Chapter 1

On our tenth wedding anniversary, an assistant I had not heard from in a long time sent me an email.

Inside was a video caught by a top local paparazzo, showing my wife, Nadia, getting wild with her first love inside a brand-new Mercedes.

The paparazzo demanded fifty thousand dollars, threatening to leak the footage online if I did not pay up.

I instructed my assistant to settle it quietly and clean up the mess. Then, I called Nadia to ask where she was.

“I am working overtime at the office and will be home tomorrow,” she answered.

“Does the CEO need to work overtime on our anniversary?” I asked quietly.

She snapped instantly. “I work late once and you interrogate me like a nagging, insecure housewife! Keep making a scene, and we will get a divorce!”

Listening to the dead tone after she hung up, I felt an unexpected wave of relief.

A heart that stayed cold after ten years was not worth keeping. It was time to throw it away.

1.

The next evening, when Nadia returned home, I was feasting on a plate of extra spicy Nashville hot chicken.

Nadia hated spicy food, while I could not live without it.

Yet in ten years of marriage, I had never touched a single spicy dish in front of her.

Nadia sat down, frowning in disgust at the fiery red food on the table.

“Why is everything covered in chili? What am I supposed to eat?”

I did not even look up, chewing calmly before speaking.

“If you want to eat, order your own takeout.”

Nadia slammed my fork onto the floor in a fit of rage.

“Gavin, so what if I forgot yesterday was our anniversary? Who are you giving this pathetic attitude to? I even bought you a gift!”

With that, she tossed an elegantly wrapped box right in front of me.

“Now take your present and stop acting like I owe you something. Go into the kitchen and make me some real food right now.”

She sneered. “You do not work, and you do not help around the house. What good are you to me?”

Listening to her familiar insults, I remained seated without moving a muscle.

It had taken ten years for her to finally remember our anniversary, only because it fell on the exact same day as her first love’s birthday.

Seeing my silence, Nadia shoved my shoulder. “I am talking to you! Did you go mute? Since when did you become so petty?”

The moment the words left her mouth, she met my cold, emotionless eyes.

A flicker of panic crossed her face, but she quickly masked it with self-righteous anger.

“You live under my roof and spend my money, yet you pull a long face at me all day!”

“You bought Hayden that new car using my credit card,” I said calmly.

“Five hundred thousand dollars.”

“I already forwarded the bill directly to his phone.”

Nadia instantly lost her composure, stepping forward to scream at me.

“I only bought him a birthday gift! Do you really have to be so narrow-minded and humiliate him with a bill? Cancel it right now!”

She glared at me. “Besides, I did not forget your gift. What else do you want from me?”

In her fury, she swept the gift box off the table.

The box broke open, spilling decorative raffia and fairy lights across the floor.

Along with them rolled out a cheap, bright green baseball cap.

Nadia froze, guilt flashing across her features. “Why is it green…”

She cut herself off and tilted her chin up defiantly.

“I consulted a psychic, and he said you wearing green would bring fortune to my career. We are civilized adults, so do not turn a simple color into something vulgar!”

Listening to her ridiculous excuse for cuckolding me, I let out a bitter laugh.

“Nadia, you spent five hundred grand of my money on a nightclub gigolo, and you gave your own husband a five-dollar cap. You really outdid yourself.”

Hearing the word gigolo, Nadia exploded.

Her face flushed crimson, and she stepped forward, slapping me hard across the face.

“Hayden is not a gigolo! He only worked at that club because life forced him into a corner! How dare you insult him like that?”

“I know you hate him, but we broke up years ago and we are just friends now! If we actually had something shameful going on, where would you even fit into my life?”

Throughout our ten years of marriage, Nadia had always brushed me off with the exact same excuses.

Yet ten minutes before she walked through the door, Hayden had posted a new photo on his social media.

In the picture, Hayden was holding Nadia tightly against his chest.

She wore a revealing slip dress, with a faint red mark visible on the side of her neck.

It was a side of Nadia I had never seen before.

The caption was even more vicious: “My first love said she could never forget me. From now on, he gets the legal title, but her heart belongs to me.”

To top it all off, Hayden had called me right after posting, bragging that he personally picked out a gift that matched me perfectly.