Chapter 1

My fiancé Hayden Holloway's legs had finally healed.

The first thing he did was have sex with his first love, Seraphina Vale, in our wedding suite.

I stood at the bedroom door. It wasn't fully shut.

Their moans drifted out. Their conversation too.

"Now that I'm whole again, can we get married?"

Seraphina panted, "What about Chloe?"

Hayden's voice was cold. "I never loved her. She was just a substitute for you."

Every word was a knife to my chest.

Three years. When he was paralyzed, I stayed by his side. I brought him through the darkest days.

Now he's back on his feet. And he's throwing me away like trash.

My eyes burned. I grabbed my phone. Sent a message to that man.

"I agree to marry you."

Chloe POV

In the VIP dressing room on the hotel's top floor, the lighting was dim and intimate.

Hayden stood behind me, his warm fingertips grazing my bare back deliberately, making me shiver.

He lowered his head, his thin lips against my ear, his breath hot.

"This dress suits you perfectly. At tonight's gala, just stay by my side."

I looked at our overlapping figures in the mirror, my cheeks flushing.

Three years.

When Hayden's accident left him paralyzed, when everyone else abandoned him, I stayed. Day and night. I was there through the brutal pain of rehab. I endured his rages, his coldness, every time his condition flared.

Now he had finally gotten back on his feet and reclaimed his power.

Tonight was his first public gala after retaking control of the family corporation, and he'd brought me along.

I thought I'd finally made it through the hard times, that I could finally stand by his side openly.

Just as Hayden's hand slowly slid down along my waistline, urgent knocking suddenly came from outside the door.

"Hayden, come out for a minute. We have a problem."

It was Hayden's best friend, Derek.

Hayden's movement paused, displeasure flashing across his features, but he still pulled up my zipper and coaxed me in a low voice.

"Wait here for me."

As the door opened and closed, a thread of cold air from the corridor slipped in.

I smoothed out my dress, about to follow him out to hand him the phone he'd left behind, when I heard Derek's voice through the door crack, suppressing angry fire.

"Have you lost your mind? The media outside already has their cameras set up. You're going to publicly announce your engagement to Seraphina tonight?! Then what did you bring Chloe here for? To watch you put an engagement ring on another woman's finger?"

My feet froze in place, the blood in my body seeming to flow backward in that moment.

Seraphina Vale.

The woman Hayden couldn't forget.

Three years ago, when Hayden had his accident and doctors declared he'd be paralyzed for life, Seraphina had fled abroad overnight, leaving without a trace.

Now that Hayden was wealthy again, she'd come back.

The hallway went quiet for two seconds.

Hayden's voice came through the door crack, cold, rational, without a ripple of emotion.

"Seraphina just returned to the country, and the Vale family is getting restless. I need to give her a title to stabilize the situation. I owe her this. As for bringing Chloe, it's to let her adapt in advance."

"Adapt to what? Adapt to being your mistress?"

Derek laughed coldly.

"All of us brothers know how she's treated you these past three years! Aren't you afraid she'll make a scene?"

"She won't."

Hayden's voice carried absolute confidence.

"I'll compensate her. That villa in the south district worth three hundred million, plus the jewelry brand under Holloway Corporation, I'll transfer them all to her name. As long as she behaves, I can give her anything she wants except the title of Mrs. Holloway. She's a smart woman. She knows how to choose."

Inside the door, I pressed my hand hard over my mouth to keep the sob from escaping.

So in his eyes, my three years of devoted companionship were nothing more than a transaction that could be settled with money and property.

He wanted to marry his beloved, but still wanted to keep me as a caged canary in the shadows.

How cruel. How arrogant.

I slowly retreated back into the dressing room, looking at my elaborately dressed self in the mirror, suddenly feeling like a complete joke.

I didn't cry.

Because my tears had dried up during those three years, accompanying him through countless desperate nights.

I took out my phone and found a number I'd barely ever called, pressing dial.

The call connected. Hayden's grandfather's authoritative, harsh voice came through.

"What, changed your mind?"

"Yes."

My voice was quiet but steady.

"Mr. Holloway Senior, I accept your deal. I'll take the money and go. Leave Hayden forever."

He snorted.

"Finally you see reason. You're a broke has-been. Being there for his low point was your good luck. But as his wife? Not good enough. Seraphina is who we chose for him."

"I understand."

I interrupted him.

"I only want the money you promised, and also, help me erase all my exit records. I don't want him to find me."

"The money will be transferred to your account tonight. I'll give you two weeks to handle everything and leave without a trace."

"Fine."

After hanging up, I took a deep breath and removed the diamond necklace Hayden had just put on me himself, casually tossing it onto the vanity.

I pushed open the door, but instead of going to the gala, I left through the staff passage, walking away from the hotel without looking back.