Chapter 3

The November wind in Chicago cut across my face like a blade. I cried on the street until my eyes were swollen and my voice was gone.

When I finally made it back home, soaked through and miserable, my adoptive mother was sitting on the sofa with her phone in her hand, frowning.

The moment she saw me, she stood up, her voice edged with exasperated disappointment.

"You're finally home. Edric just texted me. He says you blocked him, and he wants to know what you're throwing a tantrum about."

I stood in the entryway, my stomach cramping, and said nothing.

When I didn't answer, she sighed and came over to take my hand. "Elena, listen to me. He had someone bring over the transfer paperwork for the New Jersey office today. Headquarters is a shark tank, and he's under enormous pressure taking over the company. Putting you in New Jersey keeps you away from all that competition, and it makes it easier for him to look after you."

"Stop being so stubborn. Go apologize to him tomorrow and sign the papers. You're an Omega whose wolf hasn't even awakened. Being with a top-tier Alpha like Edric is the best thing that will ever happen to you."

I stood there listening to her, and it felt as if my heart were being sawed open with a dull knife.

"Look after me?" I finally said. My voice was so hoarse it startled even me. I looked up at her with red eyes. "Mom, do you know how he treated me today?"

She froze.

"At the gala, he shoved me aside in front of everyone, pulled Valentina in next to him, and said they were the perfect partners to take over headquarters. At the steakhouse, I had to sit there while they ordered the couples' menu, and he pushed a glass of iced whiskey at me and told me to cool down. Doesn't he know I'm on my period today? Doesn't he know I can't touch anything cold during my heat?"

Tears rolled down my face. Everything I had held in all night finally burst out.

"He remembers Valentina can't drink on her period, but he forgot that I'm in pain too. Because every thought in his head goes to helping Valentina land the best position at headquarters!"

The expression on her face went still. The disapproval in her eyes faded, bit by bit, and gave way to shock and heartache.

She opened her mouth. "He's going to New York... to make plans for that woman?" she murmured.

"Last week, I took the list of internal openings to him and begged him for help. He brushed me off and told me to find some do-nothing job in New Jersey. But a few days ago, he stayed up three nights straight in his penthouse with Valentina, filling page after page with notes, saying he was going to get her the best resources at headquarters."

I covered my face. My laugh was uglier than crying.

"Mom, he doesn't see me as his fiancée at all. He just wants to leave me in New Jersey, like a pet he can call when he wants and send away when he doesn't."

The living room went deathly quiet.

After a long time, her eyes reddened too, and there was a fury in her voice she could barely contain. "Actually, the HR director called me this afternoon. She said the Los Angeles office needs a regional manager, and she asked whether you'd consider it."

"I was hesitant at first. I didn't like the idea of you being so far away. But now..." She gripped my hands tightly, and tears spilled down her face. "Go to Los Angeles! Elena, forget that bastard. Get as far away from him and that woman as you can!"

I finally broke down and sobbed.

"I'll go." I threw my arms around her, my voice shaking but completely certain. "Mom, I'll tell HR tomorrow. I'm going to Los Angeles. I'm going to Los Angeles."

I went back to my room, locked the door, and slid down it to the floor.

Los Angeles was nearly three thousand miles from New York, all the way across the continent.

Far enough that I could finally cut Edric out of my life for good.