When Colton Parkhouse sided with his wife’s adopted sister once again, Kenzie didn’t argue with him like she used to. She simply turned around and went straight into a law firm.
“Atty. Larsson, I need you to draft a divorce agreement. I want a divorce.”
Hearing that, the lawyer looked caught off guard. “Mrs. Parkerhouse… are you sure about this? It’s the second time you’ve come to file. If you withdraw again, the county clerk’s office won’t accept another application from either of you this year.”
Kenzie’s eyes looked red-rimmed as she smiled bitterly.
“Don’t worry. This time, the divorce will definitely happen. I won’t change my mind again.”
The first time she filed for a divorce was when she found Colton’s diary in their bedroom. Every page recorded everything about Kinsey: what she liked to eat most, steak; what she liked to drink most, apple juice; even the exact timing of her monthly period.
That discovery led to a huge fight because the woman he loved wasn’t anyone else. It was Kinsey, his wife’s younger sister!
After that, Kenzie brought up divorce. Coincidentally, on the very last day of the mandatory cooling-off period, she got into a car accident.
While she was hospitalized, Colton stayed by her side day and night, barely sleeping. He even donated eight hundred milliliters of blood for her.
When she woke up, he knelt on the floor beside her bed, promising, “Honey, I admit I did love Kinsey once. But the woman I love now? It’s you. I promise I’ll cut off everything connected to her. Just give me one more chance, please?”
Seeing his pale face from staying up to take care of her, Kenzie softened.
After all, who hasn’t loved someone else when they were young? She was no exception.
That was why she gave him one more chance.
But the peace only lasted one year. Today was the second time she asked for a divorce.
A week earlier, she was supposed to give birth. Her husband, who should’ve been by her side, left her behind. The reason? Kinsey had gotten lost at an amusement park.
On the operating table, Kenzie suffered massive bleeding and fell into critical condition. With no one there to sign the surgery consent forms, her baby didn’t survive. And because treatment was delayed, she permanently lost the ability to become pregnant.
When she woke up, her phone was filled with messages from Kinsey, each one deliberately provocative.
Photos of the ninety-nine condoms she and Colton had used that week. Photos of meals he had personally cooked for her. And even a photo of the once untouchable young heir kneeling on the floor, giving another woman a foot spa.
Seeing all that triggered a breakdown in Kenzie.
While she had been fighting for her life on the operating table, while she was losing her baby, her husband had been with someone else.
The ache in her chest grew heavier and tighter. That was why this time, she wouldn’t give in.
The lawyer’s voice pulled her back to the present as he placed the divorce agreement into her hands. “I wish you the best, Mrs. Parkhouse.”
Kenzie lowered her gaze.
In the newly drafted agreement, Colton would be leaving with nothing!
…
Kenzie took a cab straight to Colton’s company.
The second she got out, a massive poster by the entrance caught her eye. Kinsey’s face was plastered across it.
Recently, the company had signed on several fashion brands and needed a spokesperson.
Since it was a maternity line, Kenzie had volunteered for two reasons.
First, to help Colton.
Two, to prove to him that she still was useful.
But at the time, he shut her down outright, his words full of disgust.
“Kenzie, look at yourself now. You’re fat and ugly! Just forget it.”
“I’m not letting people see that poster and say the CEO of Parkhouse Group married an ugly woman.”
Ugly. That one word sent her straight to hell, tearing her down piece by piece and planting the rot of self-hate deep in her chest.
After that, she stared at herself in the mirror every single day, questioning herself over and over.
She had taken care of herself during pregnancy. She was just a little heavier.
So why the hell did Colton call her ugly?
Now she finally got it. It was never about her looks.
That role had always been reserved for Kinsey.
From beginning to end, the only person in Colton’s heart had ever been Kinsey.
Kenzie forced her shaking body to hold together and sucked in a breath.
Whatever. Who he loved, who he protected? None of that shit mattered anymore.
She was divorcing that jerk anyway.
Upstairs, she had just reached the CEO’s office and hadn’t even touched the door when a familiar voice drifted out.
“Hey, you stayed with me while my sister was in surgery, and you still haven’t gone to the hospital to see her. Aren’t you scared she’ll flip out and make a scene?”
Through the crack in the door, Kenzie saw Kinsey sprawled on Colton’s lap, leaning into his arms seductively.
A mocking laugh came out of his mouth.
“Make a scene? What right does she have to make a scene? She’s just a housewife now with a kid weighing her down. Even if she finds out about us, she’ll swallow it for the kid’s sake.”
“After all, once she divorces me, she’s just second-hand goods. She doesn’t have the guts to make a scene.”
He said it was a fact.
Outside the door, Kenzie shook from head to toe as his filthy words crawled over her skin.
She had given birth to his child and nearly died doing it. And yet in his mouth, she was still nothing but trash!
Clearly, he’d forgotten who the hell she used to be.
She had once been a top-tier lawyer, undefeated in every case she took.
It was that jerk himself who had pushed her again and again to quit her career, to go home, to throw away her bright future.
