Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN HE FORGOT SHE COULD BE
The next morning, Claire Moretti became Claire Bennett again.
Not legally.
Not yet.
But professionally.
She stood before fourteen executives in Mercer Hospitality’s glass conference room and delivered a forty-minute operational analysis without notes.
By the end, nobody was looking at her like someone’s ex-wife.
They were looking at her like a threat.
Evan watched from the end of the table.
“You still have it.”
Claire gathered her papers.
“I never lost it.”
That sentence stayed with her.
Because for five years she had told herself motherhood had replaced ambition.
It hadn’t.
She had simply buried one part of herself to protect another.
And Vincent had mistaken that sacrifice for lack of dimension.
At noon, Claire received a text.
VINCENT:
Can I pick Lily up from school?
She replied:
Yes. She gets out at three. She wants strawberry frozen yogurt afterward.
Three dots appeared.
Then:
You remember everything.
Claire stared at the words.
She typed:
Someone had to.
Then deleted them.
Instead:
She’ll be happy to see you.
At 2:58, Vincent waited outside Lily’s preschool in a black SUV.
He saw Claire first.
She was crossing the sidewalk in heels, carrying a leather portfolio.
Her hair was down.
Her posture different.
Not because of the clothes.
Because she wasn’t looking for him.
For ten years, Claire had always noticed Vincent first.
That afternoon, she walked straight toward the school doors.
“Claire.”
She stopped.
“Vincent.”
His gaze dropped to the portfolio.
“You had a meeting?”
“I had work.”
He frowned.
“What work?”
She almost smiled.
“My work.”
“You took a job?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Mercer Hospitality.”
His expression changed.
“Evan Mercer?”
“Yes.”
Vincent knew Evan.
Everyone in Chicago business knew Evan Mercer.
Thirty-six.
Single.
Smart.
And once, before Claire married Vincent, very clearly interested in her.
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“You never mentioned wanting to work again.”
Claire stared at him.
“You never asked.”
Before he could respond, Lily burst through the school doors.
“Daddy!”
Vincent instantly softened.
He crouched beside her chair-height, catching her as she launched herself at him.
“Princess.”
“I made a dragon!”
“I heard.”
“Mama says dragons can be girls.”
“Mama is correct.”
Claire watched them.
Whatever happened between her and Vincent, she would never punish him by taking Lily’s love away.
Then Lily looked between them.
“Are we all getting yogurt?”
Silence.
Vincent looked at Claire.
She smiled gently at Lily.
“Daddy is taking you today.”
Lily frowned.
“You’re not coming?”
“I have a meeting.”
“With Mr. Evan?”
Vincent’s eyes lifted.
Claire almost groaned.
Children were tiny informants with no loyalty.
“Yes.”
Lily brightened.
“He’s funny.”
Vincent became very still.
“You’ve met him?”
Lily nodded enthusiastically.
“He gave me a purple marker.”
Claire sighed.
“Vincent.”
He smiled at Lily.
“Go ask Grandma if she wants yogurt too.”
When Lily skipped toward Vincent’s mother, he turned.
“How many times has Mercer been around my daughter?”
Claire’s eyes sharpened.
“Your daughter?”
“Our daughter.”
“Then don’t talk like I brought a stranger into her life.”
His voice lowered.
“I know what Mercer wanted from you ten years ago.”
“And what did I want?”
Vincent stopped.
Claire stepped closer.
“That’s the problem, Vincent. You always knew what every man around me wanted.”
Her gaze didn’t waver.
“You stopped caring what I wanted.”
Then she walked away.
Vincent watched her enter a waiting car.
Not one of his.
Evan Mercer sat in the back seat.
He leaned across and opened the door for Claire.
She laughed at something he said.
Vincent felt something hot and irrational twist beneath his ribs.
His mother appeared beside him.
“Interesting.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
“You wanted excitement.”
She smiled without humor.
“Looks like Claire found it first.”
Vincent said nothing.
That evening, he attended a board meeting about declining revenue at Moretti Hotels.
His CFO placed a series of documents in front of him.
“We have a bigger problem.”
Vincent frowned.
“What?”
“Someone has been buying our hotel debt through offshore companies.”
“How much?”
“Forty-one percent.”
His expression hardened.
“Who?”
“We traced one holding company.”
The name appeared on screen.
BENNETT CAPITAL PARTNERS.
Vincent stared.
Claire’s maiden name.
Then the CFO added:
“The company was registered five years ago.”
Vincent looked up.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
May you like
The CFO swallowed.
“It was registered two weeks before you married Claire.”
