Ten Years Married, One Day Divorced

Chapter 3

The rain didn't stop for three days. I locked myself in my studio, hunched over a mountain of sketches, tweaking every tiny detail.

Anna walked in with a cup of coffee and set it on my desk. "Tamara, you're a workaholic. But I've got some bad news."

I looked up.

"Lawson's Jewelry submitted an application to the organizing committee, and it got approved." Anna frowned. "They didn't even qualify. They used their connections and bought their way in."

I picked up the coffee and took a quiet sip. It was bitter. Jack was moving faster than I'd expected. With his client list frozen, his IPO must have hit a wall. He was desperate to land big orders at the expo to keep his investors from panicking.

"No big deal." I set the cup down. "I'll see him at the show."

Three days later, the Milan International Jewelry Exhibition kicked off. I wore a sharp black suit and stood by my booth, walking a group of European buyers through this year's flagship collection.

"Tamara Lawrence." A familiar voice came from behind me.

I turned around and came face-to-face with Jack, his eyes bloodshot. He'd lost a lot of weight. His suit hung loose on him. Clinging to his arm was Kate, decked out in a custom couture gown.

"Mr. Lawson, long time no see." I gave him a small, polite nod.

He glared at me, his voice tight with barely contained rage. "Do you have any idea how much money the company has lost because of you?"

"That's your company's problem. It has nothing to do with me."

"Tamara!" He stepped forward sharply and grabbed my wrist.

I stepped back and pulled my arm out of reach.

Kate saw that and clung tighter to his arm. "Tamara, how can you be so cold? Jack had just got out of the hospital with a bleeding ulcer, and he'd been up all night worrying about the company. Can't you show him a little sympathy for once?" As she spoke, she lifted a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

Under the bright exhibition lights, the gold bracelet on her wrist glinted with a harsh, gaudy shine. My stare froze. That bracelet had once been simple and elegant. Now half of it had been melted down and remade into a cheap, hollowed-out design. Where the initial "S" had been engraved on the inside, Kate's initials glinted bright and unmissable there.

My breath caught. I clenched my fists until my knuckles turned white.

Jack followed my gaze and his expression shifted. He tried to pull Kate's hand down, but she stubbornly held it up higher, putting it on full display.

"Tamara," she drawled, her saccharine tone dripping with fake politeness. "Why do you keep staring at my bracelet? Don't you think it looks better after the redesign?" She flashed an annoyingly innocent smile. "Jack is right. Old things just need a little updating once in a while."

I tore my gaze from the mangled bracelet and fixed it on Jack. "You told her to have it altered?"

His eyes darted away, his tone stiff and evasive. "It had a dent. Kate said she knew a great jeweler, so I let her take it to get fixed. How was I supposed to know the guy would redesign the whole thing?"

"Jack, even your lies are pathetic." I cut him off, my voice ice-cold. "That was my mother's keepsake."

"Enough!" he snapped, raising his voice to cover his guilt. "It's just a stupid gold bracelet, right? I already ordered an even more expensive one for you! Tamara, can you stop using a dead woman to make me look like the bad guy?"

That phrase—"dead woman"—hit me like a knife to the chest. I stared at the man I had loved for ten years, and he suddenly looked like a total stranger.

"Jack, you disgust me." I turned to leave.

Behind me, Jack roared, furious and unhinged. "Tamara! If you walk away from me right now, I'll pull the sponsorship for your father's medical foundation immediately!"