CHAPTER 3: What Happened Before the Glass Broke

The fight had begun with a text message Emily was never supposed to see.
Mark’s phone lit up on the glass coffee table while he was pouring champagne. The message was short, intimate, and careless: Are you still leaving her after the board vote?
Emily looked up from the white rose she had been trimming for the table and asked only one question.
“Who is she?”
Mark answered with irritation instead of honesty.
That told her everything.
When she pressed further, he turned cold. He said she was emotional, spoiled, too dependent on her father to understand real business.
Then she mentioned the wire records she had found in one of their shared accounts.
That changed him.
The champagne glass slipped from her hand sometime in the argument. The rose fell next. Emily stepped backward. Mark stepped forward. After that came the floor, the bruise, and the silence that only rich homes know how to hold.
He had not expected her to reach for a phone.
He had expected her to cry.