Chapter One: Divorced after one night 

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 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.