Chapter 2

I didn't refuse. More accurately, I had no right to refuse.

After all, we were at a private hospital that Jasper funded. No one would dare cross him here.

It was similar to our relationship. He was the one who called all the shots.

For his sake, I had turned down a high-paying overseas position and chosen to stay at Preston Group to be his capable right-hand woman. I had given up my freedom, revolving my life around him and his company for 24/7. I had even hidden our eight postponed weddings from Sam, all because I wanted to be with him.

I used to believe that loving someone meant accommodating to their every whim. Little did I know my love had caused the scale between us to tip so drastically. Now, we had reached the point of no return.

Dizziness washed over me as I walked toward my hospital bed, causing me to lose my footing. However, before I could hit the ground, a strong arm caught me.

"Are you alright?" Concern flashed through his gaze.

My heart skipped a beat, but the very next second, his words sent me plunging right back to the bottom of the abyss. "Even if my other personality doesn't remember you, my body still does. Stella, I promise you, even if I have a split personality, it won't affect your position as the lady of the household."

I couldn't believe he was threatening me with the position of the lady of the Preston family. It was the one thing I had desired.

Unfortunately for him, I had no desire to share my man with another woman. So, whoever wanted that position could gladly have it.

"If you would just be honest with me and admit that you were acting earlier—"

I flung his hand away and cut him off coldly. "I'm a married woman, Mr. Preston. Please behave yourself. Besides, you have someone you love too, don't you?"

He was stumped. Before he could explain himself, there was a knock on the door.

Wendy had arrived. Noticing the bandages wrapped around my head, she asked tentatively, "Do you still remember me, Stella?"

Word had certainly reached her fast. Without a shadow of a doubt, one of Jasper's close friends, who had just left my ward, must've informed her.

Jasper had probably brought Wendy along to countless of their gatherings behind my back. I wondered if his friends had spent all these years viewing me, his fiancee, as some sort of clown.

I shook my head and asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Wendy Upton. I used to be one of your subordinates." Then, she turned to look at Jasper affectionately. "I was also Jas' secretary for a while… but you fired me later on."

She sure knew how to flip the . Playing dumb, I inquired, "Why did I fire you?"

Wendy adopted a pitiful look. "I guess I depended on Jas a bit too much, so you had no choice but to do it."

I couldn't help but jeer inwardly.

After Wendy joined the company, I took her under my wing and mentored her because she was Jasper's junior. Unbeknownst to me, she had absolutely no interest in learning the ropes from me. If anything, she was far more interested in figuring out how to capture Jasper's attention.

The CEO, who was supposedly too busy to celebrate my birthday with me, had somehow found the time to review documents with his secretary on New Year's Eve. To add salt to the wound, Wendy's phone was connected to the Wi-Fi in the home Jasper and I had bought for our marriage before mine ever did.

I thought I was just being overly sensitive. I never realized that the warning signs had been staring me in the face all along.

I had lost count of how many times I'd quarreled with Jasper because of her. But every single time, he'd brushed me off perfunctorily. "Wendy's just my junior. You're being too sensitive. Ella, if you want to be my wife, you can't be so narrow-minded.

"Besides, you go out for business dinners and drink with men all the time. I've never said a thing about it, have I?"

It was inevitable to have dealings with members of the opposite sex in the business world. While I did have to attend my share of dinners, I had never once crossed the line.

Naively, I had thought he was only saying those things because he was jealous. So I had never held it against him.

But it all came to a head when a hundred-million-dollar project contract required his signature, and I couldn't get a hold of him no matter how many times I called him. While I was drowning in anxiety, my assistant stuttered as she told me that Jasper was at an amusement park, accompanying Wendy to watch the fireworks show.

Suppressing my anger, I called Wendy, only to hear her wishing upon the fireworks. "I hope Jas stays by my side forever."

Before I could even utter a single word, the line went dead. When I called back, she had already turned off her phone.

Meanwhile, our business partner waited endlessly for the contract. When it never arrived, he concluded that I had breached the terms of our agreement and was deliberately playing him for a fool. Hence, he blocked me on all platforms.

Over that single instance, Preston Group lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet, Jasper merely demoted Wendy as punishment and sent her to work under me. To maintain authority and fairness within the company, I fired her on the spot. It didn't cross my mind that he'd hold that against me and use the wedding I cared about most to humiliate me.

…

"I apologize for hurting you." I rose to my feet and slipped the emerald ring off my ring finger. "Here, consider this as my way of making amends."

Wendy gaped at me. "Stella, do you have any idea what this ring represents?"