And now, coming from him, she was reduced to a “useless housewife” and “second-hand goods.”
Inside, Kinsey let out a chuckle.
“You’re that confident? You almost divorced a year ago.”
Colton snorted.
“And didn’t it still not happen in the end? She was just putting on a show. She can’t divorce me.”
“If Mom and Dad hadn’t hated you and forced me to marry that woman, promising they’d stay out of my business as long as I did, I wouldn’t have married her in the first place.”
Kinsey turned her head away, playing offended. “Really? Then why did you still have a child with her? You’re telling me you never had real feelings for her?”
When it came to their child, Colton’s words came out even more vicious.
“That kid was just something I gave my parents to shut them the fuck up. Once she had a kid, she’d be stuck. Tied down. Too busy to give a shit about what I was doing on the side anymore.”
“Kinsey,” he went on, “my heart’s always been with you. I know you called me on purpose that day while she was in surgery. And because you’re the one I love, I didn’t hesitate to leave her in the OR. Isn’t that enough to prove how sincere I am?”
Kinsey was clearly pleased, the smile on her lips growing deeper.
“Love isn’t about what you say,” she purred. “It’s about what you do.”
Just like that, he flipped her over and pinned her beneath him.
Outside the door, Kenzie felt like her heart had been ripped to shreds. Even breathing felt lethal.
She had always believed Colton loved her.
Now, she realized it had all been fake. Every so-called moment of love had been an act.
From the day they were born, Kenzie and Kinsey had been switched.
She should have grown up as a rich heiress. Instead, she spent fifteen years scraping by in hardship.
Meanwhile, Kinsey lived fifteen years of luxury on Kenzie’s life.
When the truth finally came out, the Lundbergs took Kenzie back. But Kinsey refused to return to her poor birth family.
The Lunbergs caved. They argued that people weren’t made of stone. They had raised Kinsey for so many years, so how could they just throw her away?
To spare Kinsey’s feelings, they never made Kenzie’s identity public.
“Kenzie,” they told her, “if we announce who you really are, Kinsey will be put in an awkward position. You’ll just have to suffer a little.”
Kenzie thought that going back to her real family would mean more people loving and protecting her.
But heck, that was bullshit.
The Lundbergs had only ever loved one daughter, and that was Kinsey.
It didn’t matter that it was Kenzie who was the real victim. It didn’t matter that she was the biological daughter.
Whenever Kinsey got sick, their mother, Kaitlin, suspected Kenzie had something to do with it.
If Kinsey was bullied at school, Kaitlin blamed Kenzie for not protecting her “younger sister.”
Any time Kinsey had the slightest problem, the one at fault was always Kenzie.
Any time Kinsey had the slightest problem, Kenzie was the one at fault.
That was when Kenzie realized a home like this wasn’t worth going back to.
With that, she packed her bags and planned to return to her foster mother, only to be kidnapped on the roadside.
Colton was taken with her.
They were locked in a basement for an entire week.
The whole time, he took care of her, stayed by her side, kept whispering reassurance.
“Kenzie, don’t be scared. I’m here. I won’t let them hurt you.”
Back then, he was the only light in her darkness.
She buried that love deep inside her until the day he showed up to propose.
‘Finally,’ she thought, ‘everything had turned around.’
But reality smashed her over the head.
It was all fake!
Turns out, even deep love can be performed!
Before she could recover from the blow, she caught sight of her two brothers approaching out of the corner of her eye.
They had never liked her. She reacted on instinct, hid in the conference room next door, and overheard what they really thought of her.
“I heard Kenzie almost bled to death during childbirth,” Kendrick, the oldest, said. “Should we find some time to go see her?”
The younger brother, Kobe, didn’t bother hiding his disgust.
“Nope. Not going. Kinsey’s the only sister I have. If it weren’t for Kenzie, Kinsey would’ve married Colton a long time ago. She bled that much and still lived? Guess she’s lucky.”
“When she finally dies,” he added coldly, “I’ll give her a grand funeral. Until then, I don’t want to see her. Just looking at her kills my mood.”
After that, Kenzie couldn’t make out anything else.
Her head felt like it was splitting open. Her chest burned, like it was being eaten alive from the inside. The pain was beyond words.
She cried until there were no tears left.
She used to think her brothers just weren’t used to her being around.
She never imagined they were actually waiting for her to die!
What she couldn’t understand was that she was their real sister. She was bound to them by blood.
But her husband didn’t love her.
And her family didn’t want her.
Now, she couldn’t even tell whether the tears on her face were grief or bitter mockery.
If none of them loved her, then she’d go find the people who truly did.
Colton didn’t know this, but when she was younger, Kenzie had a childhood sweetheart. He was now worth over a hundred billion and the youngest billionaire on the Forbes list!
Just a week earlier, he had reached out to her.
“Kenzie, I’ve been waiting all these years. If you turn back, I’ll be right here,” he promised.
She had hesitated then.
This time, she didn’t.
She picked up her phone and called him directly.
“Hey, Clarkson. Once I get the divorce certificate, I’m coming to London to find you.”
