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.

"Slut!"

"You see that?!"

"You see that?!"

"Justin loves ME, not you!"

"That slap was a lesson for you!"

"If you ever lay eyes on my man again..."

"I'll kill you!"

Odette grabbed Justin, who was still standing there in a daze, and her eyes turned red.

"I hadn't seen you come out for so long. I was worried. I was afraid she'd pull some dirty trick on you again."

Tears spilled down Odette's cheeks, her voice cracking.

"Thank God."

"You love me."

"Thank God."

"My husband loves me. He hasn't changed."

Odette broke into a tearful smile, and Justin seemed to finally snap out of it. He rushed to wipe her tears, cooing at her softly.

"Of course I love you."

"I only love you." He turned to look at me, something complicated shifting behind his eyes. His gaze settled on my cheek, swollen and red from the slap. "Louisa, what happened today was wrong of me."

"But when it comes down to it, you brought this on yourself by being so stubborn."

"Louisa."

"I don't love you anymore."

Justin stroked Odette's belly with a gentle hand.

"I love Odette, and I love our unborn child. Whether you agree to the divorce or not, I'm giving her the rest of my life."

He took Odette's hand and said to her, "Let's go home."

I watched Odette nod like an obedient little thing, following Justin to the foyer. At the door, she turned back and shot me a look of pure contempt, a smile so sharp it stung my eyes.

And I remembered.

The night I caught them. The hotel room. Justin on top of her. I'd lost my mind the same way, charging at Odette, ready to claw her face off, ready to tear her apart, ready to destroy the woman who was ripping my family to shreds.

But Justin grabbed me. Shoved me hard.

My lower back slammed into the sharp corner of a table. What followed my scream was the hot rush of blood between my legs, and Odette's voice.

"Louisa."

"I'm not breaking up with Justin."

"I love him."

"I'm staying with him for the rest of my life."

"No matter what that makes me."

......

"Justin."

I called out to him. In the instant before he shut the door, I snatched the fruit knife from the table and lunged, aiming to bury it in his body. He caught my wrist first, and threw me to the ground.

"Louisa."

Justin looked down at me with something close to disgust.

"You're out of your mind."

The door closed.

He didn't look back.

The living room went quiet. Horribly quiet.

I remembered the first time Justin sat me down to negotiate. This same living room. This same couch. He'd been turning his wedding ring between his fingers, a trace of guilt still in his eyes, trying to explain.

"Odette isn't like other women."

"She's straightforward." He looked at me, freshly discharged from the hospital after the miscarriage, still too weak to sit up straight, and praised his mistress without a second's hesitation. "She doesn't have a mean bone in her body. Everything she said to you was just because she loves me too much."

"Don't hold it against her."

"Louisa."

He placed the divorce papers on the table.

"I've thought about this for a long time, and I still want to end things between us. I want Odette to be able to stand in the light. I don't want people whispering about her behind her back."

"I hope you can understand."

Justin had shoved me into a miscarriage.

I lost our baby at four months. I listened to the doctor say what a shame it was. I listened to the nurses complain that they couldn't reach my husband by phone. I listened to the caretaker explain that Mr. Simmons was too busy, but that he'd paid generously for my care.

Even the caretaker had advice for me.

"That's just how it is for women."

"If you want to be happy in this life, sometimes you've got to look the other way."

My heart was being carved open. I broke down in that hospital room, sobbing until I couldn't breathe. I clawed at myself, screamed, did everything I could to make Justin look at me. Just one look. That was all I wanted. He wouldn't even give me that.

Because.

Justin said.

"When you lost the baby, Odette blamed herself. She wanted to break up with me."

"I thought."

"I could let her go."

"But," his voice hardened, "I can't."

"I can't lose Odette. The same way I couldn't lose you back then."

His words ripped through me. Tears flooded down my face, and my chest split open like something had torn it apart with bare hands. Every organ ached. I couldn't breathe. I grabbed whatever I could reach and hurled it at him, watching blood bloom across his skin, watching him refuse to dodge. Then my legs gave out. I collapsed to my knees in front of him, fists knotted in his shirt, choking on my own voice.

"Why!"

"Why, Justin!"

"Tell me why!"

Why did you choose me.

Why did you fall in love with me.

Why did you throw away everything to build me a home, only to burn it down with your own hands.

Why did you hold the umbrella over my head, then shred it to pieces.

Why!

He didn't answer. He didn't hold me the way he used to. When I lunged forward and tried to kiss him, he turned his face away. He wouldn't even look at me.

"Odette said."

"If she can still smell you on me."

"She won't let me touch her."

Ice swallowed me whole. Every nerve in my body went dead, as if I'd been nailed to the floor. Even my tears stopped. I stared at the man in front of me, watched him pick up his coat, walk to the door.

"Louisa."

"Think it over."

Think it over.

I laughed.

I laughed until the laughter cracked into sobs, and the sobs cracked into screaming, and the screaming echoed through the empty apartment until it became the only sound left in my life.

Then Odette's message came through. A wedding design mockup. And her words underneath.

"Louisa, see this?"

"Everything you begged for and never got? I get it handed to me."

"Justin told me, you know. When he left the Simmons family for you, you two started from nothing. You didn't even have a real wedding. That's just... so sad."

She sent a laughing voice message.

"What a shame."

"You spent seven years by his side, built everything from the ground up, turned him into the great Mr. Simmons. And now that life is finally good..."

"It's all about to be mine."

"Hahaha."

Then she sent a video.

In the video.

Justin was down on one knee, stars pooling in his eyes, his face written over with devotion.

"Odie."

"You said you wanted a rock."

"But I figured even the biggest diamond wouldn't be good enough for you."

"So," he opened the jewelry box, and the pink diamond caught the light so fiercely I felt my heart clench, "I won this ring at auction. I'm hoping you'll say yes."

The proposal setup was gorgeous. Romantic.

Every friend we'd made together over the years was there, cheering, clapping, calling out for Odette to say yes.

But Odette was in no rush. She looked down at him.

"What about Louisa?"

She tilted her head.

"Did Louisa ever get this kind of treatment?"

"You know me," she said, gazing down at Justin from above. "I don't do secondhand."

"Not even the sentiment."

Laughter rippled through the crowd.

Justin hadn't even opened his mouth yet.

Someone was already answering for him.

"Babe, what are you even worried about?"

"Back then, Justin and that woman didn't even throw a reception. They just had dinner at home. She cooked it herself, bought the groceries herself, said she didn't want to waste money, said they needed to save. We laughed about it behind her back for months."