Chapter 5 - THE APARTMENT WITH NO RETURN ADDRESS
Clara moved out of her apartment on Tuesday.
She packed two suitcases.
A box of books.
And a small framed photograph of her mother.
She left behind the expensive clothes she'd purchased for work.
The shoes that hurt her feet.
The dresses she wore to charity galas where she stood behind Gabriel while wealthy women asked whether she was his wife.
She wasn't.
She had never been.
That was the problem.
Clara had fallen in love with Gabriel Costa slowly.
Not because he was powerful.
Not because he was wealthy.
But because she'd seen the parts of him nobody else noticed.
The way he quietly paid medical bills for employees' families.
The way he remembered the birthdays of children whose fathers had died working for him.
The way he stood alone at his mother's grave every Christmas morning.
She'd loved him through a thousand ordinary moments.
And hated herself for it.
Because Gabriel was a dangerous man.
A man whose empire had been built on fear.
A man who was about to marry another woman.
Clara placed her keys on the kitchen counter.
Then looked around the empty apartment.
For four years, she'd built her life around someone else's needs.
Now she had no idea what she wanted.
May you like
But she knew one thing.
She wasn't going back.
