Chapter 1The Third-Year Surprise

The day I was supposed to marry Jimmy, he ran off with Sienna, the one he always said was his soulmate.

As if to taunt me, he'd send a postcard from every new city they visited—a picture of the two of them, smiling and carefree.

I was getting a manicure and enjoying macarons flown in from Paris when their ninety-ninth postcard arrived. I tossed it in the trash without a second glance. Just then, after three years of silence, Jimmy stormed back into my life.

He pointed a trembling finger at my wedding photo—the one with my actual husband—and roared, "How dare you cheat on me with some bastard while I was gone!"

I couldn't help but laugh. "What are you talking about? My husband and I have been married for three years."

I raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "Jimmy, you didn't actually think I'd be waiting for you, did you?"

* * *

Jimmy’s eyes bulged. “You think I’ll believe that pathetic excuse?” he snarled, grabbing my arm. “Tell me! Who’s the lowlife you’ve been shacking up with? I’ll make you both pay!”

He yanked so hard I heard a sickening pop in my shoulder, and a sharp pain shot through me.

My mother-in-law, hearing the commotion, came out. Seeing a strange man gripping my arm, she rushed forward. “Who are you? Let go of her immediately!”

Jimmy glanced at the simply dressed older woman and instantly dismissed her as our housekeeper. He shoved her hard, sending her stumbling to the ground.

“Get lost, old hag. This is between me and her.”

“Mom!” I cried out, watching her fall. “Are you okay?”

Hearing me call her ‘Mom’ stopped Jimmy cold for a second, then the fury in his eyes intensified. His grip on my arm became a vise.

“Mom? That’s your mother? And here I thought you’d landed someone important.” He sneered, his gaze sweeping over her plain clothes. “Judging by how ragged she looks, your new man must be a real loser.”

Tears of pain streamed down my face. A dark, ugly bruise was already forming on my arm. “Are you insane? You vanished for three years! You abandoned me without a word, and now you have the gall to come back and act like this?”

“And don’t you forget,” I choked out, “we never even had the ceremony. We were never legally married!”

My words seemed to stun him for a moment. Then, he started dragging me out of the house. “Everyone knows our families were arranging a merger! You think you can just say we weren’t married?” he spat. “This mansion is mine! You moved your boy toy in here and you dare to talk back to me? You’ve got some nerve!”

He dragged me all the way from our private estate to the main intersection, stopping in the middle of the street where the most people were gathered.

“Chloe Winters!” he bellowed, making a public spectacle. “You couldn’t even wait for me to be out of the country before you started sleeping around! You have no shame!”

“This mansion is mine! I want you out, and you’re going to pay me five million dollars in rent for the past three years!” he screamed. “If you don’t, I’ll make sure you and the entire Winters family become the laughingstock of this city!”

Through the crowd, I spotted a familiar figure. Sienna. She was smirking at me, her eyes filled with triumph and contempt.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. He had humiliated me when he left, and now he was back to do it all over again.

The whole point of our arranged marriage was to save my family's business. I thought marrying him would secure the investment we desperately needed. But he left, the money never came, and my family’s company went bankrupt.

The people living in this neighborhood were all from high society. Hearing Jimmy’s tirade, they were already whispering, their minds made up.

“No wonder she’s such a recluse. She’s been hiding her lover in there!”

“I thought she was somebody special. Turns out she’s just a gold-digging tramp living off her man’s money.”