Jeremy fixed his eyes on the woman before him. She was the same woman who had loved him with everything she had.

There were no tears in Cheryl's eyes when she mentioned divorce. She didn't question him, and she showed no sign of anger.

That quiet acceptance unsettled him because it felt as though she had slipped beyond his reach.

Before long, that uneasiness gave way to burning anger.

"Cheryl, have you gone crazy?" His fingers crushed the cigarette until it bent out of shape before he threw it onto the floor. His voice dropped into a dangerous growl. "I've already explained that this wedding is only for show. Danica is dying. She may not even survive another month. And this is when you decide to use divorce as a threat?"

"A threat?" Cheryl gave a quiet laugh that held no amusement. "Jeremy, you've known me for seven years, and we've been married for three. Tell me, when have I ever used anything to force your hand?"

All this time, she had been the one who always chose to compromise.

Whenever his mother made things difficult for her, Cheryl never argued back. Whenever Jeremy came home late, she always kept a light on and waited for him.

Because he had once rescued her during the darkest chapter of her life, she had endured every disappointment and kept every wound to herself.

In return, what had all those sacrifices given her?

They only convinced Jeremy that she would stay with him forever. That confidence gave him the nerve to gather both families and their friends so he could hold a grand wedding for another woman without even telling her.

"I mean every word." Cheryl quietly stepped farther away from him.

As the distance between them grew, the familiar scent of fir slowly disappeared. The cool breeze brushed against her face, and her thoughts became clearer than ever.

"Weren't you the one who said this wedding isn't legally binding?" Cheryl met his eyes with a detached expression, as though she were looking at a stranger. "Once our divorce is finalized, you can marry her for real. She won't just have the ceremony. She'll become the true Mrs. Barrett. Isn't that exactly what you want?"

"Cheryl!" Jeremy snapped. A vein stood out at his temple. "If you think I've treated you unfairly, I'll make it up to you. You can have company shares, property, or anything else you want." His voice left no room for discussion. "As for a divorce, you can forget about it."

"Jeremy..." A frail voice echoed from the far end of the corridor.

Without anyone noticing when she arrived, Danica stood there.

Her fingers gathered the layers of her elaborate wedding gown while the color had completely drained from her face.

She steadied herself with one hand against the wall and looked at them with tearful, vulnerable eyes.

"Cheryl, please don't blame Jeremy." Danica's voice quivered as tears rolled down her cheeks. "Everything happened because of me. I never wanted to take him away from you. I only... I only wished I could experience wearing a wedding dress before I die. I know I shouldn't ask for something like this, but I don't have much time left."

Before she could say anything else, a violent fit of coughing overtook her.

The moment Jeremy saw her condition, his expression changed completely. He hurried over in a few quick steps and immediately gathered her into his arms. "Danica, why did you come here? It's cold, and the wind is getting stronger. The doctor warned you not to expose yourself to weather like this."

The concern and tenderness filling his eyes were emotions Cheryl had never once been fortunate enough to receive throughout the seven years she had loved him.

Resting quietly against Jeremy's embrace, Danica lifted her eyes and looked at Cheryl.

Despite the tears welling up in Danica's eyes, Cheryl failed to find any remorse in them. All she saw was quiet triumph.

"You should go comfort Cheryl, Jeremy. I'll be alright. I can make my own way back," Danica said with forced generosity. Even so, her hand never loosened its grip on his sleeve.

Jeremy faced Cheryl coldly. "Don't make me see you as someone without compassion."

Every word struck Cheryl harder than any knife ever could.

Keeping Danica close in his arms, Jeremy rushed toward the lounge without looking back even once.

Meanwhile, the relatives and friends waiting near the red carpet quickly surrounded the pair, treating them like a couple worthy of everyone's sympathy.

From the crowd, Cheryl's own parents and her brother looked at her with obvious disapproval, as though she was responsible for spoiling Danica's happiest moment.

No one walked over to ask how Cheryl was feeling. Instead, they stayed by Danica's side and left with her.

No one remained in the corridor except Cheryl, who stood frozen as everything that had happened weighed heavily on her.

A stronger breeze swept through and tossed loose strands of hair across her face.

Just then, her phone buzzed inside her pocket.

