THE UNSTOPPABLE JASON SALFORD

CHAPTER 1

The table was set perfectly.

Twelve dishes. All homemade. All still warm.

Jason had started cooking at four in the afternoon. He wanted everything ready before Rachel came home. Today was their fifth wedding anniversary and he had promised Sophie they would eat together as a family.

Sophie sat at the table in her small yellow dress, kicking her feet under the chair.

"Is Mommy coming?" she asked.

"She's on her way," Jason said.

He checked his phone. Three missed calls. No reply.

He called again. It rang out.

He set the phone down and smiled at Sophie.

"Let's wait a little longer."

By nine o'clock, Sophie had fallen asleep on the couch. Jason carried her to her bedroom, tucked her in and kissed her forehead. Then he came back to the table and sat alone in front of twelve cold dishes.

At ten-thirty, the front door swung open.

Rachel walked in.

She was drunk. Her heels were unsteady and her hair was half-fallen and she smelled like expensive wine and someone else's cologne. She dropped her bag on the floor and looked at the table with irritation.

"Why is all this still out?" she snapped.

Jason looked at her calmly.

"I was waiting for you."

"I told you I was busy." She kicked her heels off. "The IPO is in two weeks, Jason. Do you understand what that means? Do you have any idea what my day looked like?"

"You didn't answer my calls."

"Because I was busy!" She turned on him, eyes sharp. "Why do you keep calling me like I have nothing better to do? I'm trying to take this company public and you're calling me every hour like a child."

Jason said nothing.

He stood up slowly and began clearing the plates.

"Today was our anniversary," he said quietly. "Sophie waited for you."

Rachel froze for half a second.

Then she laughed. Short and dismissive.

"Our anniversary." She shook her head. "Jason, I was at a banquet tonight with people who could change our entire future and you want to talk about anniversaries?"

"Wasn't the Harmon family handling the IPO arrangements?" Jason asked without looking up.

Rachel went still.

The plate in Jason's hand kept moving to the kitchen counter. Calm. Steady.

"How do you know about the Harmon family?" Her voice had changed.

Jason didn't answer.

Rachel stared at his back. The Harmon family was the most powerful family in Creston City. Their involvement in her company's IPO was something she had told nobody outside her inner circle. Not even her own mother.

"Where did you hear that?" she demanded.

Jason rinsed a plate and set it aside.

Rachel's shock curdled back into contempt.

"You know what, it doesn't matter." She waved her hand. "Whatever rumor you heard, it has nothing to do with you. The Harmon family is involved because of Derek Chase. Derek made that connection happen. Not you."

She grabbed a glass of water from the counter.

"And frankly," she continued, "I don't even know why I'm explaining this to you. You stay home. You cook. You take care of Sophie. That's all you do." She set the glass down hard. "Do you know how embarrassing it is? Everyone at that banquet tonight asked why I didn't bring my husband. I had to make excuses. I had to pretend you were traveling for work."

Jason turned off the tap.

"Because the truth," Rachel said, her voice dropping into something colder, "is that I married a man who has nothing to show for himself. No career. No connections. No ambition. And I am ashamed of that every single day."

Jason dried his hands slowly with a kitchen towel.

He turned around and looked at her.

Not with anger. Not with hurt.

Just with the quiet eyes of someone who had finally seen something clearly after a very long time of looking away from it.

"Both of you are burdens," Rachel said. "You and Sophie. You're both holding me back from the life I should be living."

The kitchen was completely silent.

Jason folded the towel neatly and placed it on the counter.

"Rachel," he said.

His voice was low. Calm. Final.

"We should get a divorce."

Rachel's face twisted.

"Are you serious right now?" She slammed her palm on the counter. "You're going to stand there after everything I've built and tell me you want a divorce? That is the most irresponsible thing you have ever said to me."

Jason looked at her for one more moment.

Then he turned and walked toward the bedroom.

"Jason!" she shouted. "Jason, come back here! We are not done talking!"

He closed the bedroom door quietly behind him.

Rachel stood alone in the kitchen, chest heaving.

Then she turned to the table.

And swept every remaining dish onto the floor.

The crash echoed through the entire house.

In her small bedroom down the hall, Sophie Salford pulled her blanket over her head and squeezed her eyes shut.