Chapter 1

The heavy oak door of the master bedroom clicked shut, and the sound echoed in the silence. It was my wedding night. I looked at Olivia Stone, now Olivia Hayes, the woman I had loved for ten years. She stood by the window, her back to me, the white silk of her dress glowing in the moonlight.

"Olivia," I said, my voice softer than I intended.

She didn't turn.

"I'm tired, Ethan. I'm going to take a shower."

Her tone was flat, empty of any emotion. It wasn't the voice of a bride. I walked closer, my heart pounding a nervous rhythm against my ribs. I reached out to touch her shoulder.

She flinched away before my fingers could even graze the silk.

"Don't touch me," she said, finally turning to face me. Her eyes were cold, like chips of ice. "Let's be clear. This is a marriage of convenience. I married you for the Hayes family name and the stability it brings my family. I have no desire for you. Don't expect anything from me."

The words hit me harder than a physical blow. I felt the air leave my lungs. "Olivia, I know this was arranged, but I thought... I hoped we could try."

A small, cruel smile touched her lips. "Try what? To pretend I'm in love with you? I'm not an actress, Ethan."

She walked past me and into the enormous bathroom, closing the door behind her without a second glance. I stood alone in the middle of the room, the expensive suit feeling like a costume. The hope I had carried for a decade crumbled into dust.

The next morning, I woke up alone in the king-sized bed. The other side was pristine, untouched. I went downstairs, the house quiet and hollow. I was about to enter the kitchen when I heard voices from the adjoining study. Olivia's and her assistant's, Alex Miller.

"Is he gone?" Alex asked, his voice low and intimate.

"He's probably still sleeping," Olivia replied, a note of disgust in her voice that made my stomach clench. "God, Alex, I couldn't stand it. Having to be in the same room with him."

"Did he try anything?"

"He tried to touch me," she scoffed. "As if. The thought of that man's hands on me makes my skin crawl. He's so pathetic, always looking at me with those sad puppy eyes."

My hand froze on the doorframe. My breath caught in my throat.

"It's just for a little while, Liv," Alex said, his voice soothing. "Once your family's company is stable and we secure the deal with Hayes Corp, you can do whatever you want. And once we have our baby..."

"I know," she sighed. "But having to pretend... It's disgusting. He' s a sick, dying man who can' t even give me a child. He's nothing."

Heartbreak was a physical thing. It was a sharp, searing pain in my chest that spread through my entire body, leaving me cold and numb. The love I had held for her, so pure and patient, was a joke. I was a tool, a stepping stone. A pathetic, dying man.

I backed away from the door, my movements silent and stiff. I went back upstairs, my mind a storm of her words. Disgusting. Pathetic. Nothing.

I walked into my home office and pulled out a fresh sheet of paper. My hand was shaking, but my resolve was like steel. I wrote down the words: DIVORCE AGREEMENT.

An hour later, I found her in the living room. She was sitting on the couch, laughing at something Alex was showing her on his phone. They looked like a happy couple. I was the intruder in my own home.

I walked over and placed the single sheet of paper on the coffee table in front of her.

She glanced down, her laughter dying. Her eyes scanned the two words at the top of the page. She showed no surprise, no sadness, not even anger. There was only a flicker of annoyance.

Without a word, she picked up a pen from the table and signed her name at the bottom. She didn't read the terms I had yet to write. She didn't ask any questions. She just signed her name, her signature a careless scrawl.

Then she pushed the paper back toward me.

"Is that all?" she asked, her voice bored, as if I had just interrupted her with a trivial matter.

Alex Miller smirked, putting a possessive arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. He looked at me with open contempt.

I remembered all the years I had chased after her. The countless times I had debased myself, offering her my help, my time, my heart, only to be met with polite indifference. I had always told myself she was just reserved, that one day she would see me.

Now I saw the truth. She had never seen me at all. She had only ever seen what I could give her.

Her cold eyes met mine.

"Get out of my sight, Ethan. You're ruining my morning."

The pain was so immense it felt like I was drowning. My carefully constructed world, built around the hope of her love, had been obliterated in less than twenty-four hours.

I picked up the signed paper. The ink was still fresh. It was the end of a ten-year delusion.

I didn't say a word. I just turned and walked out of the room, her indifferent gaze following me. As I walked out the front door of the house that was supposed to be our home, I felt a strange mix of agony and release.

The marriage was over. My old life was over.

I got in my car and drove away, the grand mansion shrinking in my rearview mirror. A new, uncertain future lay ahead, but one thing was clear: I would never let myself be that weak, pathetic man again.