A SECOND CHANCE AT LOVE WITH THE BILLIONAIRE CEO

“I’m divorcing you, Lacey.”Cloud 9. Since the day she said ‘I do’ to Thomas, Lacey Thalmes had been on cloud 9. And she never wanted to leave. Today made it six months since she got married, and to some people, that might not seem like much, but to Lacey, it signified a lot of things. First, it was longer than her parents’ marriage, which had lasted four weeks. It had been an elopement that ended with her dad running off after finding out her mum was pregnant. Second, it gave Lacey a chance to bite back at all the people who called her crazy for getting married so young. She’d found out later that some of her classmates made a bet that the marriage wasn’t going to last up to a year. Lacey couldn’t wait to prove them wrong. Crazy was jumping off a helicopter, trusting that a parachute was going to make you land safely on the ground; crazy was going swimming with sharks. As for love, that wasn’t crazy, but if it turned out that it was, Lacey was glad she had that gift. “Sometimes it

What a sick joke. Now was the time for Thomas to jump out from behind the curtains, yelling ‘surprise!’ Lacey’s laughter had subsided. Not because she felt calm, but because she knew if she continued, she would end up crying. And Lacey only cried when she was sad. At that moment she was devastated, but she wasn’t sad. She couldn’t be sad. Manipulate… crazy… safety… left… divorce. Thomas’ words from the press conference were stuck in Lacey’s head in fragments. “Thomas got a divorce because I’m a cheater and a manipulator.” Lacey repeated those words over and over, thinking that if she did that, they would actually become real. Or maybe she was a cheater and just didn’t realize it. A manipulator too. Or else, why would Thomas say she was those things?Where Lacey was on the floor, she put her head to the ground. There was nothing to do. If she called her friends, they would only try to comfort her. Maybe some of them were laughing at her situation. Scrolling through social media was o

“Lace. Lace.”Lacey woke up to someone shaking her. Her eyes seemed to have been shut close. A crick in her neck caused her to groan as she opened her eyes with some effort. There was also a hint of headache.Maddy was on her knees next to her. When did she arrive? “Was going to let you sleep, but that position looks uncomfortable. Did you have a good sleep?”“Hmm.” Lacey could say it was a good sleep because she didn’t dream of anything. Looking towards the open curtains, the sky outside had darkened. “When did you get here? How long was I asleep for?” She asked, sitting upright. To the left then to the right, Lacey twisted her neck to try to shake out the crick. Maddy tapped on her phone once before answering. “Just after 9 p.m. I got here twenty minutes ago. What time did you sleep?”Although she didn’t specifically have a time for when she fell asleep, Lacey knew that Thomas and Eliza left around 4, and her manager called a few minutes later. It wouldn’t have taken her long to en

TWO YEARS LATER.“If anyone has any reason why these two shouldn’t be joined together in matrimony, speak now or forever—”The priest hadn’t even finished reading his part when someone in the congregation cried out, “I do!” and a woman rushed forward. Her face was hidden behind a facemask, but what people could see of her dolled-up hair and the luxurious clothes she had on, this was no ordinary woman. She’d been patiently waiting for this moment ever since the wedding began, and now, it was time for the show. “They absolutely cannot get married!” The woman yelled, her voice filling the now-quiet hall. A pin drop could be heard in the silence. “Daphne, do you recognize me?”Unexpectedly, to the surprise of the wedding guests, the bride, who was called Daphne, suddenly burst into tears. Nodding ferociously, she replied, to the hearing of everyone, “I do, but I don’t know how you found me.”The woman grabbed Daphne’s hand as she faced the congregation of guests. “Everyone, the reason Da

Shock was a gross understatement to what Jonathan felt as he watched the unexpected scene unfold right in front of him. Maybe it was really destiny that made him make a stop at the deli, or else how would he have found out that his younger brother’s girlfriend was two-timing him?“Could it be a different person? Someone that looks exactly like the picture Mum showed me? Someone that has an uncanny resemblance to the woman from the party?”Jonathan shook the thought out of his head. Of course it was her. He was willing to bet his most priceless property that it was. The hair was a different color and length than the one she had in the picture his mother took, but wigs existed for a reason. The woman, whose name he still didn’t know, and the man were now picking out a few things from what was displayed in the deli store. Jonathan’s earlier thought that they might be siblings was also put down quickly, seeing how the two people were joined at the hips and kept laughing at what the other