Page 170 of Theirs to Tempt: The Marriage Claim

“Get your fucking hands off me.”

“Not yet.”

“She’s leaving us.”

“I know.”

The calm in his voice makes something vicious tear loose inside me. I shove him hard enough that another man would stumble. Caleb absorbs the impact, plants himself between me and the elevator, and catches my forearm when I reach for the call button.

“Move.”

“No.”

The illuminated numbers above the elevator begin their descent.

Thirty-seven.

Thirty-six.

I could take the stairs. I could have another car waiting before she reaches the lobby. One call to Derek and he would bring her straight back upstairs, no questions asked.

My phone is already in my hand before I consciously decide to reach for it.

Caleb looks at the screen.

“Don’t do it.”

“She’s exhausted. She’s upset.”

“She is.”

“Goddamn it. She is my wife. Our wife.”

“And that doesn’t mean you get to keep her here.”

His words land harder than the shove.

The elevator continues downward.

I find Derek’s number.

All I have to do is press it.

The same impulse has governed almost every important decision of my adult life. Identify the outcome I want. Anticipate resistance. Remove obstacles. Control enough variables that chance becomes irrelevant.

It has made me rich.

Powerful.

Very nearly untouchable.

And tonight it cost me Sophie.

My thumb hovers over Derek’s name.

I hear my own voice from years ago, cold and absolute as I dismissed Malcolm Voss.

“A woman who chooses to leave is not property to be retrieved.”