Chapter 8

At last, Lauren reached the end of what she could bear.

She could give up all her pride and dignity.

But she couldn't give up the little life inside her.

She waited so long for this child.

Without Jensen knowing, she prayed for a baby who would be part of her.

She hoped the child would give her the warmth and hope for the future that her late parents once gave her.

Jensen’s face darkened.

He caught her chin and forced her to look at him. "What did you say?"

Lauren met his gaze. "Jensen, let's get divorced."

Jensen laughed.

He leaned close to her ear, but there was nothing tender in the gesture.

"Don't even think about it," he said coldly.

Everything he did and said seemed designed to drive her to divorce him.

But when she finally asked for it, he refused.

Jensen straightened and looked down at her, his expression so dark that it seemed a storm was about to break.

"Lauren Sullivan, didn't you say you wanted to be with me for the rest of your life?"

His voice was icy. "Then you'll stay until the day you die."

On their wedding day, she made a vow before God.

She promised to love him and remain faithful to him for life.

She meant every word, though her love was so clearly one-sided. Nothing else in the world seemed to matter as much to her.

She didn't care that he never wanted the same thing.

Lauren paused. "What about Vivian? As long as I'm here, she'll be your mistress. Don't you love her? Can you bear to let people call her that?"

Jensen said nothing.

"I'll leave with nothing," Lauren continued. "You can have all my shares in Shaw-Sullivan Group..."

She took a deep breath.

"You always said I made you a laughingstock in Cloudhaven. I'll go far away. In ten years, perhaps no one will even remember that you married me.

“You'll still be the respected heir to the Shaw family, with generations of standing behind you. You won't have any connection to me."

She laid out one choice after another.

She spoke as she once did in business negotiations, offering terms one by one. Every word hurt, but she pressed on toward her goal.

Five years ago, she spoke to Jensen the same way when she wanted him to marry her.

She explained what was at stake and listed every benefit, full of hope that she would become Mrs. Shaw.

She overlooked the disgust in his eyes.

Time passed so quickly.

It changed them until little of their former selves remained.

Even Lauren nearly forgot how her heart raced when she first met Jensen. She could find him at a glance in any crowd, and she couldn't stop thinking about him.

What frightened her was the thought that she turned the charming Jensen she first met into the unreadable man standing before her.

"Lauren Sullivan."

Jensen lowered his voice. "Dream on."

With that, he turned and left.

The door slammed so hard it shook, as fragile as the bond between them.

A cold night wind entered the hospital room. Lauren curled in on herself.

She was only fourteen when she met Jensen.

Her parents’ business grew, and they moved with her to Cloudhaven. She transferred from an ordinary school to an elite private school, where everything felt unfamiliar.

There, family background mattered. Money alone wasn't enough; people prized old family names.

Her classmates agreed on one thing behind her back: Lauren Sullivan was the heiress of new money.

She kept to herself, lonely but proud.

Jensen was two years older and admired by every girl at school. He alone continued to speak to her with kindness.

Then, over the years, their paths became tangled.

Jensen always said the life they shared was the consequence of Lauren forcing them together.

But long before that, she clung to his hand in the rubble as aftershocks brought more wreckage down. She called his name again and again until her voice broke and she could only sob.

He was the one who promised to marry her, to love her, and to stay with her always.

As Lauren began to lose consciousness, she thought that dying there might not be so terrible.

But she woke up.

Her parents died in a plane crash.

She hurried back to Cloudhaven to arrange their funerals.

She went days and nights without sleep, so overwhelmed that she barely had time to cry.

When she saw Jensen again, Vivian stood beside him. He gave Vivian every promise he once made to Lauren in the rubble.

Lauren resented him.

But she didn't dare say so.

She watched Jensen go abroad to study with the woman he loved. Everyone wished them well. He seemed to have forgotten the girl who nearly died for him that day.

Then fate gave her a chance to make him marry her.

Lauren became the madwoman who stole someone else’s boyfriend and gave up her parents’ entire estate to get what she wanted.

Vivian’s return and Jensen’s resolve to make her end the pregnancy finally made Lauren see what five long years taught her: He didn't dislike a gentle, devoted wife.

He didn't dislike having someone beside him each night to speak to him tenderly. He didn't dislike coming home after midnight to find a light left on for him.

He simply didn't like her.