Chapter 2

Streetlights cast passing shadows across my face through the town car's tinted window.

Looking back on my four-year marriage with Julian Hayes, it felt like an absurd joke.

Once, Julian and I were bitter corporate rivals.

We used every cutthroat tactic in the book to outbid each other on multi-million-dollar acquisitions.

I never imagined he harbored a twisted obsession with me.

Four years ago, I already had a fiancé.

During a business trip to France, I suffered a catastrophic car wreck.

When I woke up in a secluded private hospital in Nice, Julian was the only one at my bedside.

He told me he was my devoted fiancé, presenting dozens of photographs of us together.

Most were cropped from business galas we had both attended.

Back then, my brain was an empty slate. I didn't suspect a thing because he showered me with suffocating tenderness.

He knew every detail of my habits, my favorite meals, my allergies.

If he wasn't my fiancé, how could he know me so intimately?

As soon as I was discharged, we signed marriage papers.

Claiming his company was overwhelmed, we skipped a grand wedding and merely spent a month cruising around the Mediterranean.

He had even fabricated a charred corpse in France to fake my death, making my true fiancé, Vincent Sterling, believe I had perished in that flaming crash.

Back in the penthouse, I searched for any trace of Vincent Sterling online.

As expected, almost nothing about the underground kingpin showed up in public records.

Yet, when an old, blurred snapshot of his sharp jawline flashed across the encrypted database, an unbearable agony tore through my chest.

Fragmented memories slammed into my skull like shattered glass.

Just as I lowered the phone and pressed my throbbing temples, an unknown number buzzed with a message.

It was Chloe.

She sent a barrage of photos:

Julian sleeping peacefully in her silk sheets.

Julian making French toast for her in his silk robe.

Julian gently rubbing stretch mark oil across her swollen belly.

...

A wave of bile rose in my throat.

The thought of his mouth kissing me after pressing against hers made me sick to my stomach.

We had been married for four years. The entire high society knew how obsessed he was with me.

Why cheat?

Can a man really covet two women at the same time?

I didn't care about the answer anymore.

All I wanted was to sever this fake marriage and return to the life Julian stole from me.

My attorney worked fast. The digital divorce agreement arrived in my inbox.

I knew Julian would never sign it willingly.

Even with his side chick knocked up, he refused to set me free.

So, I forwarded the contract file directly to Chloe with a single line:

"Get Julian to sign this, and he's all yours."

Chloe replied within seconds:

"Deal."

An hour later, Chloe called, her voice dripping with triumphant malice:

"He signed it. You better pack your bags and don't regret this."

With everything set in motion, I collapsed onto the bed.

Soon, darkness pulled me under.

My dreams were filled with the fiery passion between Vincent and me before the darkness took over.

Not a single trace of Julian Hayes.