Chapter 3

"Cece, don't do something rash!"

"Throwing the word divorce around like that. Have you even thought about how Luke feels?"

Florence gripped Luke's hand and shook it, panicked, waving him over to comfort me.

"Go on, go soothe Cece. Look how upset she is!"

But Luke hadn't taken a single word of mine to heart.

"Don't bother with her. She won't dare file for divorce."

"We signed an agreement before the wedding. Whoever brings up divorce after we're married walks away with nothing."

"So not only would everything she's built these past few years turn to dust, without any money behind her she wouldn't even qualify for custody of the child."

Then, without so much as another glance at me, he took Florence and left.

I stared blankly at the ceiling, my daughter's crying reaching my ears.

It was true. Luke and I really had signed that kind of agreement before we married.

Back then, right after Luke proposed to me, he suddenly pulled out a document.

I'd assumed it was a prenuptial division of property. Turned out it was only a pledge.

There were just three lines in it.

【1. Florence Lyons and Luke Henson will love each other forever, more with each passing day.】

【2. Florence Lyons and Luke Henson will share everything, with nothing held back between them.】

【3. Florence Lyons and Luke Henson will stay together forever. Once married, they can never part for the rest of their lives.】

【Whoever breaks these terms by filing for divorce walks away with nothing and loses everything.】

At the time I thought the whole thing was childish.

After I read it, Luke leaned against my shoulder and coaxed me to sign my name.

"It's your fault for being so impressive. You're always attracting admirers, and I've got no sense of security."

"I wrote this to prove I can live up to every line in it, so I dare to sign. Do you?"

I laughed helplessly at that, but I signed the agreement anyway, indulging him.

Back then I truly believed I'd never once say the word divorce in my life.

After all, Luke loved me too much.

And it was precisely because that love had once shone so brightly.

That now I couldn't accept it fading to gray.

Over the days that followed in the hospital, Luke seemed determined to teach me a lesson. He never came to see me again.

Not even a message asking after me.

It was Florence who texted me now and then, asking if I felt any better today.

Saying she missed me, and missed her little niece, then urging me to let it go and accept how things were.

I ignored every one of them, and in the end, so worn down I couldn't stand it, I blocked her number outright.

Not long after I blocked Florence, Luke made his first call.

"Why did you block Flo? Do you have any idea how heartbroken she was, crying because of what you did?"

"Unblock Flo right now!"

I answered coldly. "No. I refuse."

"Cecilia Summers, are you really going to drive things between us to this kind of ugly ending?"

"Things between us broke the moment the two of you got together behind my back."

Luke laughed in anger.

"Fine. Since you think we're finished, then I'll sell that batch of jade you're responsible for straight to the Tanner family."

The instant I heard the Tanner name, that dark memory sent me shaking again, beyond my control.

Years ago, Luke and I bought a rough jade stone at the public auction that no one had any faith in.

The window they'd cut showed only marble, but when it was sliced open, inside were two imperial-green pieces of glass jade, each the size of two palms.

A stone worth a few hundred thousand doubled overnight to nearly a hundred million, and it caught the Tanner family's eye at once.

They'd wanted to bid on that stone too, back then, but after appraising it they'd passed.

Once the value doubled, they wanted in on the deal, a cut of it.

Luke and I talked it over and turned the Tanners down, never expecting them to retaliate.

They set me up and had me kidnapped. Three whole days and nights, and every kind of humiliation.

Only after Luke handed the jade over to the man in charge of the Tanner family was I let go.

For a long time after that, I was almost broken.

Luke went with me to see more psychiatrists than I could count, and stayed by my side for weeks on end before I finally pulled through.

And because of what happened, once our company grew large, the Tanner family went straight onto our blacklist.

No matter how high a price the Tanners offered every time, Luke refused to deal with them.

"I'd rather let it rot into worthless rock in my own hands than ever sell to you Tanners."

I never imagined that now, to take Florence's side, he would cut open the very memory I feared most.

I couldn't stop trembling. "Luke, you can't do this to me!"

Maybe he heard the fear in it, because for once Luke softened.

"Then unblock Flo, and give her a proper apology."

"I won't! I didn't do anything wrong. Why should I apologize?"

Seeing me still refuse, Luke turned cold too. "Then don't blame me for what I'm about to do."

"Cece, it's really time you learned some sense. I hope this makes you think hard about where the three of us stand."