Chapter 1 1

The paper in Giselle's hands wasn't just a document; it was a death sentence for the life she had painstakingly built. The DNA test results were heavy, the paper stock thick and expensive, mocking the cheap, trembling hands that held it. Outside, the storm battered the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Villarreal manor, the thunder rattling the glass in a rhythm that matched the frantic pounding of her heart.

0% match.

The test had been demanded by the Woods family the moment Clydie resurfaced, a final, brutal confirmation to sever the ties Giselle had desperately tried to knot. The red text at the bottom blurred as Giselle's eyes filled with tears she refused to shed. She stood in the center of the mahogany-paneled study, feeling small. Insignificant.

The heavy oak doors behind her swung open. The sharp click-clack of stilettos on marble echoed before the woman even entered. Buna Villarreal. Her mother-in-law.

She didn't walk; she marched. A phalanx of lawyers trailed behind her like carrion birds waiting for a carcass. She threw a folder onto the desk. It landed with a heavy thud that made Giselle flinch.

"You really are a piece of work, Giselle," Buna spat, her voice dripping with venomous satisfaction. "A fake heiress. A fraud. The Woods family has already issued a statement. They have cut you off. You are nothing. You are nobody."

"I didn't know," Giselle whispered. Her throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton. "Buna, please, I didn't know."

"Don't you dare call me that," she snapped. "You have humiliated this family for the last time. You're a discard, Giselle. A parasite we are finally removing."

One of the lawyers stepped forward, his face blank, professional. He uncapped a fountain pen and held it out to her. The gold nib glinted under the chandelier light. He pointed to the dotted line on the divorce papers spread out on the desk.

Giselle didn't take the pen. Her eyes were fixed on the doorway. She was waiting. She was praying.

Joseph.

He had to come. He had to listen. Three years. They had been married for three years. There had been moments-small, quiet moments-where she thought he saw her. Not the merger, not the business deal, but her.

The air in the room shifted. It grew colder, sharper.

Joseph Villarreal walked in.

He was wearing a black bespoke suit that fit his broad shoulders perfectly. He looked immaculate, untouched by the chaos of the storm outside or the destruction of Giselle's life inside. He didn't look at his mother. He didn't look at the lawyers.

His dark eyes landed on Giselle.

She searched them for anger. For sadness. For anything. But there was nothing. It was like looking into a void. He looked at her with the same indifference he showed a fluctuating stock graph.

Giselle took a step toward him, her hand reaching out instinctively. "Joseph..."

He side-stepped her. Smoothly. Effortlessly. As if she were contagious.

He walked around the massive desk and sat in his leather chair. He picked up a cigar cutter, the metallic snip loud in the silence. He lit the cigar, took a drag, and exhaled a plume of grey smoke that drifted between them like a wall.

"Sign it," he said.

His voice was low, baritone, and utterly devoid of emotion.

Giselle's chest constricted. It physically hurt to breathe. "Is that it?" she asked, her voice shaking. "Three years, Joseph. Does it mean nothing to you?"

He tapped the ash into a crystal tray. He didn't even look up. "This marriage was a business transaction, Giselle. And the product I purchased was fraudulent. The Woods family lied. You are not who you said you were."

"I didn't lie!" she cried out. "I am the same person who made you coffee every morning. I am the same person who-"

"You are a liability," Buna interrupted, her smile cruel. "And Joseph deserves better. He deserves Clydie. The real daughter. The one with the pedigree."

Clydie. The name was a knife twisting in Giselle's gut. The woman who had hovered at the edges of their social circle, always smiling, always watching.

Giselle looked back at Joseph. He was reading a file on his desk, ignoring the conversation entirely. He was bored. He was done.

The realization hit her with the force of a physical blow. He never loved her. He didn't even hate her. To him, she was just an asset that had depreciated to zero. The hope that had sustained her for three years evaporated, leaving behind a cold, numbing clarity. There was no mercy here. Only calculation.

Giselle reached out and took the pen from the lawyer. The metal barrel was ice cold against her skin.

She leaned over the desk. Her hand trembled, but she forced it to steady. She pressed the nib to the paper. The ink flowed dark and permanent.

Giselle.

She signed her name. She signed away her home. She signed away her heart.

Joseph watched the pen move. For a second-just a fraction of a second-his brow furrowed. A micro-expression of discomfort. But then he blinked, and it was gone.

The lawyer snatched the papers away the moment she lifted the pen.

"Get her things out," Buna ordered the staff. "Now."

Giselle straightened her spine. It took every ounce of strength she had left. She looked at Joseph one last time. The desperation was gone, replaced by a hollow void where her love used to be.

"I hope," she said, her voice quiet but steady, born of absolute ruin, "that you never regret what you did today."

Joseph let out a short, dry laugh. He waved his hand toward the door, a gesture of dismissal. "Go."

Giselle turned around. Her legs felt like lead. She walked past the lawyers, past Buna's triumphant smirk. She walked toward the heavy double doors.

She could smell his cologne-sandalwood and rain. It used to be the scent of her safety. Now, it was the scent of her ruin.

She pushed the doors open. The thunder roared, welcoming her into the dark.