FROM HIS SILENT WIFE TO HIS GREATEST REGRET

CHAPTER 1“Did you ever, even for one moment, think you could love me?” Mercy asked softly, her voice full of hope as she looked at Bradley’s hard and serious face.“Don’t make me laugh, Mercy. Everything between us was only for pleasure and business.”With a sad heart, she signed the divorce papers, still holding a small hope that one day she would meet a man who would truly love her and see how special she was.MercyOn a quiet night at Serenity Pines Estate, the place I have lived in for three years, the small click of the door told me my husband had arrived. My husband is Bradley Cornell, who is competing to become the president of Luminary Productions, a big entertainment company.I stood up from the sofa where I always waited for him and looked at the clock on the wall. It was already very late. It was one in the morning.The heavy wooden door slowly opened, and Bradley walked in with shaky steps. The strong smell of alcohol came into the room before he did. His arm was resting

CHAPTER 3“I gave you this job! We spent millions on this movie, and now the audience says the story is confusing. On top of that, the lead actress is involved in scandals and people are complaining!” My father shouted loudly in his big office.“Fix it!” he yelled again while throwing papers at me that had been neatly placed on his desk just a moment ago.I tightened my fist and walked out of his office.Problems kept happening again and again at Luminary Productions, and every single time my father pushed all the responsibility onto me.This had become normal between us at work. Even when he was the one who created the problems, he still blamed me because I was supposed to become the next president of production. According to him, it was my duty to see problems before they happened.But when would he finally give me that position?I had already been learning under him for two years, yet nothing seemed to change.Most days I almost lived inside the office. I worked hard just to satisf

The next day moved slowly and fast at the same time. Morning was fittings and fabric and sketches and the normal chaos of running a fashion brand. But my mind kept drifting to 8 PM. To a restaurant I didn’t know. To a man I barely knew. Tayo noticed. He always noticed. “You’re distracted,” he said when I pinned a hem wrong for the third time. “Usually you’d have my head for that.”I forced a laugh. “Long night.”He didn’t push. He just took the pin from my hand and fixed it himself. “Whatever it is, you’ve got this, boss. You always do.”I nodded, but I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t had “this” in six years. Not really. I’d had survival. I’d had work. I’d had Lily. But “this” — the thing where I chose something for myself, not because I had to, but because I wanted to — that was new. Lily called at lunch. Her voice was bright and loud, and it filled the hole in my chest that I pretended wasn’t there. “Mama! We made paper flowers today, and Miss Amina said mine was the prettiest!“You did so

The next morning I woke up with James’s last text still in my head and the taste of rain on my lips and it felt dangerous to be that soft before coffee. Lily was already awake when I opened my eyes, standing next to my bed with the cupcake she’d saved from Miss Amina’s and her serious face on like she had important news. “Mama, you smell like the restaurant,” she said, holding the cupcake out to me. “And you’re smiling in your sleep.”I took the cupcake because I didn’t know what else to do with my hands. “Did I?”She nodded and climbed onto the bed beside me, tucking her legs under her like she was settling in for a long talk. “Miss Amina said when grown-ups smile in their sleep it means something good happened. Did something good happen?”I looked at her, at the way she trusted me with all her questions, at the way she believed I had answers. For years I’d lied to her about Marcus, about why we left, about why we didn’t have a dad in pictures. I told her stories about brave women a

The restraining order was just paper but it felt like a wall finallyly went up between me and Marcus and for the first time in six years I could breathe without looking over my shoulder every five seconds, though my body didn’t believe it right away because bodies remember fear longer than minds do and mine still flinched when a car slowed down outside Luminère or when a man’s voice got too loud in the elevator, but James was there for all of that without making me feel broken for it, he just stayed, steady and quiet, like he understood that healing wasn’t a straight line and that some days I’d be strong and some days I’d be a mess and both were okay with him. Lily took to him faster than I expected, which should’ve scared me but didn’t because the way she looked at him was the way she looked at Miss Amina and Tayo and the few people I’d let close, like she could see the good in them without me having to explain it, and when she handed him that crumpled paper flower on the night of h