Chapter 1

1.

While Claire Ashworth was losing their baby and desperately needed a signature, her husband, Damian Sterling, was with Lily Cooper during her CT scan.

After that day, Claire, who had once tolerated everything for love, became a different woman.

Before, if Lily had a headache, Claire would book her an appointment at Manhattan's most expensive private clinic and stay by her side, all because Lily had once saved Damian's life.

Now, as the clinic's chief benefactor, she wrote a letter to the board, revoking Lily's VIP status and freezing all the medical funds Damian had been paying for Lily from their joint account.

Before, when Damian spent a fortune on Lily, Claire accepted it as his way of showing gratitude.

Now, she had her legal team audit every single cent Damian had spent on Lily and filed a lawsuit to reclaim it all from their joint account.

Before, no matter how wronged she felt, she always considered Damian's feelings, terrified of putting him in a difficult position.

Now, she openly defied him at every turn.

When he wanted a piece of land, she outbid him.

When he favored a project, she undercut him to snatch it away.

She even hijacked a board meeting he was presiding over, projecting an image of him cradling a sobbing Lily onto the massive screen for everyone to see.

The image froze on Lily, nestled in Damian's arms, her voice trembling as she said, "Damian, I'm so scared..."

The conference room fell into a dead silence.

Damian's face darkened, his jaw clenched so tight it looked like it would snap. His icy gaze swept over the silent board members. "Everyone, get out."

The door closed, leaving only Damian and Claire in the room.

Claire didn't look at him. She elegantly switched off the projector, pulled out the flash drive, and turned to leave.

Damian blocked her path.

"Claire," he said, his voice laced with suppressed fury. "Are you done with this shit?"

Claire finally turned her head. "Not even close."

Those three words ignited the rage that had been simmering in Damian for days.

He grabbed her wrist and slammed her against the conference table.

"I've let you get away with everything these past few weeks," he snarled, leaning in close. "But you don't drag Lily into this. You don't humiliate me and her in front of the entire company. What the hell do you want?"

Claire looked at him as if he'd told a joke.

"What do I want?" she shot back, yanking her hand free. Her voice turned frigid. "Damian, when I was on that operating table waiting for your signature, a hundred times more people were laughing at me. You think I wasn't humiliated?"

"I already explained," Damian snapped, reaching for her face. She jerked away.

His hand froze in mid-air before he dropped it, his tone softening slightly.

"Lily hit her head saving me. She has amnesia. Her old injury flared up that day, and she was in agony. She has no one else in this city. I couldn't just leave her."

The same old excuse.

His guilt over Lily outweighed their marriage, outweighed the life of their unborn child.

"Right, you couldn't leave her," Claire said, shoving him away with all her strength.

"So every time she has a headache, a panic attack, or a sleepless night, it's more important than me."

"Claire!" Damian's anger flared at her sarcasm. "Are you still pissed at me about the baby?"

"I know I shouldn't have left you. But I promised you, we can try again. This has nothing to do with Lily, so stop taking it out on her."

Claire's composure finally broke. "A baby we waited two years for, and you just dismiss it with a casual 'we can have another one'?"

Tears welled in her eyes, but she bit her lip, forcing them back.

"You want a baby? Go have one with Lily!" she choked out, each word a razor blade in her throat.

That sentence shattered Damian's last shred of control.

He grabbed her shoulders, his grip so tight she cried out in pain.

"Say that again."

She met his furious gaze without flinching. "I said―let Lily give..."

Before she could finish, Damian lifted her onto the conference table. Her back hit the hard surface with a painful thud.

He pinned her hands, tore off her jacket, and his lips found the side of her neck.

"You wanted a baby, didn't you?" he growled, his mouth pressing down on hers. "I'll give you one right now."

A wave of humiliation, sharper than anything she had ever felt, washed over Claire.

Her body went cold, her heart pierced by an icy spike of pain that left her numb.

She struggled fiercely, driving her knee up into his gut. As he grunted in pain, her fingers brushed against a folder on the table. She grabbed it and slammed it against the side of his neck with all her might.

A sharp pain shot through Damian's neck.

He loosened his grip, his hand flying to the bleeding gash.

Claire scrambled away, breathing heavily, the hand holding the folder trembling.

She pulled a set of divorce papers from the folder and slapped them on the table.

Just like the countless times before, Damian didn't even glance at them. He ripped them to shreds.

He looked at her, his eyes a mixture of anger and disappointment.

"You've got some real nerve, Claire."

Just then, his phone rang with a custom ringtone. It was Lily.

Damian suppressed the storm of emotions churning inside him.

"Divorce? Don't even fucking think about it."

He stormed out, slamming the door so hard the walls seemed to tremble.

He was just as resolute as the day he proposed, when he'd said, "Claire, you're stuck with me for life."

Claire stood frozen, staring at the pieces of paper scattered across the floor.

A single, hot tear finally escaped and traced a path down her cheek.

She took out her phone and made a call.

"Dad, I want to rejoin the family trust."

"I remember you standing before the family board, publicly burning your inheritance letter, signing a two-hundred-page declaration, and even collapsing from hypoglycemia just to leave the Ashworth family and marry Damian Sterling."

Robert sighed heavily on the other end of the line. "If you want to come back, you have to prove your commitment. The board has one condition for reinstatement: you must independently close a deal worth no less than two hundred million dollars in your own name, without using a single family resource, within six months. You just lost a child. I'm not sure you can handle that kind of pressure..."

Claire's hand tightened around the phone, her fingertips trembling.

She had already lost everything she could possibly lose. What could be harder than that?

Her voice was a whisper, but it was crystal clear. "I can do it."