Betrayal: My Husband's Mistress Wanted My Life, I Took His Empire

After Justin Simmons cheated on me,

he needed to give his mistress a title.

So for the nineteenth time, he sat across from me and asked for a divorce.

"The house and the cars go to you. Assets split fifty-fifty. What more could you possibly want?"

"Louisa Payne," Justin said, exhaustion carved into every line of his face as he looked at me. "She's pregnant."

"When the baby comes, it can't be born without a legitimate name. Can you think about me for once?"

I studied him. From the affair, to trying to force me out with nothing, to today, when he'd finally made concessions. I laughed.

"Honey," I said, my smile thin, my voice barely above a whisper. "My answer hasn't changed."

"You want my signature? Over my dead body."

——

"Louisa!"

Justin's voice cracked upward. He shoved to his feet and roared at me.

"If you're so eager to die,"

"then sign the damn papers first!"

He kicked the chair over and closed the distance between us, fisting the collar of my shirt.

"I've already bent over backward for you. What more do you want?"

"What more do you want?!"

"You'd rather drag me down with you, is that it?"

"Louisa!"

"I don't love you anymore!"

"I don't love you anymore!"

Something inside him broke. His grip loosened, and he collapsed against my shoulder like a wounded animal, his voice dissolving into something close to a whimper.

"Louisa, I'm begging you."

"Let me go."

"I don't want anything, Louisa. Nothing. I just want her. She's all I want."

I felt the tremor running through his voice, and my mind pulled me back seven years, to when Justin had knelt before the entire Simmons family for me. He'd been shaking just like this, crying until he had nothing left, forcing out the words through sheer will.

"I don't want an arranged marriage."

"I don't want whoever you've picked for me."

"I only want Louisa."

"I love Louisa."

"I'm hopelessly in love with Louisa, and she's the only one I want to be with."

Justin Simmons, golden son of the Simmons dynasty. The sole heir. All he had to do was nod, and the world would have been handed to him on a silver platter.

But he didn't.

He stood by my side, unwavering, and said those words with the same tone, the same look on his face as today.

"Louisa."

"I'll give up everything."

"Even my life."

"As long as I have you."

Seven years.

That was all it took for everything to change.

Now Justin loved someone else, and he was using that same tone, that same expression, begging me with the same desperate sincerity.

"Louisa."

"Let me go."

"I just want to be with her. I'm hopelessly in love with her. She's all I want, even if it means giving up everything."

The untouchable young heir of the Simmons family,

brought to his knees by love.

Broken by it.

And now,

all I could feel was the warmth of his tears soaking through my shoulder, the sound of his voice pressing against something heavy in my chest, a tightness climbing my throat. Then a noise came from the entryway. I let out a quiet breath and said only this to Justin.

"Someone's here."

"What the hell are you two doing?!"

Odette Fox was standing in the doorway, her scream tearing through the room.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

Justin went rigid against me. I looked up and met Odette's face, and I smiled.

"Can't you tell?"

"We're legally married. I don't think I need to report to you."

"Louisa!"

Justin and Odette spoke at the same time.

Odette was already charging at me, hand raised to slap me across the face. I caught her wrist and held it tight. But in that same instant, Justin's palm had already connected with my cheek. He froze, staring at his own hand in disbelief, while Odette burst out laughing.