Chapter 1

"Adrian."

Victoria Altomare stood in the dining room and softly called out to the man who was about to leave.

Adrian Montgomery was already dressed in his suit. He held his car keys in one hand, while the other still rested on the doorknob. He turned toward her with the same cold expression he always wore.

"What is it?"

Victoria looked at him. Her gaze fell on the bouquet of white roses sitting in the center of the table, already beginning to wilt. A faint smile slowly appeared on her lips.

"Yesterday was our wedding anniversary."

Silence stretched for two seconds. Adrian didn't deny it. He simply answered in a low voice.

"I know."

Those two words made Victoria's heart clench painfully. She had thought he had simply forgotten.

But that wasn't the case. Adrian simply didn't think it mattered that he hadn't come home to spend a day like that with her. Just then, his phone began to ring. He answered almost immediately.

"Dr. Robinson."

Victoria didn't know what was said on the other end, but Adrian's calm expression instantly tightened.

"Do you have the results? All right. I'll be there right away."

After hanging up, he didn't even stop to explain. He grabbed his coat and prepared to leave.

Victoria looked at him and asked softly, "Is it my sister?"

Adrian's steps halted for a moment.

"Yes. The doctor says she responded to a new stimulus. I have to go."

Victoria remained silent for a few seconds.

The night before, she had waited until the early hours of the morning at a table full of food that had long since gone cold. That morning, he hadn't even sat down to finish breakfast with her.

Yet one call from the hospital was enough to send him rushing out without a second thought.

Three years ago, if it hadn't been for that accident, the woman who would have married Adrian would have been Francesca, Victoria's older sister.

Francesca was beautiful and accomplished. She had been everyone's pride since childhood. She and Adrian were considered the perfect couple by both families. Their engagement had been arranged long ago, and all the wedding preparations were complete.

However, just before the ceremony, Francesca was involved in a car accident. The severe neurological damage left her in a coma. All the wedding plans came to a halt that day.

Later, to honor the agreement between the two families, Adrian's mother and Victoria's parents proposed a solution.

Victoria would take her sister's place and marry Adrian in her stead.

At the time, no one asked whether she agreed. Everyone thought it was the best way to solve the problem. Even Victoria did, because no one knew that she had been in love with Adrian for years.

She believed that if she became his wife, he would eventually accept her. It didn't matter if there was no love between them at first.

But after three years, she finally understood the truth.

When someone's heart already belongs to someone else, not even marriage can earn you a single word of love. In the end, Victoria stepped aside.

"Be careful on the way."

Adrian nodded and walked out the door. Victoria remained where she was. She didn't run after him or shed a single tear. She had lived through this scene too many times.

That day, which meant so much to her, was just another one of the countless occasions when the same thing had happened.

And while last night's dinner still sat untouched in the dining room, Clara, one of the household staff, approached cautiously.

"Ma'am, would you like me to clear everything away?"

Victoria didn't answer.

She walked over to the table, picked up her wineglass, and gently swirled the wine.

The scent was still there, but the man she had been waiting for wasn't.

The day before had marked their third wedding anniversary. For the first time in a long while, Victoria had cooked the meal herself. She had started preparing dinner that afternoon and even gone to the florist to buy the white roses Adrian loved so much.

She had even prepared a gift. It had taken her an entire week to choose that pair of silver cufflinks. She thought their third anniversary would have to be different from the first two.

Instead, she waited from seven in the evening until one in the morning without receiving a single call or message.

It wasn't until midnight that she heard a car pulling up outside the house.

She thought Adrian had finally come home. She ran down the stairs without even putting on her shoes, only to find him sitting exhausted on the living room sofa, the unmistakable smell of the hospital clinging to his clothes.

"It's too late. I'll sleep downstairs," he told her.

Victoria didn't get the chance to say a single word.

She didn't even get to remind him that it was their wedding anniversary. Now she knew he hadn't forgotten. It simply wasn't important to him.

Clara let out a sigh.

"Ma'am, I'll prepare some breakfast for you."

Victoria came back to herself and nodded softly.

"All right."

Then she returned to her bedroom.

The master bedroom was enormous, but over the past three years, she could count on one hand the number of nights they had actually shared the bed.

Because whenever something happened at the hospital, Adrian stayed there all night.

But whenever Victoria fell ill or came down with a fever, he never came home. He simply called the family doctor and had them come check on her.

He had never treated her badly.

He had given her the best life, every comfort she could have wanted, and a position anyone else would have considered enviable.

Victoria looked at herself in the mirror.

She saw an elegantly dressed woman with a serene expression, completely alone.

She was Adrian Montgomery's wife.

In everyone's eyes, she was lucky to have married him.

But Victoria knew the truth.

Their marriage had lasted three years, but to Adrian, that relationship had never truly begun.