LOGINHe divorced her the morning after their wedding night,no warning,no mercy or a chance to explain. Overlooked and ridiculed for her size by her own family, Serenity Grayson never expected billionaire Jason Crane to be the one man who would make her feel seen. But within twenty-four hours of their marriage, he accused her of betrayal and threw her out. What Jason didn't know was that Serenity was carrying his child. Five years later, she returns with the son she raised alone and a truth powerful enough to shake the Crane Empire. Now, Jason wants her back, her sister is desperate to keep old secrets buried, and the family that once looked down on her is forced to face the woman she has become. Because Serenity Grayson is no longer the woman they destroyed. She's the storm they never saw coming.
View MoreTwenty-four hours.
That was how long I lasted as Mrs. Crane, I stared at the papers on Jason’s desk. I kept waiting for the words to scramble into a joke, but they just sat there, heavy and permanent.
DIVORCE AGREEMENT.
My throat went completely dry just a few hours ago.
I'd woken up in his bed with the scent of his skin still on the sheets,I could remember touching the empty side of the mattress and smiling like an idiot, thinking our arranged marriage actually had a chance.
Now, the sun hadn't even set on our wedding day, and my life was over.
"Sign it," Jason said.
His voice was dead quiet, cutting right through me.
I looked up and he was sitting behind his desk in a dark suit that cost more than my rent, his face totally blank,he wasn't angry or looked hurt.
Nothing.
The coldness scared me more than yelling ever could, I forced a laugh, but it came out thin and broken.
"This isn't funny, Jason."
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
His dark eyes locked onto mine,that intense, magnetic pull we always had was still there, but it felt dangerous now.
This wasn't the man who had brushed the hair out of my face last night nor the man who held my hand so tight while our guests danced below us. He looked at me like I was something disgusting he'd stepped in by accident.
"Jason, please," I whispered, stepping closer to the desk.
"What's happening?"
He didn't say a word,he just tossed a folder forward, and a bunch of photos slid across the wood, stopping right at my fingers.
I looked down, and my heart stopped immediately, the room went blurry.
I couldn't breathe.
It was a dark hotel room,a bed,a man with his face blurred out and a woman. She was wearing my dress, had my face,my body and the positions were unmistakable.
"No," I choked out, grabbing one of the pictures my hands shook so bad the paper rattled.
"No, this isn't me. I've never been to this place."
Jason leaned back, his eyes narrowing into slits. "You're going to stand there and lie to me?"
"Look at me!" I begged, my voice cracking.
"We spent last night together. You know me and you know I didn't do this."
"What I know," he said, standing up slowly and towering over me, "is that you married me for my money and you couldn't even wait a day to sleep with someone else."
The cruelty of his words burned inside me. I hated crying, growing up as the bigger sister had taught me that tears were just weapons for people who wanted to break you. Sloane knew it,my parents knew it
and now my husband knows it too.
The office door clicked open.
"Oh my god, Serenity..."
A soft, breathless voice gasped. I turned around.
Sloane rushed into the room, her beautiful face tight with a perfect look of worry, the same flawless sister who had spent her entire life stealing everything from me without even trying.
"I was praying it wasn't true," Sloane whined, rushing right to Jason's side. "I tried to stop the packages from getting to him, but..."
My stomach dropped into a bottomless pit, I looked at her, then at Jason, and everything clicked.
"How do you even know about these photos, Sloane?" I asked.
Sloane shrank back, her long eyelashes fluttering as she touched Jason's arm.
"I... I just wanted to protect you, but Jason deserved the truth."
"Your sister came to me this morning," Jason said, his dark gaze cutting back to me,he didn't pull away from Sloane's touch. "She is not like you, she actually has a conscience,she thought I should know what kind of woman I'd married."
The air in the room turned to poison, Sloane kept her head down, looking completely devastated but as I stared at her, she shifted her eyes up.
Just for a second our eyes locked, and I saw it,no guilt.,no sadness, just a sharp, toxic flash of pure victory.
She did this. A bitter laugh escaped my throat,of course she did and of course nobody else would see it.
Sloane was the sweet and pretty one and the sister everyone chose first,I was just the shadow and the disappointment,even my own husband chose her lie over my truth without a single doubt.
"Last night," I whispered, looking directly at Jason and ignoring my sister. "Last night actually meant something to me, I thought we were building something real."
For a second, his jaw clenched while the air between us grew suffocatingly hot, thick with the memory of what we'd shared hours ago but just as quickly, the ice returned.
"Sign the papers, Serenity. I won't ask again."
The silence stretched, every second twisting like a knife.
Slowly, I reached down and pulled the wedding ring off my finger, it felt heavy and warm. A lifetime of hope was destroyed in less than a day. I dropped the ring right on top of the divorce papers.
Something flickered in Jason's eyes when the metal hit the page it looked like regret, but it wasn't enough to save us.
I grabbed the pen,vision blurred, but I refused to let a single tear fall in front of them, the ink dragged across the page, and I signed my name on the bottom line.
One signature,one ending.
