###Chapter 1
"Please help me look at this divorce agreement," I said as I pushed the yellowed paper over.
"This was signed on the wedding night of David and me ten years ago. Was there anything else I needed to do?"
After flipping through it, my lawyer frowned.
"It would automatically take effect in half a month and you could go directly to get the divorce certificate. But you had a lovely daughter, Ma’am … were you really willing to leave him?"
My fingers dug into the sofa unconsciously.
"Yes, I would do as he wished!"
Two days ago, I had flown abroad to discuss business for Yates Corporation but received a video of my daughter being imprisoned on the plane. In the footage, seven-year-old Charlotte was tied up in the basement and it was David's bodyguard who poured feces on her.
"You stupid girl, how dare you slander Miss Hurley for having a child with someone else! Everyone knew that Miss Hurley even gave her virginity to Mr. Yates!"
David's first love, Jessica Hurley, stood aside, holding her nose and sneering.
"No matter what bad things you two mother and daughter said about me, don't think David would believe it. After all, he only loved me."
David suddenly appeared at the door. My heart was hanging, hoping that he would save our daughter, but he ignored Charlotte's tearful eyes and directly picked up the flustered Jessica.
Jessica pretended to be wronged.
"I locked up your daughter. Weren’t you angry?"
The man's gentle eyes fell on her slightly protruding belly and he replied indifferently, "She was just the product of me forgetting to add contraceptives to Catherine's milk."
"Jessica, our child would inherit everything. As for them, mother and daughter, I should be able to compensate them with the rest of my life."
Darkness swallowed my breath in an instant. At that moment, I was completely awake. Pleading for the plane to return immediately, I made a phone call.
"Mr. Powell, I accepted your offer and I would start working in your company in half a month."
Half a month later, I would give David Yates the ‘freedom’ he had dreamed of.
***
When I got home, I saw my daughter lying in bed with a fever and unconscious because of the shock. My heart was broken.
My daughter frowned and cried nightmarishly, "Dad, help me … "
The helpless whine, like an abandoned beast cub, made my heart bleed.
I went back to the bedroom and found the divorce agreement from the deep of the cabinet. When David came out of the bathroom, I had wiped away my tears. The half-open white shirt revealed a strong chest and a few fresh lipstick marks.
When he saw me, he was stunned for a moment.
However, he did not feel guilty about his daughter's experience at all as he quickly yelled at me in the first sentence he talked to me, "Did you know that returning to the ship without permission almost destroyed Yates Corporation's business worth hundreds of millions?!"
"You and our daughter were really selfish."
My heart clenched and I bit my lip.
"Did you want me to watch my child being bullied by others?"
A trace of surprise flashed across his face and then he changed the subject with a cold look.
"There was a very important party next month and you and Charlotte needed to attend together."
I paused, shook my head and said, "I couldn't go."
After all, next month, I would no longer be his wife as he wished.
"Why couldn’t you go?"
David frowned and then he seemed to understand something.
"Was this it because Charlotte said bad things about Jessica, so I gave her a little lesson and you were giving me a face now?"
"Besides, I told you on the first day of our marriage that I had someone I liked. Don't forget it."
My heart felt like it had been stabbed and waves of continuous pain emerged. Ten years ago, when my mother told me that David and I were engaged, I had been ecstatic because I had had a crush on him since I was a child. But on the happiest day, David had given me the heaviest blow.
"I had a lover, but she was just an ordinary girl from an ordinary family, so I couldn’t marry her."
That night, he had been drunk and stared at me coldly.
"I would control the Yates Family within ten years and then no one could stop me! So don’t expect me to fall in love with you. We would automatically divorce after ten years."
That night, I had signed the contract but cried all night in the cold yard. In the second week of our marriage, Jessica boarded a plane to a foreign country because of a quarrel with David. So, he went on to find her.
At that time, David didn’t go home all night and when he came back, he was always drunk and treated me like nothing. Until that night, he came back drunk again and hugged me passionately. But when he kissed me on the bed, he called Jessica’s name over and over again.
"Jessica, I wouldn’t let you marry anyone else! You could only be mine!" I cried under him with tears, nails dug into my palms and blood dripped into the sheets.
That was our first night, but David frantically called out another person’s name all night. When I woke up the next day, David saw my red and swollen eyes. He was stunned for a moment and finally got out of bed without saying a word.
I also pretended that nothing had happened, prepared breakfast and work documents for him and sent him out to work. Since then, I had been more considerate.
David was tired and had a stomach disease, so I learned about healthy food and prepared his three meals in person. He was under great pressure at work, so I took the initiative to give up my career, became his subordinate and took on the most tiring work.
Later, we had a daughter and gradually, David seemed to treat me as his wife.
David began to bring me various gifts when he came back from a business trip. He would bring me a glass of milk when I couldn’t sleep. He would even accompany me and my daughter to watch the stars on the terrace late at night.
His hot body temperature covered me from behind like a close lover.
Gradually, it seemed as if we had never signed any divorce agreement. I had naively thought that he might have really fallen in love with me. But more than three months ago, Jessica suddenly returned to the UK with her adopted son, Gregory.
David returned to her side as soon as he heard the news. He spent her birthday with her and accompanied her and Gregory to watch the meteor shower.
He even gave up an important business trip just because Jessica said, "I had a nightmare … "
When I saw David letting his daughter suffer such torture for Jessica, I woke up. He had never loved us, his wife and daughter. I gave everything for him, but it couldn’t match the look of his first love. The dream was over and it was time to leave.
"Remember to dress Charlotte nicely when the time comes. Don’t embarrass me and the Yates Family."
David's voice pulled my thoughts back and I looked at him in a daze.
Didn’t he remember that we automatically canceled the engagement in half a month?
