Chapter 5

She hit the bottom hard, soil raining down into her face, choking her nose and mouth.

"What are you doing?! I'm a living person!"

The workers only laughed harder.

"Not for long."

As more earth poured in, the horror of being buried alive set Vivienne's skin crawling. Her voice shook. "I'm Sebastian Caldwell's wife -- if you do this, he won't let you walk away."

The shovels didn't slow. Laughter echoed through the cemetery.

"Give it a rest! The order to bury you came from Mr. Caldwell himself!"

"Besides -- everyone knows Mr. Caldwell's wife is Diana Harrington. You're not fooling anyone."

Vivienne's voice cut through in desperation. "That's impossible! Sebastian would never do this to me -- you've made a mistake!"

One of the workers paused. "Fine. If you really are Mrs. Caldwell, I'll call him and ask who his wife is."

A flicker of hope. The worker dialed.

"Mr. Caldwell -- we've got a live one in the pit. That's your order, correct?"

Sebastian's voice was perfectly calm. "Yes. She hurt Diana. Teach her a lesson."

Vivienne felt her heart plummet into darkness.

The worker held up the phone and looked at her with a mocking grin. "Mr. Caldwell -- is Diana Harrington your wife?"

"Of course. Why are you asking something everyone already knows? Get it done -- Diana is already on my case about this."

Sebastian hung up.

The workers looked down at her, roaring with laughter.

"Never seen someone delusional enough to claim she's the boss's wife!"

"Ready to give up now?"

Vivienne looked up one last time at her mother's face on the headstone.

Sebastian's family portrait was still pressed to her chest.

She closed her eyes. A boundless desolation filled her.

As the earth closed over her, Vivienne's mind drifted, hazy and dim.

She remembered a night after she had first come back to Sebastian -- a nightmare so bad she'd stopped breathing.

Sebastian, eyes red, tears streaming down onto her face, had performed CPR over and over.

When she finally came back, he held her like a child and sobbed without restraint.

"For five years, the only thing keeping me alive was the belief that you were still out there."

"No matter how much it hurt -- whether you left because you were threatened, or because you genuinely chose the money over me -- as long as I knew you existed somewhere in the world, I could bear it."

"But Viv, how could I ever stand by and watch you disappear from this world entirely?"

It was his tears, his voice, that had given her the will to fight back to life.

And it was that same man who, for Diana's sake, had ordered her buried alive without a second thought.

So be it. At least she didn't have to make some elaborate plan to disappear.

But a frantic voice broke through the dark, pulling her back.

Hands tore at the packed earth -- and Vivienne opened her eyes.

Sebastian was on his knees in the dirt, his always-immaculate hands scooping the earth away bare-handed.

"Viv -- I'm here. Viv, don't you dare leave me!"

She woke in a hospital bed.

Sebastian gripped her hand, his voice raw. "Viv, you scared me to death. I thought I was losing you again."

But Vivienne only looked at him.

That vacant stare sent an involuntary tremor through Sebastian's pulse.

"Viv, are you angry with me? I can explain."

He softened his voice in that familiar, coaxing way. "I cleaned up your mother's grave with my own hands."

When she said nothing, he filled the silence himself. "Diana explained -- the new cemetery requires a ritual cleansing before use. It's superstition, but what can you do. I talked to her about it."

Vivienne looked at him making excuses for Diana, and her chest ached with a bitterness she could no longer name.

"Afterward, Diana told me there was a man harassing her at the site, so I told her I'd handle it."

"I didn't know you were still there. You got caught in the middle -- this was all a misunderstanding."

Vivienne said, very quietly, "I heard it myself. A worker asked you -- is Diana your wife -- and you said yes. Was that a misunderstanding too?"

Sebastian's expression tightened. The careful tenderness in his eyes was gone, replaced by a shadow of impatience.

"Viv, you're aware of the rumors that follow you."

"Introducing Diana as my wife publicly -- that was wrong of me. But it was also the situation I was in..."

"If the outside world knew the Caldwell heir's wife was someone like you -- it would affect the stock price."

Sebastian loosened his tie with a touch of exhaustion. "Viv, I need you to be reasonable. Think about the bigger picture."

Think about the bigger picture?

Vivienne lowered her eyes. She almost wanted to laugh.

For the sake of the bigger picture, they'd had no wedding.

For the sake of the family name, she never appeared in public.

Every time Jasper publicly humiliated her, she had swallowed it without a word.

She had been careful, obedient, invisible -- and what had she gotten in return?

A man who had been spinning her in circles while she played the fool.

She thought of the divorce papers he had already signed.

"I'll be reasonable, Sebastian."

She met his eyes and smiled.