1.
After I married Oliver Gilbert, crown prince of the New York elite social circle, he went on living in his upscale downtown apartment.
It didn't look right to me, so I suggested he move back into our marital mansion.
He turned me down without an ounce of patience.
"Jennifer Fox, drop that scheming little face of yours."
"You make me sick just looking at you. If you hadn't suddenly agreed to this marriage, I'd have been with Bella a long time ago. Take my advice and stay in your lane."
I gave him a light, indifferent glance and said, calmly, "Fine."
Marrying him had only ever been two families taking what each needed from the other.
I'd meant to hold up my end, help where I could, make the marriage work.
But he wanted none of it, and just kept telling me to stay in my lane.
I've always been a kind soul. I would give him exactly what he wanted.
For the three years after that, I never brought it up again, and he stopped holding back entirely.
He took Bella White out in the open to every important occasion the Gilbert and Fox families attended.
Behind my back, people in the circle called me the useless wife who couldn't keep her own husband in check.
I didn't care in the slightest.
Because the important partnership between the Gilbert and Fox families was over, and it was time I got my freedom back.
...
The day the two families' key partnership officially ended, I took the divorce agreement out of the safe, the one I'd had my lawyer draw up long ago.
One thin sheet of paper carried three years of my marriage.
Oliver and I had married for our families. Our backgrounds matched, and before the wedding we'd each gone through the process of a prenuptial property settlement, so neither of us stood to gain from the other.
On top of that, after the wedding we'd lived entirely separate lives, with almost no money passing between us.
I signed cleanly and decided to deliver the divorce agreement to him myself, a way of putting a period on this marriage.
I called him.
"In half an hour, I'll come to your office."
His tone was as impatient as ever. "What are you coming for?"
"There's something I need to see you about."
I answered him coldly.
There was a long silence on his end before he warned me, voice cold, "Jennifer Fox, I'll let it go this time. But after we meet today, I expect you to stay in your lane like you used to."
"And remember, you are not to upset Bella!"
With that, he hung up on his own.
I set the phone down, at a loss for words, wondering who exactly had given him all that confidence.
Right after we married, I really had thought about making the marriage work.
I'd gone to his office to see him. Back then he was gripping Bella's hand, urgently, and told me coldly to leave first, saying he'd explain later.
I believed him. I even kept telling myself that his living alone in that upscale downtown apartment after the wedding was so he could focus on his work.
Then he showed up in the tabloids, and I thought it looked bad, so I suggested he move back into the marital mansion.
I didn't expect him to pull Bella against him and say, impatient, that I disgusted him, and that I should stay in my lane.
Bella leaned into his shoulder, soft and boneless, and apologized to me on his behalf, gentle as anything.
"Miss Fox, Oliver doesn't mean anything by what he says. Please don't be angry with him."
"You're his wife. I'm sure you can understand him, can't you?"
She placed herself so low, so meek, that Oliver's heart ached for her, and he glared at me.
"Jennifer Fox, Bella is the one person I hold dearest. If you dare to upset her, then the Fox and Gilbert families have no reason to keep working together."
"You already have the title of Mrs. Gilbert. My advice to you is to stay in your lane."
Bella trembled against him, frightened, and instantly he turned tender and doting, apologizing to her, full of guilt.
"Bella, that was my fault, my voice was too loud, I scared you. Let me take you to dinner to make up for it, all right?"
Bella lifted her head and smiled up at him.
The two of them walked off, laughing, and I stood there for a long time watching them go.
For three years, I'd done exactly as he wanted. I'd stayed well in my lane, and I'd never asked him for anything again.
I'd looked the other way while he paraded Bella through both families' important occasions.
And still, he had no courtesy for me at all, still warned me in that cold voice not to upset Bella.
But if we were really going to talk about being hurt, the one with the right to be hurt was clearly me.
After all, I was the one this marriage had wronged.
Only Oliver didn't see it that way.
And neither did Bella.
They called their feelings pure, but they'd crossed the ordinary bounds of my marriage a long time ago.
Three years ago, the moment he said I disgusted him, my heart died on him.
A married couple joined for family interests is a union of profit, and catching feelings is the worst mistake of all.
Luckily, he was honest enough, and I was rational enough.
Cut the losses in time.
This marriage, perhaps we both came out of it winners.
There was no need for me to deliver the divorce agreement in person anymore. I'd just courier it straight to him.
