“I worked myself to the bone for this patent. What right does she have to put her name on it?”
I turned in the chair and looked up at Nolan.
“I spent three years developing the process used to make Tideweave. I refined every single filament myself.”
“Does she even know what Tideweave is? What right does she have to claim credit for it?”
I wasn’t speaking loudly, but every word carried in the quiet room.
Nolan straightened, irritation tightening his expression.
“Mara, do you really have to make an issue out of this right now?”
“The patent application was filed overnight. The product rollout starts tomorrow across all our sales channels.”
“If you start a fight over this now, who’s supposed to absorb the losses?”
He looked down at me as though I were a child throwing a tantrum.
“It’s just a name. Your share of the profits will still go straight into your account. You’re not losing anything.”
He’d reduced my life’s work to something he thought he could put a price on and buy outright.
“And if I say no?”
His expression hardened.
“Mara, enough.”
He pulled a cigarette from the pack in his pocket and caught it between his lips without lighting it.
“Don’t forget, the divorce is already final.”
“Legally, you have nothing to do with the Whitaker family anymore. This technology was developed with company resources. I decide whose name goes on it.”
He clearly thought that would end the argument.
He was certain I’d cave, just like I always had.
“Nolan.”
Brielle’s sweet voice drifted in from the hallway.
“Mrs. Whitaker said I could sleep in your room tonight. Would having Mara here make things awkward?”
When Nolan looked back at me, his voice had softened into that familiar false gentleness.
“Go stay at that little apartment of yours tonight.”
“Brielle gets nervous easily and doesn’t sleep well in unfamiliar places. If you’re here, she’ll feel awkward.”
He pressed the intercom and called for security.
“Escort Ms. Lennox out.”
I looked at him without arguing or resisting.
I closed my laptop, slid it into its bag, and picked it up.
“Okay.”
Then I turned and walked out.
By the time I stepped outside the Whitaker estate, rain was coming down in sheets.
I didn’t have an umbrella, so I walked straight into it.
Every step felt as though blades were cutting through both my legs.
Halfway down the drive, my phone buzzed.
A banking alert flashed across the screen.
Every card I had on Nolan’s accounts had been deactivated, and he’d cut off my access to our shared funds.
A voice message from Nolan came in right after.
“I shut off the cards for now. Take some time by yourself and cool off. Call me when you’ve thought things through.”
He was convinced I couldn’t survive without him.
Cutting me off was his way of teaching me a lesson.
The rain came down harder, icy water running from my hair down the back of my neck.
Then a sharp cramp tore through my lower abdomen.
My legs gave out, and I dropped onto the muddy roadside.
A warm rush spread between my thighs, quickly staining my white skirt red.
The heavy pressure low in my abdomen made it almost impossible to breathe.
With shaking hands, I pulled out my phone and called Nolan.
It rang for a long time before he finally answered.
“Changed your mind?”
Laughter and voices drifted through the background.
“Nolan. My stomach hurts. I’m bleeding.”
I forced the words out through the pain, my voice shaking.
The other end went silent for a second.
Ten minutes later, the Maybach pulled up beside me.
Nolan got out holding an umbrella.
The moment he saw the blood on my skirt, his expression changed.
He dropped the umbrella and bent to lift me.
Then his phone erupted with Brielle’s ringtone.
He stopped and answered.
“Nolan, ten minutes left. If you don’t get to the bridge over the bay before the timer runs out, I’m jumping.”
Nolan froze.
His gaze dropped to me, then flicked to the timer counting down on his screen.
“Mara, just hold on.”
He lowered me back onto the cold ground.
“I called an ambulance for you. Brielle’s on the bridge, and it’s too dangerous. I have to go to her first.”
“Just listen to me and wait for the ambulance. I’ll come to the hospital as soon as I deal with Brielle.”
He took off his suit jacket, laid it over me, then ran back through the rain.
The Maybach’s taillights disappeared into the storm.
I lay in the mud, staring after him.
The pain in my abdomen gradually dulled, while the blade-like agony in my legs only grew sharper.
I pulled out my phone.
No ambulance was coming.
Nolan had never called one.
I opened my contacts and blocked him everywhere.