Chapter 1 The Invisible Wife

The Knight family mansion stood like a fortress of wealth on the hillside overlooking the city, a sprawling masterpiece of glass, steel, and imported Italian marble that gleamed under the morning sun. Inside, the grand foyer welcomed visitors with soaring ceilings, crystal chandeliers that cascaded like frozen waterfalls, and floors so polished they reflected every footstep.

To Evelyn Harper-Knight, however, it had never felt like a home. For the past three years, it had been a beautifully decorated prison, one where she moved through the halls like a shadow silent, unobtrusive, and utterly unseen.

Every morning began the same way. Evelyn rose at six, dressed in understated elegance, a simple silk blouse and tailored trousers that blended into the neutral tones of the mansion and descended the curved staircase to oversee breakfast. The staff, trained to perfection, had everything ready: fresh croissants from the city's best bakery, artisanal coffee beans ground on demand, and a spread of fruits arranged like a still life painting. She ate alone at the long mahogany dining table that could seat twenty, her plate placed at one end while the empty chair at the head waited for Alexander.

He arrived precisely at seven, impeccable in a custom Tom Ford suit, his dark hair slicked back, his jaw set in that perpetual expression of controlled intensity. Alexander Knight, the thirty-two-year-old CEO of Knight Empire, was the kind of man who commanded rooms without speaking. Tall, broad-shouldered, with piercing gray eyes that could freeze a boardroom negotiation in seconds. The media called him The Ice King of Real Estate. Women fawned over him. Men envied him.

But to his wife, he barely spared a glance.

Morning, he might mutter on a good day, scrolling through emails on his tablet as he sipped black coffee. More often, there was no greeting at all. Evelyn would sit quietly, folding her napkin just so, waiting for any crumb of conversation. It rarely came.

She remembered their wedding day vividly, how it had been orchestrated like one of his business mergers. An arranged union, really, brokered by his mother Victoria to bring stability to the family name. Evelyn had been twenty-five then, fresh out of architecture school with dreams of her own firm. She wasn't from old money, but her quiet beauty and impeccable manners had caught Victoria's eye at a charity gala. She's unassuming, Victoria had said approvingly. Won't distract you from the empire.

Alexander had agreed without enthusiasm. As long as she doesn't interfere.

And she hadn't. From the start, Evelyn dimmed her own light to let him shine brighter. She abandoned her budding career, moved into the mansion, and became the perfect society wife: hosting dinners, attending galas on his arm, smiling for photographs. In return, she hoped for love. For partnership. For something more than indifference.

But three years later, that hope had withered into resignation.

Dinners were the worst. The family gathered most evenings, Alexander's parents, his younger sister Clara, and occasionally business associates. The long table would be laden with gourmet courses prepared by a Michelin-starred chef, crystal glasses clinking, conversation flowing like the expensive wine.

Evelyn's role was decorative. She sat beside Alexander, contributing only when spoken to directly, which was rare.

You're so lucky, Evelyn, Victoria would say with her tight, perfumed smile, patting her hand across the table. Marrying into this family. Some women would kill for your life.

Lucky. That word echoed in Evelyn's mind like a mockery.

Behind the compliments lurked sharper barbs.

One evening, as the family discussed the Knight Empire's latest skyscraper project, a towering icon that had just broken ground Clara leaned back in her chair with a smirk.

It's amazing what Alexander has accomplished. That design is revolutionary. Sustainable materials, adaptive facades, the awards are already pouring in.

Alexander nodded modestly, though pride flashed in his eyes. The team pulled it off.

Clara laughed lightly. With your vision leading, of course. Imagine if you'd had dead weight holding you back.

Her gaze flicked to Evelyn.

Victoria chuckled. Oh, Clara. Be kind.

But the message was clear. Evelyn brought nothing. No connections, no heirs, no brilliance to match the Knight legacy.

And then there was Sophia Langford.

Sophia, Alexander's personal assistant, who seemed to appear at every family dinner uninvited yet always welcomed. Tall, with cascading auburn hair, sharp green eyes, and a wardrobe of figure-hugging dresses that screamed ambition. She sat across from Evelyn, laughing at Alexander's dry jokes, touching his arm casually, her voice dripping with familiarity.

Sophia has been invaluable on this project, Alexander said that same night, raising his glass in her direction. Her insights on the investor pitches were spot on.

Sophia beamed, her red lips curving into a triumphant smile.

Thank you, Alex. I just want what's best for the company and for you.

The implication hung in the air like smoke.

Evelyn felt the familiar sting but kept her expression neutral. She had heard the whispers for months: Sophia staying late at the office, accompanying Alexander on business trips, the way his eyes lingered on her.

Useless, Clara had called Evelyn once, over afternoon tea in the sunroom. Like pretty wallpaper. Nice to look at, but contributes nothing.

Victoria had shushed her daughter, but her eyes held agreement.

Even the staff pitied her. The housekeeper, Maria, who had been with the family for decades, would sometimes slip extra desserts onto Evelyn's plate with a sympathetic glance.

That night, after the dinner plates were cleared and the family retired to the drawing room for brandy, Evelyn excused herself early as she always did.

She retreated to the small study on the second floor, a room Alexander had grudgingly allocated to her early in the marriage. For your hobbies, he'd said dismissively.

No one knew what she did there.

Closing the door softly, Evelyn sat at the antique desk beneath the window overlooking the city lights. She opened her laptop, the one separate from the household network, encrypted and hidden and pulled up her design software.

For hours, she worked in silence. Sketching. Refining. Innovating.

The skyscraper everyone praised downstairs? The revolutionary adaptive facades, the energy-efficient systems that had won international acclaim? They began here, in her anonymous submissions to Alexander's company inbox. Submitted under encrypted aliases, routed through untraceable servers. Ideas too brilliant, too forward-thinking for his official team to claim as their own.

She had started it innocently enough. In their first year of marriage, when Alexander complained about a stalled project, she had sketched a solution overnight and slipped it into his briefcase anonymously. He had implemented it, praised his genius team, and the project soared.

It became a pattern. She fed him brilliance from the shadows, telling herself it was love. That supporting his empire was her way of contributing. That one day, he would see her. Really see her.

But as the years passed, the praise went to him. The awards. The magazine covers proclaiming Alexander Knight the visionary of the decade.

And Sophia basked in it all, positioning herself closer and closer.

Evelyn saved her latest file, a groundbreaking sustainable tower concept that would become Knight Empire's next flagship and closed the laptop.

She stood by the window, staring at her reflection in the glass: a beautiful woman in her late twenties, with soft brown hair falling in waves, wide hazel eyes that held too much quiet pain, and a figure kept trim by solitary runs in the estate grounds.

Invisible.

That was how they all saw her. The useless wife. The ornament.

Even Alexander, who shared her bed sporadically and mechanically, treated her like an obligation fulfilled.

She thought back to the night they met before the arrangement, at that gala. He had approached her, charmed by her quiet intelligence during a conversation about urban design. There had been a spark then. A real one.

But marriage had extinguished it.

Downstairs, she heard laughter Sophia's bright trill mingling with Alexander's deeper rumble.

Evelyn turned off the light and slipped into the master bedroom alone. Alexander would come up later, if at all.

As she lay in the vast king bed, staring at the ornate ceiling, a resolve began to harden in her chest.

Three years of invisibility.

Three years of mockery, indifference, and stolen credit.

No more.

The empire he ruled, the fortune he flaunted, it was all built on her unseen genius.

And soon, very soon, he would learn what it felt like to lose the one thing he had never truly valued.