Chapter 2

2

Peyton did not even glance at my bleeding arm. She just kept scrolling through her phone.

"There is a gala next week. What do you think about a mint-green gown? I want to bring Abby along so she gets used to high society. The color suits her skin tone."

Hearing that color made my stomach churn. It reminded me of Chase standing at my doorstep, flaunting a mint-green designer shirt.

It certainly highlighted his fair skin.

All it showed me was how blatantly I was being cuckolded.

"Whatever. Asking you is useless anyway," Peyton scoffed, shooting me another venomous glare. "If Abby took after you, I would die of regret. Thank God Chase is around to teach her taste."

Her words pierced my heart again.

Since Abby was born, I had held my daughter fewer than ten times.

I had not even heard her call me "Daddy" in years.

Back then, I wanted to be a stay-at-home dad for Abby.

The Baxter family shot it down aggressively, claiming I was just a freeloader looking for an easy ride.

They mocked my modest background, saying I was unfit to raise a Baxter heiress.

After that, I was only allowed to see Abby during family holidays. In her eyes, I ranked lower than the household maids.

Meanwhile, Chase was everything the Baxters adored.

He came from a wealthy business family, loaded with cash, youthful, and handsome.

Right after graduation, Peyton brought him into her corporate firm as her prized assistant.

The Baxters treated Chase like royalty while treating me like dirt.

They even included Chase in the official family portraits, leaving me standing alone outside the frame.

I pulled a few tissues to press against my bleeding arm. "That works out fine. Let's finalize the divorce so my low status will not ruin Abby."

"Are you out of your damn mind?"

Peyton kicked the heavy coffee table straight toward my shins.

"Take a hard look in the mirror. Without me, would you ever have this luxury lifestyle? Have I ever denied you anything? Now you dare get cocky with me?"

I knew she had always viewed me as a spineless parasite living off her wealth.

She believed everything I had belonged to her, giving her every right to step on my dignity.

She assumed I would never have the courage to demand a divorce to her face.

Yet now that the words were out, an overwhelming wave of relief washed over me.

The suffocating darkness of this marriage finally let in a beam of light.

I took a deep, steady breath. "Yes, you provided this lifestyle. But I poured my entire soul into this family. The only thing I ever begged you for was my father's emergency medical bill. And where were you? You were busy soothing Chase's drunken temper tantrum."