Chapter 20

Elena woke to the sound of waves crashing soft against the Maldives shore, sunlight slipping through the bungalow’s blinds. She stretched under the thin sheet, her hand brushing Derek’s empty side of the bed. The clock read 7:12 a.m.—early for a Saturday, but not for him. She smiled, smelling coffee drifting from the kitchen. Married three months now, and he still couldn’t sleep past dawn. She padded out in bare feet, her oversized T-shirt hanging loose. Derek stood by the counter, pouring coffee into two mugs, his hair still messy from sleep. He wore a faded gray tee and shorts, looking more like the guy she’d fallen for years ago than the billionaire CEO he’d become.