Katherine's POV
The elevator doors opened on the top floor of Devereaux Technologies and Katherine couldn't breathe.
Nothing had changed. The lobby was exactly like she remembered. Glass and steel and an ocean view that cost more money than most people made in a year. The same receptionist was sitting at the same desk. The same plants were in the same corners. The same abstract art hung on the walls. It was like walking back into a frozen moment from her own life.
Katherine stepped out of the elevator and her hands started shaking.
She hated it immediately. Hated that her body was betraying her. Hated that being in this building made her feel like she was twenty-seven again, young and in love and stupid enough to believe that a man who chose his company over her might eventually choose differently. Hated that some part of her still remembered what it felt like to walk these hallways and feel like she belonged somewhere.
She didn't belong here anymore.
Katherine straightened her shoulders and walked toward the conference room.
Her footsteps echoed on the marble floor. She could hear her own heartbeat. She could feel the weight of every choice that had led her to this moment. The prenup. The divorce. The three years of rebuilding. The decision to come back. All of it was collapsing into this single moment where she had to walk through a door and look at the man who'd broken her like she was fine.
She pushed the door open.
James was already there.
He was standing at the window looking out at the bay, his back to her. He was wearing a suit that probably cost more than her car payment. His shoulders looked broader than she remembered. His whole body looked heavier, like he was carrying something that wouldn't let him stand up straight anymore.
He turned around like he'd been waiting for exactly this moment.
"You came," he said, and his voice sounded surprised. Like he genuinely hadn't believed she would actually show up.
Katherine's throat went dry.
James looked exhausted. The kind of exhausted that came from not sleeping in months. The kind of exhausted that only happened when you were breaking yourself down from the inside out. There were lines around his eyes that hadn't been there before. His suit fit differently, hanging loose in ways that suggested he'd lost weight from stress, not from exercise.
He looked like a man who'd been waiting for her to walk through that door for three years.
"I'm only here because your board hired me," Katherine said, keeping her voice professional. Keeping it cold. Keeping it the way it had to be if she wanted to survive this. "Not because of you."
"I know," James said. But the way he was looking at her suggested he was hoping it wasn't entirely true.
Katherine moved toward the conference table and James moved toward it at the same time. For one second, they were close enough to touch. She could smell his cologne. The same scent he'd always worn. The same scent she'd smelled on his jacket the night she'd fallen asleep at her desk during their marriage. The same scent that now made her stomach twist because it meant he was real and he was here and she was going to have to look at him every day for the next six months.
Their hands almost touched on the table.
Katherine pulled hers away first. She sat down on the opposite side of the table like there was an ocean between them instead of just polished glass.
James remained standing for a moment like he was trying to decide something. Then he sat down across from her, and they were officially in the same room with the door closed and nothing but air between them.
"Thank you for coming," James said carefully. Like he was talking to someone fragile who might break if he spoke too loud.
"Thank you for what? For accepting a contract? For doing my job?" Katherine opened her laptop. She needed something to do with her hands. Something to focus on besides the way James was looking at her like she was the answer to a prayer he'd been whispering in the dark.
"For giving me a chance," James said.
Katherine's fingers froze on the keyboard.
"I'm not giving you a chance," she said. "I'm giving your company a chance. There's a difference."
"Is there?" James leaned forward. "Because from where I'm sitting, it feels like you're taking a massive risk by being in this room with me. And I want you to know that I understand that. I want you to know that I see exactly what you're sacrificing by being here."
Katherine couldn't look at him. If she looked at him, she might see something in his face that would make her remember why she'd loved him in the first place. She might see regret. She might see something that looked like change. And she couldn't afford to believe in either one of those things.
"Let's stick to business," she said. "Your board told me you're having cash flow problems."
"Katherine..."
"Cash flow problems," she repeated, cutting him off. "Infrastructure challenges. Personnel issues. I'm here to fix those things. That's it."
James sat back. He looked like she'd just slapped him.
"Okay," he said quietly. "Let's talk about the cash flow problems."
Katherine pulled up the financial data on her laptop. The same data she'd been analyzing all weekend. The same data that told her James had been systematically destroying his own company since the day she left him.
"Your accounts are hemorrhaging money," she said, pointing at the screen. "And not in ways that are strategic. In ways that suggest someone is actively sabotaging the business."
James went very still.
"What do you mean someone?" he asked.
"I mean someone on your executive team is feeding you bad information. Someone is making decisions that benefit them and hurt the company. Someone is..." Katherine stopped talking because James had just pulled out his phone and he was typing something with a look of absolute fury on his face.
"James, what's happening?"
He didn't answer. He just kept typing. His jaw was clenched so tight she could see the muscle flexing. He looked angry. But underneath the anger, he looked scared.
Katherine had never seen James scared before.
His phone buzzed. He read the message on the screen and the color drained completely from his face.
"We need to leave," he said abruptly, standing up. "Right now. We need to leave this building."
"What? Why? James, what's going on?"
He reached for her arm and pulled her up from the table.
"There's someone in this company who's been lying to me," he said. "Someone who's been planning something. And I just realized they know you're here. Which means they're going to move faster than I thought."
Katherine's heart started racing.
"James, you're scaring me. What is happening?"
He pulled out his phone again and showed her the message. It was from Victoria Chen. It said: "She knows about the money. She's going to figure out everything. We need to act today."
James looked at Katherine and his eyes were full of something she couldn't name.
"Victoria's been stealing from the company," he said. "And she's been using my personal accounts to hide it. And she's been planning to frame you for it."
The elevator doors were opening down the hallway. Katherine could hear footsteps. Could hear Victoria's voice talking to someone on the phone.
James grabbed Katherine's hand.
"We have maybe thirty seconds before she realizes we know," he said. "Run."
But before they could move, the conference room door opened and Victoria Chen walked in with her phone pressed to her ear and a smile on her face that looked like victory.
And in her other hand, she was holding a stack of documents that looked official. That looked damaging. That looked like exactly the kind of thing that could destroy Katherine's entire reputation.
"Oh good, you're both here," Victoria said. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to chase you down. I have something you need to see. Something that proves Katherine Hayes has been deliberately sabotaging this company for personal gain."
Victoria set the documents on the table and Katherine's blood went cold.
Because the signatures on those documents were her signature.
Even though she'd never signed anything.
Even though these documents didn't exist before this morning.
Even though this was a setup that was happening right now and there was nowhere to run.