Chapter 3

Even before we got married, I knew I wasn't Chloe’s dream guy.

But I was the most convenient option.

Chloe had always been a high-achiever. In college, she was always the group leader, the straight-A student, the star presenter. Right after graduation, she started her own marketing agency.

In just a few years, she turned a five-person studio into a successful firm with over a hundred employees.

She once told me she wanted a "power couple" relationship. Her ideal man was an alpha, a corporate elite who could match her drive.

Meanwhile, I was just a freelance illustrator. I spent my days sitting in front of a drawing tablet, editing sketches. I was about as far from "corporate elite" as a man could get.

Yet, somehow, she married me.

Because she hadn't found her dream guy, Chloe had remained single. But her traditional mother, Helen, couldn't stand it. She pressured Chloe to settle down by the time she turned twenty-seven.

When Chloe approached me with a marriage proposal, I thought I was dreaming.

I had been secretly in love with her all through college.

"The way you look at me is different from other guys," she had told me back then. "

And since my mom is forcing me to marry someone, it might as well be someone who actually loves me, right?"

With just those two sentences, she captured my heart.

We got our marriage license that very day. She left all the wedding planning to me.

I poured my heart into organizing a beautiful wedding, only for her to humiliate me at the reception.

But back then, I foolishly believed that even if she didn't love me yet, she chose me. I thought my warmth would eventually melt her cold heart.

But looking at that watch today, I realized I was just exhausted.

Chloe was a woman with a high IQ and EQ. She could read my feelings instantly. How could she possibly be blind to Julian's obvious advances?