Married To The Vulture Of Wall Street
Chapter 1
The water from the faucet was freezing, but it didn't shock her. Nothing really shocked her anymore. She stared at her reflection in the spotted mirror of the City Clerk's bathroom. Her mascara was perfect. Her skin was pale, translucent under the harsh fluorescent lights. She looked like a porcelain doll that had been dropped and glued back together too many times.
She reached into the hidden lining of her clutch and pulled out an amber prescription bottle. The label read Sertraline, her supposed lifeline, the chemical leash her father thought kept his unstable daughter from embarrassing the family. She popped the cap.
She shook two white mints into her palm. She'd spent a month conditioning herself to mimic the slight hand tremor associated with Sertraline withdrawal, a performance detail for her father's benefit.
She crunched down on the sugar, letting the sharp peppermint burn her tongue. It was the only thing real about that moment. Her phone buzzed against the marble countertop. It was the final data packet from the encrypted server she'd set up. Her own work.
She unlocked the screen. The photo was high-definition, captured by a micro-camera she'd swapped onto his favorite coat two days ago. Preston Hayes. Her fiancé. He was tangled in sheets at SoHo House, his mouth on the neck of a junior associate from his father's firm. The timestamp was two hours ago.
She checked her watch. Forty-five minutes.
If she wasn't married in forty-five minutes, the trust fund clause regarding her grandfather's super-voting shares would expire. The Miller Group would be carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey, and her father would sell the scraps to the highest bidder. Her team at Interpol had flagged the Miller Foundation for laundering, and losing those shares meant losing her only legal way inside.
She didn't feel sad. She didn't feel betrayed. She felt the cold, hard click of a lock sliding into place in her mind.
She pushed through the bathroom door. The heels of her Louboutins struck the marble floor with a military cadence. The waiting area was a purgatory of beige walls and nervous couples clutching paperwork. The air smelled of stale coffee and bureaucratic apathy.
Preston was standing near the front of the line. He checked his Rolex, tapping his foot. He was wearing a custom Tom Ford suit that cost more than most people's cars. He looked the part. The perfect heir. The perfect husband.
He saw her. His face transformed instantly. The irritation vanished, replaced by a practiced, dazzling smile. It was the smile that had charmed the board of directors and fooled the gossip columnists.
"Ivy, finally," he said, reaching for her. "You're dragging your feet. We're going to miss the reservation at Le Bernardin."
His hand aimed for her waist. It was a possessive gesture, a claim of ownership.
She sidestepped him. It was smooth, a muscle memory honed from years of dodging things thrown in her direction.
Preston's hand grasped at empty air. His smile faltered, the edges cracking.
"Did you forget your meds again?" he whispered, his voice dropping to that patronizing tone he used when he wanted to remind her that she was broken. "You're acting twitchy."
She didn't speak. She just held up her phone.
She shoved the screen into his face. The brightness was turned all the way up. The image of him and the girl was unavoidable.
Preston's pupils contracted. It was a physiological reaction to fear. She watched it happen with clinical detachment. His hand shot out to snatch the phone.
She was faster. She took a half-step back, locking the screen and gripping the device until her knuckles turned white.
"Don't," she said. Her voice was flat.
The couple behind them-tourists in matching sweatshirts-stopped whispering and stared. The hum of the room seemed to dampen, creating a vacuum around them.
Preston stepped into her personal space. He smelled of expensive cedar and the faint, metallic scent of panic.
"Put that away," he hissed. "You're being paranoid. It was stress relief. It means nothing. Think about the merger, Ivy. Think about your father."
"Clause 14 of the prenuptial agreement," she recited. "Any act of infidelity or dishonesty prior to the signing of the marriage certificate renders the asset allocation void."
Preston's face flushed a deep, ugly red. "You think you can walk away? You need her. You're a liability, Ivy. You're the crazy daughter fresh out of a Swiss clinic. No one else is going to marry a junkie with a personality disorder. I'm doing her a favor."
Her heart rate didn't spike. Her breathing didn't hitch. She looked at him and saw a bad investment. A sunk cost.
"I'm terminating the contract," she said.
He grabbed her wrist. His fingers dug into her tendons, grinding bone against bone. It hurt, but pain was just data.
"You are not making a scene here," he growled. "We are going to that window, and you are going to sign."
She wrenched her arm back. She didn't struggle; she used leverage. "Are you going to assault her in a government building, Preston? There are three cameras pointing at us right now."
He flinched. He looked up and saw the security guard by the metal detectors watching them. He let go of her wrist, smoothing his tie, trying to regain his composure.
She stepped back. She had a problem. She had eliminated the groom, but she still needed a marriage. The judicial waiver she'd secured that morning, fast-tracking the 24-hour waiting period, was only valid until 5 PM. Without a signature that day, she lost everything. Not just the money-she didn't care about the money. She needed the voting power to stop her father from laundering millions through the foundation.
She turned away from Preston. She scanned the room.
She needed a variable. Someone present. Someone male. Someone who looked like they understood the concept of a transaction.
Her eyes swept over the nervous boys in rented tuxedos and the sentimental couples holding hands. Useless. All of them.
Then she saw him.
He was standing in the far corner, near a marble pillar. He was wearing a black overcoat that absorbed the light around him. He wasn't looking at his phone. He wasn't looking at the line.
He was looking at her.
His eyes were dark, intelligent, and completely devoid of warmth. He looked like a predator who had stumbled into a petting zoo.
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