Chapter 1

I was desperately, miserably in love with Selene.

Even though she kept a string of lovers on her leash, and had openly cheated on me with Hunter—her family's former adopted heir.

I still couldn’t bring myself to let her go.

I hit the gym religiously, pumped my body with endless fertility medications, all because I desperately wanted to have a child with her to secure our marriage.

Until today, when the doctor finally told me my fertility metrics had met the standards. Holding the lab report, I rushed to her office without wasting a single second.

"Selene, I—"

My voice caught in my throat.

Selene was wrapping her arms around her newly hired male secretary, kissing him passionately. Hearing me enter, she cast a cold, irritated glance over her shoulder.

"Get the hell out!"

At that exact moment, a cold splash of reality hit me.

I could tolerate having a cheating wife.

But could our future child tolerate having a mother like this?

***

###

It was half an hour later when the office door finally clicked open.

Out stepped the new secretary.

He casually adjusted his rumpled shirt, throwing me a smug, disdainful smirk before sauntering down the hallway.

I had witnessed this kind of silent provocation hundreds, if not thousands of times.

In the beginning, it would break my heart and leave me in tears.

But now? I was entirely numb to it.

I pushed the door open and walked in.

Hearing my footsteps, Selene turned her head. The moment her eyes fell on me, her brow furrowed in habitual annoyance.

"What are you doing back here?"

"Didn't I tell you to stop coming to my office for no damn reason?"

I hesitated.

Quietly, I slipped the fertility lab report deep into my bag and spoke in a calm, flat voice:

"Selene, let's get a divorce."

The hand Selene used to hold her slim cigarette paused mid-air.

She let out a mocking laugh and looked at me.

"What? You can't take it anymore?"

"Lest you forget, you were the one who begged on your knees and signed that prenuptial agreement, giving up your dignity just to marry into my family."

As soon as the words left her mouth, her phone on the desk buzzed twice.

It was Hunter.

Selene glanced at the screen. She didn't even bother to dismiss me, answering the call right in front of me.

Her voice instantly turned sweet and dripping with affection:

"Hey, babe. Miss me already?"

"Of course I love you the most. You're my only baby."

"You're back in the country? Great, I'll see you in a bit."

A man’s low, playful laughter drifted faintly from the receiver.

A few minutes later, Selene hung up and redirected her icy gaze back to me.

She tilted her chin toward a corner of her massive mahogany desk.

"The divorce papers are right there. I've already signed my part."

"If you want to sign it, go ahead."

"It's not like this is the first or second time you've thrown a tantrum about getting a divorce."

Selene stood up, grabbed her designer coat from the back of her chair, and walked toward the door.

She paused at the threshold, throwing a cold warning over her shoulder:

"Oh, and don't bother waiting up for me tonight. Stop playing the dutiful, pathetic husband waiting at the door."

"It annoys me, and it makes my mother nag at me every time she sees you like that."

With that, she opened the door and walked out without a single backward glance.

Faced with Selene's relentless humiliation and disdain, I probably should have collapsed onto the floor, sobbing my heart out.

But strangely,

My eyes were completely dry. I couldn't squeeze out a single tear.

I walked over to her desk, pulled out the divorce agreement, and flipped to the last page. Selene's elegant, sharp signature was already penned there.

"Heh."

I shook my head, letting out a self-deprecating chuckle.

I didn't even bother reading the clauses about property division or alimony. None of it mattered to me anymore.

I pulled a pen from the holder.

Stroke by stroke, I wrote down my name, Ashton, and took my copy of the agreement.

It was only when I walked out of the corporate building that I pulled two other papers from my pocket: the fertility approval sheet, and an early-stage stomach cancer diagnosis.

I had honestly wanted to leave a child behind for her.

***

###