Chapter 3

3

Sleep was entirely out of the question now, so I dragged myself out of bed and ordered takeout.

While eating, I scrolled through my social media feed and saw a suggested local post.

It was a photo posted last night of Cynthia nestled snugly against a man’s bare chest, captioned with a heart.

【Attorney Brooks is my ultimate protector. I feel so safe with you by my side.】

I didn’t miss the messy pile of men’s and women’s clothing deliberately captured on the bedroom floor in the corner of the photo.

I gave the post an emotionless like, tossed my trash, and headed out to run errands.

When I returned to my apartment building that afternoon, Garrett’s junior associate, Lee, was waiting by the entrance.

Seeing me approach, Lee adjusted his glasses nervously. “Good afternoon, Mrs. Brooks.”

I crossed my arms and stared at him, silently demanding an explanation.

“Attorney Brooks sent me to pick you up and drive you to the firm,” Lee stammered.

“He told me to tell you that if you don’t show up and ruin Miss Shaw’s media shoot...”

I raised an eyebrow coldly. “What did he say he would do?”

Lee wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. “He said the divorce is completely off the table, and he might have to talk to your company’s board...”

A profound sense of disgust washed over me.

To think that the great, self-righteous attorney would stoop to using his professional influence to blackmail his own wife.

I remembered how he once told me he went to law school so he could wield the ultimate shield.

He promised that no matter what storm came our way, he would always protect me from the world.

Yet today, he had become the very person inflicting the deepest wounds and threats upon my life.

I agreed to get into the car, but halfway to the firm, my sister Valerie called.

Her furious screams practically shattered my eardrums the second I answered.

“Lily, I’m standing right outside Garrett’s building and I just saw him all over another woman!”

“They were full-on kissing on the sidewalk! I’m going inside to rip his face off right now! Get over here!”

When the call abruptly ended, Lee looked at me through the rearview mirror, his face pale with guilt.

Garrett’s name flashed on my screen seconds later, but I ignored it completely.

When I reached the firm’s executive floor, I opened the conference door to find Valerie with her sleeves rolled up, tearing into Garrett.

“You piece of trash! How dare you treat my sister like this after everything she gave up for you?!”

Garrett pinched the bridge of his nose, looking exhausted. “Valerie, you’re completely misinterpreting the situation.”

“Cynthia was carrying heavy camera equipment up the stairs, and I was just helping her hold it.”

Valerie pointed an accusatory finger at his face. “You hold heavy equipment with your mouth now?! How shameless can you be?!”

I had to admire Valerie’s fiery spirit. A few sharp words had Garrett turning completely red in the face.

“That was just the angle you were looking from! Your eyes played tricks on you!” he stammered defensively.

“If I hadn’t walked up, how long were your lying lips going to stay glued to hers?!” Valerie sneered, rolling her eyes.

Just then, Garrett looked past her and spotted me standing near the doorway.

“Lily, you’re finally here! Please let me explain, don’t let your sister put crazy ideas in your head...”

I pushed his reaching hands away. “I don’t misunderstand anything. You were just doing your job as a devoted attorney.”

Hearing my calm, agreeable words only made Garrett’s expression darken with suspicion.

He studied my face for several long seconds, his gaze filled with a strange, sullen resentment.

I ignored him, pulled Valerie aside, and quickly told her about the so-called model couple interview.

Suddenly, the conference room doors swung wide open, accompanied by loud laughter and chatter.

Garrett’s partners carried in lighting and recording gear, with Cynthia trailing closely behind them.

“Hey Garrett, why are you letting your lady haul the lighting stands by herself? That’s not very gentlemanly!”

Another partner chuckled, “Careful, man, or your wife might spill all your bad habits during the live interview!”

The next second, their eyes locked onto mine.

Every single one of those partners had stood beside Garrett as his groomsmen on our wedding day.

The teasing laughter died in their throats, and their smug smiles froze instantly.

Cynthia, on the other hand, stepped forward with an elegant, practiced smile. “You must be Lily.”

“Please don’t take the guys’ jokes to heart. They’re just used to teasing Garrett around the office.”

“Garrett has such a strong sense of justice that he goes out of his way to help anyone in need.”

“This promotional feature was arranged entirely because he wanted to help me kick off my new PR agency.”

Her honeyed excuses dragged me straight back into the nightmare of three years ago.

Because of his so-called righteous duty, Garrett had lavished endless personal attention on a wealthy female divorce client.

That woman grew dangerously obsessed with him, convinced that Garrett was deeply in love with her.

One rainy afternoon while I was driving to pick him up, that unstable client intentionally rammed her SUV into my sedan.

A metal guardrail impaled my lower abdomen, pinning me inside the crushed vehicle.

While I lay there bleeding out and waiting for the paramedics, the woman fled the scene and threatened to jump off a bridge unless Garrett came to see her.

Garrett ripped his hand away from mine and ran off into the night without looking back.

“The ambulance is two minutes away, Lily, but she is about to jump!” he had screamed at me.

“As a lawyer’s wife, how can you ask me to let an innocent person die?!”

That crash nearly took my life and left me with crippling psychological scars.

The trauma forced the surgeons to remove half of my left ovary, leaving me with a near-zero chance of ever getting pregnant.

After the dust settled, Garrett had the audacity to blame me, asking why I couldn’t even drive a car properly.

The searing agony of that memory ripped through my chest, pulling me back to the harsh reality before me.

I looked at the two of them standing together, and a sudden wave of clarity washed over me.

I didn’t even have the energy to hate Garrett anymore.

All the love I once held for him was dead and buried, and I simply wanted him out of my life.

“I’m not offended at all. Honestly, the two of you look perfect together.”

“Once our divorce is finalized, she can take over the role of Mrs. Brooks for real.”

%%%