Chapter 2

As I wheeled my suitcase toward the door, Clifford’s words still echoed in my ears: “Are you really that pathetic? Can’t survive 

without a man?” 

He was right. For the past five years, I’d poured all my energy into watching his every move and fighting Brianna. 

I remembered what happened on the third day of our third reconciliation, during the Montgomery Industries quarterly meeting. 

That day I sat in the second chair to Clifford’s right, listening to 

Brianna report her flower shop’s “losses.” 

“Over the past three months, ‘Petal & Thorn ‘ flower shop reported losses of eighty thousand dollars.” I stood up, projecting the financial statements onto the screen. “But bank records show that during the same period, one hundred and twenty thousand dollars was transferred to Brianna’s personal