The message came from Laura. "Cheryl, Danica has always been a pitiful child. She has no one in this world except us. Now that she's so seriously ill, please treat this as one final act of kindness toward her. Help her fulfill her last wish. Jeremy's heart still belongs to you."

An act of kindness?

Cheryl kept staring at the message, unable to believe what she had just read.

They expected her to act as though nothing had happened. They wanted her to quietly watch her own husband marry the woman everyone called her sister and remain by that woman's side until the very end. Somehow, they believed that counted as an act of kindness.

For more than twenty years, Danica had already lived as the Pearson family's beloved daughter in her place. Now they expected her to surrender her husband just as willingly.

The moment she refused, everyone would see her as the cruel and heartless one.

A quiet, mocking laugh escaped Cheryl as she opened another conversation.

Danica had sent her a few messages earlier that day with an unfamiliar number.

"Cheryl, Jeremy was supposed to be with me from the very beginning. You're the one who took him away. I'll make you see that both Jeremy and the Pearson family have only ever cared about me. To them, you mean nothing."

Right after that came a photograph. In the picture, Jeremy was crouched in front of Danica, carefully helping her put on a pair of custom-made crystal heels.

Two more messages appeared beneath it. "Do you see it now, Cheryl? He's only willing to do something like that for me."

"Tonight, Jeremy and I are getting married at the Barrett family's private estate. Why don't you come and see it for yourself?"

One after another, Cheryl read every message on the screen before letting out a quiet laugh filled with bitterness and self-ridicule.

Jeremy had always insisted that he treated Danica as nothing more than a friend.

Even so, the same man who had spent three years keeping Cheryl at a distance now gave Danica all the affection and tenderness Cheryl had longed for but never received.

He had even joined forces with both families and their friends to arrange this grand wedding without his wife knowing a single thing.

Although tears threatened to fall, Cheryl stubbornly held them back.

She had already accepted defeat. There was no point in shedding tears over someone who had already broken her heart.

Cheryl slipped her phone into her bag.

Then she turned around and walked away, leaving every feeling she had ever carried for Jeremy behind in that silent corridor.

Once, he had been the person who rescued her. Now, she was choosing to let him go.

From that day forward, Jeremy would never again have her love.

By the time Cheryl made it back to the villa she shared with Jeremy, night had already settled in.

An eerie silence filled the spacious house.

Without bothering to switch on the lights, she went straight to the bedroom. She opened a drawer and took out the divorce agreement.

She had prepared those papers the moment she discovered that Jeremy was holding a wedding ceremony at his family's estate that evening.

Back then, a small part of her still hoped everything was a misunderstanding.

Everything she had witnessed that night destroyed the last bit of hope she had left.

Gentle moonlight streamed through the window as Cheryl lowered the pen and carefully signed her name across the designated line.

As she packed her belongings, a box containing a new tie caught her attention inside the walk-in closet.

She had designed the tie herself and visited three different workshops before finding the fabric she wanted. It had been prepared as Jeremy's twenty-eighth birthday present.

Without the slightest hesitation, Cheryl took the box and threw it into the trash.

Every lie and every betrayal had stained the memories she once treasured until they became nothing but something she wanted to forget.

As soon as her phone turned back on, a new unread message appeared.

The message came from her former investment partner. "Cheryl, the medical project you asked me to monitor has finally made some progress. Have you really decided to come back?"

Her eyes remained fixed on the screen as the determination that had disappeared long ago slowly returned.

After she married Jeremy, his family made it clear that they didn't want her to build a public career. They expected her to devote herself entirely to him. Because of that, she concealed her identity in the business world, walked away from the company she had founded with her own hands, and chose to become a full-time housewife.

She had abandoned everything she worked for because of him.

Now it was her turn to reclaim it all.

"Yes. I'll be at the office tomorrow at ten in the morning."

Once she finished replying to her partner, Cheryl blocked Jeremy on the chat app and erased his contact number from her phone.

After packing every belonging that was hers into a suitcase, she reached out to Jeremy's assistant.

With everything finally settled, Cheryl paused to take one final look at the house where she and Jeremy had lived together for the past three years.

Without looking back again, she gripped the handle of her suitcase, opened the front door, and walked away.

