Chapter 1

The day the funeral ended, I asked Madeline Vance for a divorce.

"Stop being ridiculous, okay? I'm busy enough as it is. Can you stop adding to my mess?"

I heard the sounds of playful laughter coming through the phone, and suddenly, I just smiled.

"Madeline, this is getting pathetic. Just let me go."

1.

The other end of the line went silent instantly.

You could have heard a pin drop.

"Why?"

Madeline's voice sounded like it was dipped in ice, her tone heavy.

"What's your reason? What kind of crazy episode are you having now?"

Listening to her voice, I didn't even have the energy to argue anymore.

My voice remained flat.

"Ask the person next to you. He'll tell you."

Before Madeline could answer, another voice drifted through the line.

"Maddy, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be fighting with Asher. It's all me."

"Hit me, please. Just hit me."

The man's voice was choked with sobs, sounding utterly pitiful.

As he spoke, Linus Sterling grabbed Madeline's hand and tried to swing it against his own face.

Madeline caught his wrist with her other hand, holding him still.

"This has nothing to do with you. We would have fought even without you here. He's just being unreasonable."

"You were just helping me handle some drinks, and he's making a mountain out of a molehill. He's just petty and insecure, so he sees filth wherever he looks."

I didn't listen to another word before hanging up the phone.

How hilarious.

This was my wife?

The woman I had known, loved, and supported for ten years.

When Madeline finally came home, I was sitting in the dark living room.

As the door opened, the first thing I heard wasn't Madeline, but Linus's voice, faking consideration.

"Maddy, Asher should be asleep by now, right? Is it… okay for us to be here? I feel bad."

Madeline's voice was calm, without a hint of guilt.

"If he's asleep, he's asleep. We haven't done anything wrong, so what's the problem?"

Right.

Draping your arms over each other isn't wrong.

Touching each other isn't wrong.

Bringing another man back to our marital home in the middle of the night isn't wrong.

I let out a sharp laugh and flicked on the lights.

The sudden brightness stung my eyes.

Madeline's first instinct was to cover Linus's eyes.

She glared at me with pure rage. "Asher Pierce, how can you be so cruel? Don't you know Linus had eye surgery?"

"If the sudden light causes a relapse, I'm never going to forgive you!"

"Because of your little joke about divorce, Linus was so worried I'd regret it that he practically begged me to come back quickly. And what do you do?"

"You sit here in the dark just to pull a stunt like this and hurt his eyes?"

Look at that.

A simple flick of a switch was now a sign of my cruelty.

I hadn't even said a word, and she had already condemned me.

"I'm telling you, Asher, I've had enough of you!"

"I've been patient with you, and Linus has never done anything to provoke you."

"On the contrary, he was the one telling me to be more generous and not to hold your attitude against you!"

"And what about you? Why are you always so obsessed with these tiny details?"

Madeline carefully guided Linus to the sofa. She turned back to me, her eyes burning with fury.

I laughed from pure frustration.

The emotions were surging in my chest, and I couldn't hold back anymore.

"Obsessed? Who's the one obsessed here?"

"Madeline, do you even know what today is?"

The past decade felt like it was evaporating into thin air before my eyes.

We had argued, we had fought, we had been through cold wars.

But this was the first time I had ever talked back to her in front of someone else.

My expression was full of grief as I stared her down.

"On my birthday, you were at the theme park with your so-called assistant."

"When I was hospitalized, you were busy playing with his pets."

"But today is the anniversary of my mother's death! He makes one phone call, and you just walk away?"

"Madeline, what the hell am I to you?"

I took a long, shaky breath. "That's it, Maddy. We're done."