Chapter 3The CEO’s Final Play.

I looked up. These "Vanderbilt" types, the city’s most notorious playboys, were standing perfectly still, looking at me with genuine worry.

I smiled and waved them off. "I’m hungry. Fix the table."

"On it, Chloe! Right away!"

Parker, the son of the club’s owner, was the most eager. He immediately had staff clear the glass and bring out a fresh course.

Watching them move reminded me of when we were kids, and they’d follow Dominic and me around like little shadows.

When did I stop being "Chloe" and start being "The Wife"?

Probably when I was five and got snatched by a rogue nanny. Dominic, only eight at the time, analyzed the tiny clues she left behind and found me before the police did.

I still remember waking up on his thin back. He was gritting his teeth, carrying me, staggering out of that terrifying abandoned factory. That image was burned into my soul.

Our parents used to joke that for the rest of his life, Chloe would always be Dominic’s "exception."

But then came Lily Rose.

Unlike me—who lost her mother in that kidnapping and was raised as a shark-like heiress for the sake of the family business—Lily was soft.

She didn't demand he study financial journals or learn five languages. She just sat by him, smiling. She cooked for him. She spent hours sitting through classes she didn't understand just to be near him.

I couldn't do that. I was raised to measure the world in profit and loss.

Until Lily left. She said she couldn't fit into his world. She moved abroad, and Dominic didn't chase her. He wanted the Vance empire, and he wanted my family’s tech conglomerate.

He wouldn't give that up for a girl. So, when he proposed, I said yes.

Dominic gave me every luxury money could buy. I enjoyed it, knowing that eventually, the Vance and Sterling empires would both be mine.

I ate my dinner in silence, mentally reviewing my plan. After fifteen years of plotting, I wouldn't allow a single mistake.

"Chloe!" Parker suddenly slammed the table. "You’ve never been soft on the women around him! Why did you let her win today?"

The table went quiet.

I smiled. "Because she’s Lily Rose."

The "One Who Got Away" has a very specific lethality.

I checked my phone. The screen was blank. No calls, no texts. I figured by now, Lily’s "life-threatening" scratch must have healed.