Chapter 2

The first thing I did after leaving the lawyer’s office was transfer all five million dollars into an account no one else knew about.

Adrian thought that money would keep me quiet and well-behaved for the rest of my life. He was wrong.

I was going to use it to set off the biggest fireworks show my short little life had ever seen.

I walked into the most expensive boutique on Fifth Avenue.

For years, to live up to his idea of what “a Locke wife” should be, I’d always worn tasteful, conservative suits, like a puppet with no soul.

Today, I was going to live for myself.

“Bring me the most expensive, sexiest dresses you have. I want to try all of them.”

I said it to a saleswoman whose jaw was on the floor.

I put on a fire-engine-red silk slip dress: plunging neckline, a slit to the thigh, and no back at all.

The woman in the mirror was a stranger and familiar at the same time, blazing like a living flame.

[It’s beautiful. If I’d ever had the nerve to dress like this, what would Adrian have done?]

[He’d probably have said I wasn’t being proper and torn into me.]

[Well. Doesn’t matter now.]

I paid without blinking, along with a dozen pairs of equally outrageous heels.

I walked out with my arms full of bags and took a cab to the best boxing gym in the city.

It was somewhere I’d always wanted to go and never dared.

Adrian always said a woman should act like a woman, and all that hitting and fighting was undignified.

To hell with dignified.

I changed into workout clothes, pulled on gloves, and taped a printout of Adrian’s face to the heavy bag.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

I hit it with everything I had, again and again and again.

Sweat ran down my face and soaked my hair. I couldn’t feel tired. All I could feel was a relief I’d never known before.

[Adrian, you bastard!]

[For Sienna’s sake, you locked me in the house for a whole month!]

[What gave you the right to treat me like that?]

Every punch was an accusation I couldn’t say out loud.

Until I ran completely out of strength and collapsed on the mat, gasping.

A trainer came over and handed me a bottle of water. “Fight with the boyfriend?”

I took the water and shook my head. “Ex-husband.”

“I can tell. That’s some serious beef.” The trainer laughed. “But once you’ve got it out of your system, you gotta turn the page. You’re young, you’re gorgeous. You’ve got plenty of good days ahead of you.”

I smiled and didn’t say anything.

Right. Good days.

Too bad I didn’t have any “ahead.”

When I’d caught my breath, I walked out of the gym, and my phone rang.

My best friend, Jess.

“Nora! You actually divorced that dirtbag Adrian? Good! Tonight the girls are throwing you a single party. We’re not going home until we’re wasted!”

I looked at the bright red [68:30:05] hanging in front of me and smiled. “Okay.”