My Invisible Wife Was A Dazzling Superstar

Soft, uneven breaths blended together, filling the bedroom with an increasingly heated atmosphere.

"Blaine." Nicole Summers slowly forced her eyes open. She looked up at the man hovering over her—her husband, Blaine Lockhart—whose body was tense with barely restrained desire. Despite the tremor in her voice, her words landed with precision. "Does Isabelle know you're this hopeless once you lose control?"

A dangerous glint settled in Blaine's eyes. His fingers closed around her chin while the faint redness around his eyes betrayed the strain of holding himself back.

"So this was your plan all along? You drugged my drink because you couldn't wait any longer, Nicole?" he growled in a rough voice.

Nicole let out a quiet gasp.

Instead of shrinking away, she slipped one leg around his waist and pulled him even closer.

The sudden movement caught Blaine by surprise. He instinctively braced himself with both hands on the mattress beside her. Every muscle in his body tightened as his breathing grew heavier, and the restraint he had been clinging to began slipping away.

"Tell me something. Are you actually a normal man?" Nicole slowly traced her fingertips from his throat downward, deliberately testing his composure. "We've been married for three years, yet you've never once touched me. Anyone looking from the outside would think you had some kind of sexual dysfunction."

"You..."

Nicole smiled without backing down. "Did I hit a nerve?" She brushed her lips lightly against his neck before whispering near his ear, "Or is it only that famous Ballet Goddess who can make your heart race?"

Those words shattered the last of Blaine's self-control.

Without another warning, he claimed her lips.

There was nothing gentle about it. The kiss carried anger more than affection, fierce enough to leave its mark long after it ended.

Nicole struggled to catch her breath. Her lips tingled from the intensity. She pushed against his chest in an attempt to create some distance, but Blaine caught both of her wrists and pinned them above her head with effortless strength.

"Sexual dysfunction? Me?" A cold laugh escaped him as he loosened the sash around her robe. "Then see the answer with your own eyes."

A cool shiver swept across her exposed skin.

Nicole never tried to retreat.

The moment she decided to carry out this plan, she had already abandoned every trace of hesitation.

The curtains remained slightly open. Dim city lights slipped through the narrow gap and painted faint silver streaks across the ceiling while the room settled into a slow, relentless rhythm.

Nicole wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and her fingernails dug into his back, leaving thin red marks behind.

Blaine offered no tenderness. Every movement carried the force of restrained emotion, as though he intended to erase every challenge she had thrown at him.

It hurt.

Nicole sank her teeth into her lip, feeling as though she had been caught in a relentless storm with nowhere to anchor herself.

A drop of sweat rolled down the firm line of Blaine's chest before falling onto her collarbone. Every movement left her mind drifting farther away as one dizzying wave after another swept through her.

...

Time slipped by before Blaine finally let her go. Without saying a single word, he got out of bed and disappeared into the bathroom.

Moments later, the sound of running water echoed through the room.

Nicole remained where she was, completely drained. Every part of her ached as though she had been pulled apart and barely put back together.

After gathering enough strength to sit up, she reached for her phone. The screen was still displaying the news article she had opened earlier.

The top headline hadn't changed. "Blaine Lockhart, CEO of Lockhart Group, Spotted Entering Hotel with Ballet Goddess Isabelle Shaw—Engagement Rumors Heat Up!"

The accompanying photo captured the two of them entering a hotel together.

Blaine's handsome profile remained as cold as ever while Isabelle held onto his arm with an intimate smile.

The comment section was filled with excitement.

"Isabelle is the definition of elegance. I heard she's trained in ballet since she was a child, and you can really tell. She looks so refined."

"They've been photographed together before, haven't they? Maybe they're finally ready to make their relationship public."

"They're perfect together. Just get married already!"

Nicole silently scrolled through the endless stream of comments. Every message weighed a little heavier on her heart until breathing itself felt difficult.

Three years earlier, the Summers family had arranged a marriage alliance with the Lockhart family.

The moment Nicole learned Blaine would become her husband, she had been so happy that sleep never came that night.

Instead, their wedding night became something she would never forget. Standing in front of her, Blaine had spoken without the slightest warmth. "Nicole, I'll never love you."

Only afterward did she discover the truth. Before marrying her, Blaine had originally been engaged to Isabelle.

Nicole's arrival had forced those two apart.

It wasn't as though Nicole had never tried to change things over the past three years.

She took care of his daily life without complaint. She pressed his clothes, prepared every meal, and looked after him with unwavering devotion, living more like his housekeeper than his wife.

Deep down, she had always believed that if she waited long enough and cared deep enough, one day she might finally melt the ice around his heart.

Everything changed three months earlier when Isabelle came back to the country.

On the night of her return, Blaine personally went to the airport to meet her. He never came back that night.

From that moment forward, Isabelle became a constant presence between them, turning an already broken marriage into something even more unbearable. Nicole couldn't ignore her, yet she had no way to erase her from their lives.

For six long months, Nicole buried the bitterness inside her and forced herself to endure it one day after another.

Then everything reached its breaking point that afternoon. The news article she stumbled across destroyed the last illusion she had been protecting.

In the photo, Blaine looked at Isabelle with a warmth Nicole had longed for throughout their three years of marriage but had never once received.

That single glance was enough to destroy the fantasy she had clung to for more than a thousand days.

She finally understood that the future she had hoped for would never come. Since the ending was already decided, there was no reason to keep fooling herself.

Even so, she refused to walk away without leaving something behind.

Nicole had never claimed to be a saint. She wasn't willing to disappear quietly after everything she had endured.

For three years, she had lowered herself for Blaine, devoted herself to him without asking for anything in return, and loved him with everything she had. Then Isabelle returned, and in an instant, Nicole became nothing more than a cruel joke.

Why should she be the only one left carrying the pain?

If she was going to leave, she would make sure Blaine lost something, too.

If hatred was all he could offer, then she would gladly accept it. As long as he remembered her for the rest of his life, that would be enough.