Chapter 1Polished Parents

To marry the heir to the Astor dynasty, I reinvented my adoptive parents, turning street beggars into respected academics.

Then, using my platform as a top financial news anchor, I helped my selectively mute husband seize control of his family's empire.

On our wedding day, he pressed the deed to our villa into my hands and kissed me again and again.

But today, on a business trip, I overheard him confess his love to his old flame, his voice perfectly clear and steady.

"Rosalind, you're finally back. I faked this condition and married that grifter just to get my parents to finally accept us."

"Now, all I have to do is expose the truth about her fake high-society background, and you can finally marry me."

A chill washed over me, colder than any winter ice.

So, he wasn't mute.

He knew I was lying from the very beginning.

And he married me only to pave the way for his one true love to become the next Mrs. Astor.

* * *

The airport terminal was a river of people, but I felt utterly alone, frozen in place. Rosalind was wrapped in my husband's arms, her voice thick with staged tears. "Julian, it's all my fault. If I hadn't gotten pregnant back then, your parents would never have been so against us."

"To think you pretended to be mute for all these years, just for me… you've sacrificed so much."

My husband, Julian Astor, stroked her hair with a tenderness I had once believed was mine.

"It was nothing. For you and our child, it was all worth it."

His voice dropped, a low, intimate rumble. "How is he? Our Leo?"

"He's wonderful. He's officially living with my parents, and he calls me his big sister in public, but he knows the truth," she whispered. "You know how it is. I had to follow my parents' plan if I wanted my inheritance."

His tone darkened. "But that's all over now. Tia helped me secure the company. The succession is in a few days. After that, it's just the three of us. A real family."

No wonder Leo looked at me with such hatred every time he saw me, his words always dripping with venom. He never once called me by my name.

I'd always thought it was just a boy's jealousy, angry that I had stolen his beloved uncle's attention.

Now I knew the truth. He hated me for taking his mother's place.

A blade of ice seemed to plunge into my chest, leaving a gaping, frozen wound.

Just then, a look of faux concern crossed Rosalind's beautiful face.

"You deliberately made Tia fall in love with you. For three years, she's worked herself to the bone for you."

"She'll be heartbroken when she finds out the truth. Can you really be so cruel as to cast her aside?"

Julian's eyes flickered for a second, then he let out a cold, dismissive laugh.

"Tia? A gold-digging liar raised by beggars? She was never worthy of being an Astor. Besides, I've given her more than she ever deserved. What right does she have to be heartbroken?"

A gold-digging liar. So that's all I was to him.

A bitter smile twisted my lips, and the last of the color drained from my face.

For three years, I had leveraged my career, my reputation, my everything for him. I had humbled myself, begging for his sake. I’d entertained his clients until I was vomiting blood, worked on his documents until I collapsed from exhaustion and ended up in the hospital.

And I never complained. Not once.

Because I truly loved him. All I wanted was to see him happy.

Every night, he would bring me water, massage my tired feet, his eyes filled with what I thought was genuine concern for the toll my work was taking. I was so lost in the sweetness of it all, I never saw the truth.

It was all a lie.

That banquet two years ago… when that investor groped me, Julian’s face had turned to stone, but he did nothing. I thought he was enduring the humiliation for the sake of the deal. Now I realized he simply didn't think a gold digger like me was worth offending a powerful man over.

My lips trembled. I fought back the searing pain in my heart and turned to leave. But Rosalind's voice, sharp with surprise, cut through the air.

"Tia? What a coincidence. You're at the airport too."