"God, look at the way Mr. Weiss looks at her. It's intense."
"I heard it's her birthday. She made a wish for fireworks this morning, and he dropped a million dollars to make it happen tonight. I'm so jealous."
"Doesn't he have a wife, though?"
"So what? Men like him always have a wife for show and a mistress for love. Besides, the wife is just a gold digger. Women like that only care about the payout. She probably doesn't care how many women Mr. Weiss keeps on the side."
Luke and I were supposed to be a fairy tale.
He was the eldest grandson and sole heir to the Weiss empire. I came from nothing, burdened with a mother bedridden for years.
Early on, I confessed my reality to him. I expected him to hesitate, calculate the baggage, and run.
He didn't.
Instead, he took my hand, his gaze heavy with heartache. "You've been carrying this alone for too long. I'm here now."
Daniela, he had promised, no matter where you go or what you do, never forget that I am right behind you.
Back then, everyone said meeting Luke was the luckiest thing to ever happen to me. I believed them. I never imagined the wedding I longed for would destroy us—branding me with a label I couldn't tear off, scattering his love like ash.
I still remember the moment everything shifted.
On our wedding day, after I secured the sudden, exorbitant "bride price" demanded for the emergency surgery, I rushed to the hospital. Dr. Reynolds dropped his urgent facade the moment I arrived.
"Miss Simmons, your mother is fine," he said, clinically detached. "Everything that just happened was a test orchestrated by Mrs. Weiss. She needed to see if you had the qualifications to marry into this family."
My blood ran cold. "A test?"
"She asked me to convey that she is dissatisfied with your performance. If you want to remain Mrs. Weiss, you need to try harder. She will arrange a superior medical team for your mother, but she has one condition: you must never speak of this arrangement."
Kayla Weiss had backed me into a corner. I didn't dare gamble with my mother's life. No matter how much Luke misunderstood me, no matter how cruel his words became, I swallowed the truth.
But my resolve cracked when the affairs began.
When I saw him with a bright, beautiful girl by his side, something inside me snapped. I confronted him, clutching his lapels, sobbing until my throat burned.
"Luke, please." I begged, dignity forgotten. "Don't treat me like this."
He looked down at me, his face a mask of ice. No pity—only disgust. He pried my fingers off his suit, one by one.
"Daniela Simmons." His voice cut like glass. "On the day we married, when you raised your price at the altar and trampled the Weiss family honor, you died to me."
He leaned in, his shadow engulfing me. "The woman standing here is nothing more than a purchase. I bought you. You don't have the right to demand anything."
After that, he stopped hiding. The women changed with the seasons.
I spent my nights staring at the ceiling, emptying bottle after bottle of sleeping pills just to lose consciousness. But tonight, I didn't even have the money for a refill.
Defeated, I turned away from the city lights and headed back to the villa.
The house was dark. The main gate locked tight.
A dull ache radiated through my abdomen—a lingering reminder of recent trauma. I clutched my stomach, steadying my breathing, and pressed the buzzer with a trembling hand.