...

The following morning, Cheryl arrived outside the courthouse. A fitted business suit replaced her usual clothes, and her long hair was neatly tied into a bun. Her flawless makeup gave her a distant and composed elegance.

Right at nine o'clock, a black Maybach slowly came to a stop by the curb.

A moment later, the car door opened, and Jeremy got out.

His suit was as perfectly tailored as ever, but the bloodshot eyes on his face made it obvious that he had not slept the entire night.

As soon as Jeremy caught sight of Cheryl, surprise crossed his face, followed by a brief moment of admiration.

In his eyes, she had always been nothing more than a quiet and devoted housewife. Never once had he seen her carry herself with such confidence and professionalism.

He had never expected a business suit to suit her so well.

Then his expression quickly turned cold.

Without slowing his pace, Jeremy walked straight toward her. His voice carried restrained anger. "Cheryl, how much longer are you going to drag this out? I spent the entire night at the hospital with Danica. She had been on the verge of death twice. Do you have any idea how exhausted I am? Can't you stop making things more difficult?"

The night before, Jeremy's assistant informed him that Cheryl wanted him to meet her outside the courthouse at nine the next morning.

The moment he heard the message, he tried calling Cheryl, only to realize she had blocked him on the chat app and rejected every way he had to contact her.

That was the only reason he had shown up.

Jeremy remained convinced that Cheryl was only acting out in anger.

After all, she had loved him for years. Throughout their three-year marriage, she had always followed his wishes, built her life around him, and never once gone against him. In his eyes, there was no way she truly intended to end their marriage.

To him, this was nothing more than an attempt to force his attention onto her and make him choose her instead of Danica.

"Mr. Barrett," Cheryl said coldly. Even the way she addressed him had become distant.

The words stopped Jeremy in his tracks, and he frowned. "What did you just call me?"

Instead of replying, Cheryl reached into her bag, took out the signed divorce agreement, and held it in front of him.

"These are the divorce papers. I'll leave this marriage with nothing, and I won't ask the Barrett family for a single cent." She met his gaze without hesitation. "If you don't have any objections, Mr. Barrett, then sign them."

For the first time, Jeremy's calm expression cracked as genuine disbelief appeared in his eyes because of Cheryl.

A faint smile of ridicule appeared on his face as he looked at Cheryl's slightly pale complexion. "Cheryl, do you honestly expect this little trick to fool me? Don't you think you're acting like a child?"

Over the years, he had become completely accustomed to her unquestioning obedience.

Cheryl had always adjusted herself to suit him, never once pushing back against what he wanted.

Even in their private moments, she always followed his wishes because pleasing him had always come first.

That was why he couldn't believe she genuinely intended to leave him.

In response, Cheryl remained silent as she met his gaze. The affection that once filled her eyes had disappeared, replaced by a distant chill.

Instead of trying to defend herself like she always had, she answered him with nothing more than a faint, cold smile.

"If you truly believe this is a trick, Mr. Barrett, then prove it." Cheryl raised an eyebrow slightly. "Sign the papers and expose my bluff. Or is it you who's unwilling to do it?"

Jeremy's expression instantly hardened, and the atmosphere around him grew noticeably colder.

He locked eyes with her before speaking in a slow, measured voice. "Cheryl, I hope you don't end up regretting this."

He took the divorce papers from her hand and pulled a pen from his suit pocket. Just as he was about to sign, his phone suddenly rang.

The pen stopped in midair as he answered the call.

A frown gradually settled on his face while he listened to the person on the other end.

Once the call ended, Jeremy faced Cheryl again with his usual air of arrogance.

"There's an urgent matter at the company that needs my attention." His voice returned to its familiar dismissive tone. "We'll discuss the divorce another time."

Without giving Cheryl a chance to respond, he turned around and walked back toward the Maybach.

Silently, Cheryl remained where she was as the Maybach gradually disappeared.

A familiar ache crept into her chest once again.

To Jeremy, she had never been his highest priority.

Not even their divorce could come before everything else in his life.

Still, she had already made up her mind to leave him, so waiting a little longer wouldn't change anything.

Cheryl flagged down a taxi and made her way to the place she had stayed away from for the past three years.