Chapter 2Both a Beneficial Marriage and True Love? Man, You’re Too Greedy

So this was the “something” he had to take care of.

“Kelly…” Ava stared at me, her eyes wide with shock. The egg she was frying in the pan began to smoke.

“Where’s Richard?” I asked, my voice flat.

“He’s… still sleeping.” She bit her lip, a picture of innocent chagrin.

The scene was surreal: my fiancé’s secretary, wearing his shirt, making him breakfast in his apartment. But after overhearing his confession last night, my heart felt little more than a dull ache. There was no room for shock.

I started toward the bedroom, but Ava blocked my path.

“Kelly, this is all my fault,” she pleaded, her voice trembling. “I had too much to drink, and Richard was just worried about me. I was the one who initiated things. It’s all on me. You can hit me, scream at me, just please don’t blame Richard.”

By the end of her speech, she was sobbing. I tried to step around her, but she grabbed my arm. I shook her off, and with a sudden shriek, she stumbled backward and collapsed onto the floor.

Before I could even react, Richard burst out of the bedroom and shoved me hard. My back slammed against the sharp corner of a console table. A jolt of intense pain shot through me, and I gasped.

He wasn't even dressed, just wearing a pair of boxers. A cluster of fresh red marks on his neck burned into my vision.

“Kelly! If you have a problem, take it up with me! Don’t you dare touch Ava! I can explain everything.”

Explain? Explain why he was sleeping with his secretary?

I opened my mouth to speak, but my gaze fell on a bracelet on Ava’s wrist.

It was the Monroe family heirloom. Richard’s grandmother had given it to me, a tradition for every bride who married into the family. A priceless piece of jewelry, now on Ava’s wrist.

I stepped forward to get a closer look, but Ava shrank away like I was a monster, hiding behind Richard. “Please, don’t hit me again,” she whimpered. Her shoulders trembled as she cried, the very image of a victim.

Richard shielded her, his face dark with fury. “It’s just a bracelet, Kelly. As the future Mrs. Monroe, you shouldn’t be so petty.”

So it was true. The bracelet I treasured, the symbol of my place in his family, had been given to her.

“If you want to marry her,” I said, my voice steady, “I will step aside.”

Richard flinched. The reality of his family’s opposition hit him, and his expression turned blacker than the burnt egg in the pan. “Kelly, it’s a stupid bracelet! If she wants to wear it, let her. I already owe her so much. Can you just stop making things harder for me?”

I looked at his heaving chest and realized something with stark clarity: the absence of love is deafeningly obvious. With me, his emotions were always muted, a calm, placid surface. He rarely got angry. But now, for another woman, his face was a mask of cold fury.

The realization sent my heart plummeting. A profound exhaustion washed over me.

“I’m just here to get my things. I’ll be gone in a minute.”

I came out with my documents, and Richard stared at me, his brow furrowed. “What do you need those for?”

To marry someone else. To be with someone else.

But I saw no need to tell him that. “It’s none of your business.”

He instinctively started to follow me to the door, but Ava’s weak, wounded voice called out from behind him. “Richard…”

He stopped dead in his tracks and watched as I slammed the door behind me.

Outside, I made another call to the same person. “When you get back, let’s get the marriage license first.”

“Okay. I’m almost done here. Wait for me.”

I looked up at the vast blue sky and thought, maybe things weren’t so bad after all.

At least I was free of a rotten man.