Chapter 2

The thing about disappearing is that it only works if someone notices you're gone.

Damien didn't call for three days.

I know this because I still had my old phone, turned off and buried at the bottom of my suitcase, and when I finally powered it on at the airport, there was nothing. No missed calls. No messages. Just a notification from the building's concierge app confirming that my access card had been deactivated.

He hadn't even deactivated it himself. The system did it automatically.

I was sitting in the departure lounge at JFK, holding a one-way ticket to London, when my best friend, Nadia Park, dropped into the seat beside me and placed a coffee in my hand.

"You look like hell," she said.

"Thank you. That's exactly what a pregnant woman wants to hear."

Nadia's eyes went wide. She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again. Then she grabbed my arm so hard I almost spilled the coffee.

"You're WHAT?"

"Pregnant. About six weeks, according to the blood work."

"And Damien — "

"Doesn't know. Won't know. I signed the divorce papers three days ago."

Nadia stared at me for a long time. I could see the war playing out on her face — the part of her that wanted to scream at me for keeping secrets, fighting with the part that wanted to burn down Damien Blackwell's entire empire.

Finally, she exhaled and leaned back. "Okay. Tell me everything."

So I did. Right there in the terminal, with planes roaring overhead, I told her the full truth for the first time. The contract. The rules. The empty penthouse and the colder bed. His mother's contempt. And the words I had overheard three nights ago that had finally severed the last thread holding me in place.

When I finished, Nadia was quiet for a full minute.

"I'm going to ask you one question," she said carefully, "and I need you to answer honestly."

"Okay."

"Did you love him?"

The gate agent announced boarding for my flight. Around us, passengers stood and gathered their things. I watched them move in a blur.

"I loved him so much that I learned to cook because he once mentioned he missed home-cooked meals. I loved him so much that I slept on the left side of the bed because he preferred the right, even though he was never there. I reorganized his entire home library by the system he liked. I kept fresh lilies in every room because his grandmother used to grow them."

My voice was steady. I had practiced this steadiness.

"He never noticed any of it. Not once."

Nadia reached over and took my hand. She didn't say anything. She didn't need to.

When we boarded the plane, I turned off my old phone for the last time and handed it to her.

"Throw it away when we land."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

As the plane lifted off the runway and New York shrank beneath the clouds, I pressed my forehead against the cold window and made myself three promises.

One: I would build a life so extraordinary that "nobody from nowhere" would become the most laughable lie ever spoken about me.

Two: my child would never, ever feel invisible.

Three: I would never let Damien Blackwell close enough to hurt us again.

The city disappeared below me, swallowed by white.