Hailey's POV
The Ramsey Industries Annual Fundraiser was supposed to be my victory lap.
Instead, it felt like walking into a battlefield in heels and a designer gown.
I stood at the entrance of the ballroom, Maxwell beside me in a perfectly tailored tux, his hand resting lightly on my lower back. To everyone watching, we looked like the perfect power couple, polished, united, unstoppable.
Only I could feel the tension radiating through his touch. The distance that had grown between us over the past week as we'd worked separately on board strategy. We'd email documents back and forth, leave notes on the kitchen counter, coordinate around Gio's schedule like divorced parents instead of married partners. The irony wasn't lost on me that our fake marriage felt more strained than some real
