Mr Ashford, I signed the divorce papers

Chapter.4

* Elara's POV*

---

Walking back into a room that once swallowed you whole is either the bravest thing you'll ever do or the most reckless.

I had stopped caring which one it was.

The Ashford Group's annual stakeholder dinner was the kind of event where old money smiled at new money and both pretended they weren't counting each other's worth. I had attended four of these as Caden's wife. Where I was either invisible or Peripheral. A decoration he forgot he'd hung on the wall.

Tonight I walked in as Elara Cole.

And I walked in on Rhys Carter's arm.

---

The room noticed us before Caden did.

I felt it...., the whispers, the plenty heads turning. Because Rhys didn't walk into rooms, he arrived in them, and apparently so did I now, because the woman who used to slip into these events quietly and find her corner had disappeared somewhere between a solicitor's office and seventy-two hours of becoming someone new.

"You're gripping my arm," Rhys said quietly near my ear.

"I'm aware."

"They're going to think you're nervous."

"I am nervous."

"I know." His voice dropped lower. "But they don't need to."

I loosened my grip. Lifted my chin. And smiled at the first person who caught my eye like I had absolutely nothing to prove and everything to collect.

Rhys's hand moved from my arm to the small of my back.

It was a small thing. A subtle thing.

It absolutely wrecked my concentration.

I felt Caden's presence before I saw him.

That was the thing nobody tells you about loving someone for years — your body doesn't get the memo when it's over. It still tracks him across rooms. Still registers his presence like a frequency only your bones can hear.

He was standing near the bar.

He saw me at the exact moment I saw him.

And the expression that crossed his face ... I wanted to memorize it and burn it simultaneously. Confusion first. Then recognition. Then something that moved through his jaw and his shoulders and his carefully constructed composure like a crack in expensive marble.

His eyes dropped to Rhys's hand on my back and stayed there.

"Breathe," Rhys murmured.

"I am breathing."

"You're doing that thing where you breathe but your chest doesn't move."

"Please stop noticing things about me."

"Not possible." he said so simply it almost didn't register as what it was.

I filed it away and kept walking.

---

Caden reached us in four minutes.

I counted, yes.

"Elara." His voice was controlled but his eyes were not. They moved between me and Rhys with something sharp and poorly hidden. "I didn't know you were coming tonight."

"Why would you?" I smiled pleasantly and unbothered. The smile I had spent three years perfecting at his events... except this time it was mine. "I was invited as a stakeholder."

Something moved in his face. "A stakeholder."

"Cole Industries holds a seven percent share in this company." I tilted my head. "Did you not know that? I would have thought your father did his research."

The silence that followed was exquisite.

Caden's eyes cut to Rhys. "Carter."

"Ashford." Rhys's voice was pleasant and completely without warmth. The way you greet someone you have categorized and found unimpressive. "Good evening."

"I wasn't aware you and my wife knew each other."

"Ex wife," I corrected softly. "As of yesterday."

Caden looked at me. Something in his expression cracked slightly at the edges ... something I couldn't name and refused to feel hopeful about. "Elara, can we talk privately—"

"We're in the middle of something." I touched Rhys's arm. Lightly and deliberately. "We'll catch up another time."

And I walked away from my ex husband for the second time in two days.

This time I felt him watching every step.

---

"That was beautifully done," Rhys said.

"Don't patronize me."

"I'm not. I'm genuinely impressed." A pause. "He's still watching you."

"I know."

"Does it bother you?"

I considered lying. "Less than I expected."

We found a quieter corner and I exhaled for what felt like the first time all evening. Rhys stood beside me, close enough that I could feel the warmth of him and I became suddenly, painfully aware that this was Rhys. "Rhys." The man I had kissed in a darkened hallway three years ago and convinced myself was just a moment. Just chemistry and just bad timing.

"Zara called me," I said suddenly.

"I know. I was with her when she did."

"She doesn't want us doing this."

He was quiet for a moment. "No. She doesn't."

"She thinks I'll hurt you again."

"You didn't hurt me the first time."

The lie was so clean I almost let it go. "Rhys—"

"You made a choice." He looked straight ahead. "People are allowed to make choices."

"I made the wrong one."

The words came out before I had authorized them. I felt him go still beside me.

"Elara—"

"I'm not saying that for any reason other than it being true." I stared at the opposite wall. "I just ... I need you to know that I know that."

He didn't respond immediately. The silence between us was the kind that had texture and weight.

"We have a company to protect," he said finally.

"Yes."

"And a very angry billionaire staring at us from across the room."

"Yes."

"So let's focus on that."

"Yes." I nodded. Professionally and composed.

His hand found mine at our sides. Just briefly. Just for a second.

Just long enough.

"For the record," he said quietly, his dark eyes still forward, "I would have come regardless. Zara calling was just an excuse."

My heart did something I wasn't ready for but I smiled to cover it. "Let's enjoy the dinner party"

"Sure my lady" Rhys replied, while holding my hands and leading me back into the room.