Chapter 2

2

The ride home was dead silent.

My knuckles turned white as I gripped the steering wheel with crushing force.

Chloe sat in the passenger seat, staring out the window at the blurred neon lights of the city.

She was still wearing the elegant white gown I had picked out for tonight. Under the moonlight, she looked like an untouchable angel.

Underneath that exquisite skin, however, beat a heart made of pure, selfish ice.

"Why?" I finally broke the silence, my voice hoarse and raw.

"Why did you do this to me?"

Chloe didn't even bother turning her head.

"Do what to you?"

Her tone was light and breezy, as if discussing tomorrow's weather forecast.

"All I said is that we can have a baby now. What's wrong with that?"

I slammed my foot onto the brake.

Tires screeched violently across the empty asphalt, throwing us both forward against our seatbelts.

"Have a baby?"

I turned to face her, delivering each word through gritted teeth.

"You mean now that your toxic ex gave his royal permission, you're graciously accepting my seed like it's charity?"

Chloe finally met my gaze.

There was no fury in her eyes, no shame, only cold detachment.

"If that's how you want to twist it, Logan, that's on you."

"The past is in the past. Jace said the deal is off."

"We can live like a normal married couple from now on. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"A normal couple?"

I let out a bitter, disbelieving laugh.

"Tell me, Chloe, what normal husband takes daily birth control for three years just to honor his wife's sick promise to another man?"

"Do you have any idea how much those pills wrecked my health?"

"Every single checkup, my doctor warned me about abnormal liver function!"

I thought she might finally show a shred of guilt.

Instead, she only frowned with irritation.

"Didn't I promise to make it up to you once you stopped taking them?"

"Why do you have to be so petty and calculative?"

"It was just some pills. Are you really going to hold a grudge forever over that?"

In that moment, every drop of blood in my veins turned to ice.

The agonizing sacrifice that tore my body and dignity apart was, to her, nothing more than "just some pills."

I suddenly remembered when we first got married three years ago.

I had been brimming with joy, dreaming of building a family with our children.

She claimed she wasn't ready and was allergic to latex.

Fearing surgery might worry her, I volunteered to take the experimental male contraceptive.

She had wrapped her arms around my neck, teary-eyed, saying, "You're the best husband in the world. I can never live without you."

Back then, I was so touched that I felt no sacrifice was too great.

Looking back now, she was probably thinking of Jace the entire time.

She was carrying that humiliating mark on her skin.

Meanwhile, I, her lawful husband, was actively poisoning my own body like a pathetic fool.

The air inside the car grew suffocatingly thin.

Staring at this familiar yet utterly alien face, I felt a deep, visceral disgust.

"Let's get a divorce," I said.

My voice wasn't loud, but it detonated like a bomb inside the quiet car.

The mask of indifference on Chloe's face finally fractured.

She stared at me in disbelief, as if I were a spoiled child throwing a tantrum.

"Are you done throwing a fit, Logan?"

"Just because Jace said a few provoking words, you want a divorce?"

"Is your love really that cheap?"

I laughed until tears nearly spilled from my eyes.

"My love isn't cheap."

"You simply don't deserve it, Chloe."

I stepped on the gas and accelerated.

The car shot forward into the night like an arrow.

This time, I didn't head back to that so-called home.

Instead, I drove toward an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town.

That was where everything I had given up for Chloe still lay in the dark.

Now, I was going to reclaim every single piece of it.