First Choice

"Lois, how about we remarry after this is over?"

I was sitting on a stone bench in the backyard, lost in thought, when Nathan Baldwin walked up to me with Jenny Price right behind him.

It was just three hours ago that Jenny had been exposed by the tabloids as possibly Nathan's mistress.

The whole internet dug up her past and called her everything from a homewrecker to the woman who had interfered in my perfect relationship with Nathan.

Nathan's image as a loving husband fell apart, and his company's stock price plummeted.

In my last life, when Nathan came to me with the divorce papers, I had been so furious that I ripped up all the roses he had grown for me in the garden.

I had screamed at him, demanding to know what his relationship with Jenny was.

She was just his mentor's daughter, and there were a million ways he could have handled the situation. Instead, he chose to sacrifice me.

All of that just to keep Jenny from spiraling into deeper depression. What Nathan didn't know was that during the same time the scandal was trending, I had been diagnosed with moderate depression myself.

"Lois," Nathan called out again, pulling me back from my thoughts.

I lowered my gaze to the divorce papers on the stone table before me.

Nathan dropped to one knee at my feet, his deep eyes staring up at me, his warm hand enveloping mine. His voice was soft, almost pleading, as he said, "Lois, please. Do it for me, okay?

"We'll announce that our marriage has been on the rocks for a while. We planned to divorce a year ago, but we just couldn't find the right time."

I didn't respond right away. Behind him, Jenny stood in a white dress, wearing Nathan's coat over her shoulders. Her lips were pale, her eyes red and swollen.

"Lois, please, I'm begging you… My mom committed suicide because of online bullying and depression. I don't want to end up like her. Please, help me…"

Just as she was about to bend down to kneel, Nathan moved quickly, caught her, and pulled her into his arms. His face darkened, and he scolded her softly, "What are you doing?"

Jenny choked up, her voice fragile, full of tears. She lowered her gaze, trying to hold back the sobs.

"I… I just want to make it easier on Lois."

At that point, Nathan's patience snapped. His face twisted into a look of frustration, and he turned to me, his earlier tenderness vanishing.

"Lois, I didn't come here to negotiate with you. I've already made up my mind. If you refuse to sign, don't blame me…"

I looked up at him, and he stopped mid-sentence. But I knew what he was going to say.

He was going to say, "Lois, you know how I handle things. I've got a hundred ways to make you sign those papers. You can drag this out and fight me in court, but you'll never beat the lawyers from Baldwin Group."

Those were his exact words in my last life.

It didn't take long before I was framed and sent to a hotel room with several male escorts, the perfect evidence for my so-called affair.