I slid the papers back, grabbed my bag, and turned toward the door,my legs felt completely numb and my hand gripped the cold doorknob.
"Serenity."
His voice stopped me,my stupid heart jumped in my chest one last time
I turned around, holding my breath,
Jason stared at me, and his face felt like a cold mask.
"If I find out you've used the Crane name for a single dime after walking out that door..."
A hollow laugh burst out of me,the pain in my chest suddenly turned into pure, burning anger.
"You don't have to worry about your precious money, Jason," I spat, my voice shaking with rage. "Because after today, I'd rather be absolutely nothing than belong to a man who never trusted me."
Neither of them spoke.
The words hung like a death sentence in the heavy room, I threw the door open and walked out, slamming it behind me
I walked out of his life and out of my marriage, completely unaware of the secret already growing inside me.
Unaware that a child already connected us, and completely unaware that one day, Jason Crane would discover the truth of what happened today.
And by then, losing me would be the least painful thing he'd have to survive.
Everywhere went silent across the dining table where nobody moved and nobody spoke, Sloane's smile completely frozen on her face. Jason looked at her for a long moment before finally setting down his glass and saying calmly, "If circumstances had been different, I would still have married the woman chosen in the agreement."The words landed like a slap, causing Sloane to blink while Mom and Dad exchanged a quick look. I sat completely still as Jason's expression remained unreadable,it wasn't a declaration of affection, but it certainly wasn't what Sloane wanted either. For the first time all evening, I saw genuine irritation flash across her face only for a second, before it disappeared behind her perfect smile as she lightly replied, "Of course."The conversation moved on, but I could feel that something had changed. Sloane had wanted a reaction, but instead, she'd been shut down in front of everyone, the rest of dinner dragged painfully, with every minute feeling like an hour as I
I stared at my phone long after the call ended, sitting in a silent room where the city lights outside blurred together as exhaustion settled into my bones. For three days, I had cried, begged myself to wake up from this nightmare, and waited for Jason to call,but he never did, not once, leaving me without even a single message.The realization should have hurt less by now, but instead, it hurt more because every passing hour felt like a proof that our marriage had meant far more to me than it ever had to him.My eyes drifted to the photos scattered across the bed, but I didn't want to look at them anymore,I was just so tired of crying, tired of defending myself, and tired of feeling unwanted.Suddenly, my phone buzzed with an incoming call from Mom. I almost ignored it, but then I answered with a quiet, "Hello." "Where are you" she asked, without any greeting, being concerned, or even an apology,just a demanding question. I laughed bitterly. "Nice to hear your voice too.""Serenity
I didn't sleep that night, or the night after.Every time I closed my eyes, the photographs burned into my eyelids.The dark hotel room,the man with the blurred face,my body and features,the total ruin of the only night that had ever felt real to me.I sat on the edge of the sagging mattress in a cheap, generic hotel room, staring at my phone,three days since the divorce. Three days since Jason threw me out like trash.The media was having a field day,the headlines hadn't stopped, and social media was vicious.I was tagged a cheater,gold digger and shameless.I tossed the phone onto the bed, the ache in my chest physically suffocating me,I didn't care about the internet trolls.It was Jason. Jason had believed them instantly,that was the wound that wouldn't stop bleeding.A sharp knock at the door made me jump,I froze because nobody knew I was here, another knock faster this time.I walked over cautiously, my heart slamming against my ribs."Who is it?" Silence.Then, a crisp white e
I spent most of my wedding pretending I wasn't terrified.The fake smile on my face must have been convincing enough because nobody questioned it,guests toasted us, cameras flashed, and champagne flowed like water.Everyone kept gushing about what a perfect couple we made. I just smiled, nodded, and played my part. Inside, I felt like an actress who had been thrown on stage without a script.The ceremony itself passed in a blur,one second I was standing at the altar, and the next, the priest was saying the words husband and wife,my heart stopped.Not from romance, but from sheer terror,it was suddenly very real.Jason Crane was my husband.By the time the last guests finally started leaving, a deep, heavy exhaustion had settled into my bones,, all I wanted was silence and a chance to breathe.The elevator ride up to his penthouse felt suffocatingly intimate. For the first time all day, we were completely alone,no parents, no reporters, no corporate expectations. Just us.The silence
Three months earlier."Congratulations, Serenity, you're getting married."The fork slipped from my fingers, clattering loudly against my plate,the dining room fell dead silent while I stared across the table at my father. "Excuse me?"Dad didn't even look up,he just calmly dabbed his mouth with a
I don't even remember how I got out of Jason’s office.One minute I was looking at the man I loved handing me divorce papers the next, I was trapped inside the elevator, staring at my reflection in the mirrored walls.The woman looking back at me was a stranger,her lipstick was smeared,her eyes wer
Twenty-four hours. That was how long I lasted as Mrs. Crane, I stared at the papers on Jason’s desk. I kept waiting for the words to scramble into a joke, but they just sat there, heavy and permanent.DIVORCE AGREEMENT.My throat went completely dry just a few hours ago. I'd woken up in his bed w
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