“It looks like a tent,” he said, reaching for a bottle of cologne. “Can’t you wear Spanx? A girdle? Something? The Board is going to be there tonight. The investors. I need you to look like a CEO’s wife, Ava. Not like…” He paused, spraying the expensive, woody cologne around his neck. “Not like a dairy cow.”

The words landed like a physical blow. I looked down at my hands, at fingers that had held his through five years of marriage, through struggles and successes I’d orchestrated from the shadows. “I gave birth four months ago, Liam. To two humans. Twins. My body hasn’t recovered.”

“Everyone has kids, Ava.” He sighed like I was being deliberately difficult. “Not everyone lets themselves go like this. Look at Chloe from Marketing. She had a kid last year and she’s running marathons now.”“Chloe has a night nanny and a personal trainer,” I whispered, my voice barely audible over Emma’s escalating cries. “I have… me.”

“Excuses.” He checked his watch—a vintage Patek Philippe I’d bought him for our fifth anniversary, back when I still believed in grand gestures. “Just try to stand in the back tonight. Don’t hover near me when I’m talking to the press. I don’t want the Mysterious Owner to see you and think I make bad decisions.” He adjusted his bow tie with the precision of a man who understood that every detail mattered. “Aesthetics matter, Ava. Perception is reality.”

I looked at him, really looked at him, and felt a cold clarity wash over me like ice water. The Mysterious Owner. He spoke about them—about me—with a mixture of fear and reverence that he’d never shown the woman standing before him. He had never met the owner of Vertex Dynamics. All he knew was that they were a reclusive majority shareholder who had hand-picked him for the CEO role two years ago, plucking him from middle management and elevating him to a position he’d never dreamed possible.