Introduction

"Liam, let's get a divorce."

I said the words calmly, five years into being the perfect corporate wife to Liam Hayes, a man who married me for convenience, never love.

My life, carefully constructed on a transactional foundation, shattered when his high school sweetheart, Chloe Miller, returned, not just to reclaim her place in his life, but to tear down mine.

He publicly humiliated me at a charity gala, on a brightly lit stage in front of hundreds, announcing that our entire marriage was merely "a business arrangement."

He branded me a manipulative, jealous monster, accusing me of hiring thugs to attack Chloe, showcasing staged security footage as "proof."

The crowd stared, whispered, and judged, turning me into a national punchline, the "mistake" he was "correcting," while he embraced Chloe as his "true love."

Every eye in the ballroom burned with disgust, and my heart hammered with a raw mixture of shock, betrayal, and a deep, agonizing injustice.

I looked at him, across the sea of judging faces, and finally understood: there was nothing left to fight for, no trust to salvage.

"So, you want a divorce, Liam?" I asked, my voice steady, my decision made.

His cold, firm "Yes" was the final nail, but it was also my liberation; I would walk away, with everything I had secretly built, and leave his twisted world behind.