Chapter 2The Day I Stopped Being Mad

I was five years older than Sera.

The year we met, I returned to my alma mater to speak at a finance forum as an honored alumnus. She was the student who asked the most incisive, challenging question from the audience.

I remember her eyes—full of ambition and sharp brilliance. Even in her basic student clothing, her exceptional presence was undeniable.

After the event, she boldly intercepted me. She said she’d studied every deal I’d ever managed; she called me her benchmark, the trajectory she was fighting for.

Surrounded by admirers as I was, and jaded by the insincerity of the corporate world, her open worship and fiery gaze did cause a ripple in my long-dormant heart.

But I kept my distance. Sera was too young; her passion felt like a temporary impulse.

I underestimated her resolve.

What followed was her almost reckless, all-in pursuit.

Sera came from a modest background, yet she’d save her part-time earnings to buy me expensive concert tickets. She’d wait outside my office building until midnight just to drop off a late-night meal she’d made herself.

No matter how many times I rejected her, she returned with more force.

Until the day I was targeted by a project rival.

Sera stepped in front of me, and her arm was badly cut—an injury that threatened to derail her crucial final internship. Furious and worried, I yelled at her, using the harshest words I had to chastise her recklessness.

She just held my hand tighter, her eyes shining with frightening intensity.

“The path I’ve chosen, Adrian Cole, I will finish, even if I have to crawl across the finish line.”

“I love you. Even if you reject me a thousand times, I will never give up.”

I eventually broke. I crumbled.

I staked everything I had on that reckless, honest devotion.

My parents vehemently disapproved. Friends warned me—the gap between us was too vast, our future too unstable.

I had my own anxieties.

But Sera used action to prove her determination.

On her graduation day, she stood on the stage and announced to the entire faculty and student body that she would marry me.

“Adrian,” she said. “I will spend my whole life proving to you that your choice was the right one.”

After we married, I poured all my connections and resources into building her career, introducing her to the major players in the investment world.

She proved to be a prodigy. In just a few years, she became a recognizable force, launching her own fund.

Outwardly, she was the decisive Ms. Wynn, but at home, she was clingy and fiercely possessive.

At Sera’s strong insistence, I gradually withdrew from the core, high-stakes finance work. I shifted my focus to running a charitable foundation and managing our family’s private assets, seeking to achieve a different kind of social value.

It was during that time that I met Rhys Bennett.

He was interning at a non-profit organization, liaising on a project. He came from a disadvantaged background but was relentlessly ambitious and had a disarmingly innocent smile.

I admired his tenacity, providing him with guidance and opportunities. He was overwhelmingly grateful, calling me “Cole” and treating me like a revered older brother.

Sera was initially cool toward him, even jealous that I was dedicating too much time to anyone outside of her orbit.

That changed when I had Sera help place Rhys in an internship at her company, hoping to give him a better platform. After working closely with him, her opinion softened; she admitted he was a hard-working, thoughtful young man.

For a time, the three of us often had dinner together. On weekends, we even took short trips.

I never suspected that beneath this seemingly perfect harmony, a dangerous current was already moving.

The truth broke on my thirty-second birthday.

I ended an overseas trip early and came home.

On the floor of the foyer, scattered among Sera’s silk scarf, was the designer tie I had given Rhys—now left behind.

From the slightly ajar master bedroom door, I heard the sounds—low, ragged, and unrestrained.

The world shattered the moment I pushed the door open.

I grabbed the nearest thing—a heavy glass vase from the console table—and hurled it.

“Seraphina! Rhys is only twenty-two! How could you!”

Rhys lifted his tear-streaked face from her shoulder.

“Cole, I’m so sorry… We truly fell in love, I couldn’t help myself…”

The pain choked the air from my lungs.

“And me? What was I to you?”

Sera tightly wrapped a blanket around Rhys. After the initial flash of panic, her face settled into a chilling calm, laced with a hint of… impatience.

She deliberately slipped on her silk robe and walked up to me, lifting my chin with a cool finger.

“You know Rhys is only twenty-two. The peak of youth. But look at you.”

Her eyes critically scanned my face and body. She gave a small, cold laugh. “Haven’t you noticed you haven’t been able to satisfy me for a long time?”

“When I go to events with you, people are always whispering, wondering if I’m just a trophy wife who rode your coattails.”

I was shaking with rage, my nails digging deep crescents into my palms.

“Seraphina, did the age gap appear just today?”

“If you cared, why did you pursue me in the first place!”

Sera’s smile vanished, replaced by an empty gaze.

“Yes, you’re right. I’m the one who changed. Adrian, you’re too controlling. You have to dominate everything.”

“Rhys is pure, soft, and he looks up to me. He needs me.”

“Just like you were drawn to the young, conquest-driven woman I was back then.”

Listening to her preposterous justification, I started to laugh, even as the tears streamed uncontrollably down my face.

“Fine, fine… We’re getting a divorce!”

She frowned, as if I’d said something ridiculous. “Divorce? I won’t agree to a divorce. Not right now.”

“Consider it…”

She paused, her tone laced with patronizing charity. “Consider it my way of repaying you for the opportunities you gave me back then.”