Don, I Stopped Loving You

The family's enforcers got to me just in time. By the time the Reynolds men arrived and escorted me back to the villa, I was barely holding on.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in the master bedroom of the main estate. Every slight movement sent a jagged wave of pain tearing through the gash on my back.

I forced myself upright and looked up at the butler. "Where's Aiden?"

The butler hesitated, his gaze shifting guiltily. "It's Thursday, miss. Mr. Reynolds is… with Mrs. Reynolds."

Before, those words would've shattered me. This time, I just looked at him with empty eyes. "Leave."

The door clicked shut behind him, and the memories came flooding back.

When Aiden and I first got together, he was the perfect man everyone envied.

When I was burning up with fever, he ran to every pharmacy on the block to find me medicine. On stormy nights when I curled up in bed shaking, he'd wrap his coat around me and pull me into his chest, holding me until I fell asleep. When I came home late from handling business, he was always standing at the door, waiting quietly with a warm yellow lamp in his hand.

I thought I'd married the best man in the world.

Then everything changed.

Aiden came home that night with red-rimmed eyes. His twin brother Mason—the family's Don—had died unexpectedly, leaving behind Juniper, his newly pregnant wife.

The family council decided Aiden would take over. But he was terrified that if Juniper learned the truth, she'd lose the baby from the shock. So he decided to impersonate his brother and run the family in Mason's place—three days a week as Aiden with me, three days as Mason with Juniper.

It sounded insane.

But he went so far as to alter his voice, fabricate call logs and surveillance footage—all to keep Juniper from suspecting a thing.

He promised me, over and over, that once the baby was born, he'd come clean.

After all, this was their family's first heir.

I felt for Juniper. I softened. I said yes.

I thought it was temporary compassion. Turns out it was the beginning of hell.

From that day on, no matter how deep we were in each other, the second the clock struck midnight, Aiden would snap back into "Mason"—cold, rational, pushing me away to go to Juniper. Never a moment's pause.

He even publicly announced, as "Mason," that his brother Aiden had tragically died.

I asked him countless times. His answer was always the same: "It's temporary. Juniper's carrying the child, the whole family's watching her. Once the baby's here, I'll explain everything."

"Once I officially take over as Don, you'll be the Reynolds' Donna."

I believed him. Every time. I waited, I trusted, I fed myself those lies over and over.

Until today. When I was pinned down by our enemies, slashed and bleeding, while the man I loved was wrapped around another woman.

That's when I dialed my father's number.

"Dad, I've made up my mind. I'm coming back. I'll finish what Mom started."

My father is the Don of the Richardson Family. My mother was the family's lead scientist. She went missing during an experiment years ago. My father searched for her endlessly, never found her, and has carried that grief ever since.

Cryogenic preservation was my mother's unfinished project—her last, unfulfilled wish. I'd given up my career as a scientist for Aiden back then, abandoning her legacy. Now, there was nothing left to hold me back.

My father was silent for a long moment.

When he finally spoke, his voice was hoarse. "Aurora… are you sure about this? The project is classified. Your identity will be kept confidential. You're engaged to Aiden now—you haven't had the wedding yet. Does he know what you're choosing?"

"He doesn't need to know." I closed my eyes, then said it with finality. "Seven days from now. I'm leaving."