On the night of my twenty-fourth birthday party, my fiancée slept with the boy we'd been sponsoring since he was fourteen.
When I found out, I demanded we call off the engagement. Vivienne Ashford brought both sets of parents together and dropped to her knees in front of me, eyes brimming with tears, begging for forgiveness.
Under pressure from both families, and with a five-billion-dollar joint venture hanging in the balance, I caved.
Three days after the wedding, she was in a car accident. It damaged her uterus.
To protect her dignity, I told the world I'd chosen to be child-free. That I simply didn't want kids.
Four years later, I was flipping through channels and landed on a foreign variety show. There, on the screen, was my wife—playing games with a little boy.
The investigation that followed uncovered everything. Four years ago, Vivienne had set up a home abroad with Caleb Fox. They had a son together. Mason Fox.
She was pregnant again.
I stormed into her office to confront her, but the door was ajar, and I heard her mid-conversation with a friend.
"Back then, you and Caleb fooled around, and Adrian Caldwell only said a few harsh words about it. To punish him for that, you kept him from touching you for four whole years? You're really something."
Vivienne Ashford was draped across her executive chair, legs crossed, a cold smile curling her lips.
"He should've just played the obedient cuckold. Consider it a lesson."
"Once Mason's old enough, I might bring him back to inherit the company. Adrian gets a grown son handed to him on a silver platter. He should be grateful."
My blood turned to ice.
All those years. Consulting every specialist on the continent. Swallowing my pride as a man to beg, to plead, to be gentle with her. And this was what it bought me. Betrayal. Deception. A con running four years deep.
Fine. This loveless, sexless marriage was over.
——
But the conversation inside kept going.
"Vivienne, honestly, Adrian's been good to you. A man born with a silver spoon, and he spent years tracking down fertility specialists for your sake. He even climbed a mountain on his knees to pray at a temple."
"Don't you think this is a little cruel? Making him live like a monk for the rest of his life, growing old with no children of his own? It's just... it's a lot."
Vivienne's scoff cut through the air.
"That's the price he pays for hurting Caleb."
"So what if he's some blue-blooded heir? Does that give him the right to bully a boy with no family, no connections? I'm making him taste the kind of suffering other people swallow every day. Maybe it'll teach him not to look down on everyone else."
Gwendolen Walker sighed.
"Vivienne, aren't you afraid Adrian will find out and drag you through a divorce?"
Vivienne's gaze turned sharp as a blade.
"Gwendolen. You didn't go soft and tell him, did you?"
Gwendolen shook her head and stared down at her teacup.
Vivienne's voice dropped, cold and deliberate.
"Don't ruin this for me. I've spent six months planning every detail."
"I promised Caleb I'd never let anyone else touch me. That his child would be my only heir. I won't let Caleb down."
Every word dripped with warning. She was terrified that even the smallest leak would collapse her scheme and break her precious Caleb's heart.
I thought of those humiliating nights. Crawling to her side of the bed. Mimicking techniques I'd found in online videos, desperate to arouse some response in her.
She'd lain there with her face flushed crimson, jaw clenched, forcing herself still.
I'd thought she was embarrassed. Overwhelmed by shyness.
She'd been gritting her teeth to stay faithful to her lover.
I stood outside that door, listening, and every word drove another shard of ice through my chest.
This wasn't just betrayal. This was cruelty with a blueprint.
Four years of whispered gossip in high society. Four years of pitying glances and veiled insults. I'd endured all of it with my teeth clenched shut.
My knees still bore the scars from kneeling on cold stone steps at that mountain shrine. Every time it rained, the old wounds ached.
I remembered draping the blessed charm I'd brought back around Vivienne's neck, reverent as a pilgrim.
And what had she been doing while I knelt and prayed?
Rolling around in bed with the boy we'd raised, lost in each other, laughing at how stupid I was. How pathetic.
