Vivien hit the floor from the slap, clutching her face, staring up at me in disbelief.
“Kay Simmons, you've lost your mind!”
Bartholomew's expression darkened. He lunged forward and shoved me aside so hard
I slammed into the wall. Pain exploded through my spine and my vision went black at the edges.
He didn't spare me a single glance. Instead, he gathered Vivien into his arms, cradling her like she was made of glass,
“Vivien, are you hurt anywhere?”
I braced myself against the wall and steadied my legs. Watching him shield her, tears blurred everything, and something in my chest felt like it had been ripped clean out.
“I've lost my mind?”
Bartholomew frowned, his eyes full of nothing but disappointment,
“When did you become so vicious? So cruel? You don't act anything like a Vance wife should.”
I bit down on the inside of my cheek until I tasted iron, and laughed. A hollow, wretched sound.
Then Vivien's face drained of color. She clutched her stomach, whimpering softly,
“Bartholomew, my stomach hurts so much. Our baby……”
His eyes went wide. He scooped her up instantly and turned toward the door.
Her words detonated inside my skull.
I stepped in front of them. I stared, unable to process what I'd just heard, and a mouthful of blood rose in my throat and spilled past my lips.
“She's pregnant?”
Vivien peeked out from Bartholomew's arms, crying her delicate, pitiful tears,
“Kay, the baby is innocent……”
Bartholomew looked at me. Not a flicker of guilt in his eyes.
“Yes. Vivien is pregnant. You can't conceive. The Vance family needs an heir.”
One sentence, and the cold sank into every bone in my body.
He resented me for not being able to carry a child.
But years ago, when a rival family came for his life, I was the one who threw myself in front of the blade meant for him.
I didn't even know I was pregnant until I was in the hospital. The baby didn't survive. The knife damaged my uterus, and the doctors said conceiving again would be close to impossible.
Still, I tried. Hundreds of fertility injections. Months of agony. All to give him a child.
Against every odd, I finally conceived. Everyone was overjoyed. And then Vivien's brother killed my baby.
Bartholomew knew all of this. Every last detail of my pain. And now he used the cruelest words he could find and drove them straight into my heart.
He kept talking, casual, offhand, as though he were bestowing some magnificent gift.
“I promised you the position of Mrs. Vance would always be yours. No one can replace you. I won't go back on my word.”
“Once the baby is born, it'll be registered under your name. You'll raise it. Consider the child your compensation. You'll still be the only mistress of the Vance household.”
I broke. Laughter tore out of me, ragged and unhinged, while tears poured down my face and my whole body shook beyond my control.
“Enough!”
Bartholomew's face twisted with impatience.
“We'll talk when you've calmed down.”
He didn't look at me again. He carried Vivien out and the door swung shut behind them.
“BANG.” The sound rattled through the empty room.
I collapsed onto the cold floor and sobbed until my lungs burned and my throat felt shredded.
I didn't know how long I lay there. Only that by the end, something inside me had gone completely still.
After a long time, I wiped my face dry and drove straight to the most prestigious law firm in the city.
“I want a divorce. Draft me a divorce agreement.”
I sat across the desk, my voice flat. Dead water.
Lottie Fox was a friend I'd met through work and a senior partner at the firm.
The second the words left my mouth, her pen froze mid-stroke. She stared at me.
“Divorce? Kay, what kind of joke is this? It's not April Fools'.”
“I'm not joking.”
I kept my eyes down. My voice was barely a whisper.
“Bartholomew cheated.”
Lottie went rigid. Her pen clattered onto the desk.
“Him? How could he cheat?”
I let out a bitter half-laugh. Every breath sent a fresh tremor through my fingertips, and the hollow ache behind my ribs wouldn't stop.
“Just get the agreement done as fast as you can.”
Lottie didn't push further. She typed up the document quickly and slid the divorce agreement across the desk.
“Based on the paperwork you brought, he leaves the marriage with nothing.”
I picked up the agreement. My fingers trembled.
When Bartholomew proposed, he'd written out that document himself, swearing to me with absolute solemnity.
“Kay, if I ever wrong you, I'll give you everything I have.”
He was so certain I would never leave. So confident that my love for him would never fade.
But he forgot. I was someone who loved fiercely and cut just as clean. The man I loved was the boy who once treated me like I was his whole world.
I blinked away the last of my tears, took the divorce agreement, and walked out of the firm.
Once I was in the car, I dialed the number of Bartholomew Vance's fiercest rival.
“Mr. Delgado. I have a business proposition. Interested?”
Irvin Delgado let out a low laugh, his tone lazy and unhurried,
“Is Mrs. Vance fishing for intel on her husband's behalf, or coming to negotiate a truce?”
“Neither.”
I stared out the window. My eyes were cold and lightless.
“I want you to destroy Bartholomew Vance.”
Silence on the other end.
I continued,
“The Southgate Project is in my hands. If you're willing to work together, I can convince the investors to give Delgado Group the contract.”
“You know whoever lands it becomes untouchable in this city. In the entire industry.”
Irvin's voice carried a new edge of curiosity,
“A deal like that, and you'd hand it to me? Had a fight with Mr. Vance?”
My gaze hardened, every word precise,
“A man who cheats on me deserves everything that's coming to him.”
A few seconds of silence. When Irvin spoke again, there was genuine admiration in his voice,
“Ms. Simmons. I look forward to our partnership.”
I hung up and texted my private investigator.
【Look into Vivien Pruitt's brother for me.】
Between now and the day the divorce was final, I would find every last piece of evidence. And I would make him pay.
