parents will disown me, and my firm will think I'm completely unstable!"
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"Then don't sign them, you idiot!" Vanessa snapped. "Handle your wife!"
"I can't handle her!" Ethan shouted back, standing up so fast his office chair rolled backward and crashed into the wall. "She's not crying, Vee! She’s not begging! She looked at me like I was a cockroach!"
