Chapter 2

The wedding photo hanging in the living room was an eyesore.

Alex grabbed a water glass and hurled it at the picture with all his strength.

With a loud crash, the glass frame and the water glass shattered on impact. Shards scattered across the floor, and the photograph fell out.

Alex picked up the wedding photo, tore it into pieces, and threw them into the trash. He sat motionless on the couch, lost in memories of the past and unable to pull himself out of them. He didn't snap back to reality until the housekeeper, Tori Keller, called out to him.

"Mr. Shaw."

Tori came in carrying several shopping bags and a toy airplane. They were obviously meant for Zachary.

Unaware of Alex's troubled expression, she smiled and said, "Mr. Hugh is finally coming home to live with us. The house is going to feel lively again. If Ms. Eloise comes back, too, then the whole family will be together again.

"Ms. Eloise used to be very close to the family. But five years ago, she suddenly had a huge fight with Ms. Eva after attending the gala at Pearl Park. Then, she went abroad and cut off contact with the family.

"They had never fought like that before. I still don't know what happened between them."

Alex hadn't intended to continue the conversation, but when he caught sight of a photo on her phone, he froze.

"Is that Ms. Eloise? She looks exactly like Eva!"

Tori replied with a smile, "That's right. Ms. Eva and Ms. Eloise are identical twins. They look exactly alike, but I've taken care of them since they were little, so I can tell them apart at a glance."

She swiped through a few more pictures. "Ms. Eloise has a gentler look in her eyes. I guess it's because she's a painter. Artists see the world differently from the rest of us."

As Alex stared at the photograph, an inexplicable feeling rose within him. His breathing grew noticeably quicker.

"Tori, did you say Ms. Eloise went to the gala at Pearl Park five years ago? Did she and Eva attend together?" he asked.

Tori replied, "No, Ms. Eva didn't go. Mr. Hugh was sick at the time, so Ms. Eva stayed with him at the hospital. She sent Ms. Eloise to attend in her place. They look so much alike that plenty of people thought Ms. Eloise was Ms. Eva."

Alex was stunned.

So, the woman who had bandaged his wounds and taken him to the hospital had been Eloise?

He remembered their second meeting, which was at a product launch hosted by the Laurent family. When he'd seen Eva that day, her eyes had seemed different. But their faces were identical, and they were both heiresses of the Laurent family. He hadn't thought much of it.

Alex felt as though fate had played the cruelest joke imaginable on him.

He returned to Laurent Estate, claiming he needed to retrieve something. Then, he went into Eloise's bedroom. There, he found a video on her computer.

What he saw left him utterly devastated.

The woman who had saved him had been Eloise! He had pursued and married the wrong woman!

From the very beginning, his relationship with Eva had been a mistake.

Alex went to a bar to drown his sorrows. He'd already drunk more than half a bottle of liquor by the time Harlan finally arrived.

"Good Lord, what happened to you?" Harlan helped him onto a couch. "Look at how much you've had to drink. Aren't you worried Ms. Laurent is going to be furious?"

"Don't mention her." Alex took another long gulp of liquor. "Harlan, I want a divorce. I'll take care of the paperwork tomorrow. Once my visa is approved, I'm going back to Rubove."

If his relationship with Eva had been a mistake from the start, then it was time to end it. It was better to cut his losses now than let things get any worse.

Harlan responded, "A divorce? Have you had too much to drink? Didn't you want to have a child with Eva? Why are you suddenly talking about divorce? Alex, married couples fight all the time. Give it a few days, and things will settle down. Don't do anything stupid."

Harlan knew better than anyone just how deeply Alex loved Eva. He tried to talk some sense into him, but Alex didn't take in a single word.

All he could hear was what the lawyer had told him earlier. "Mr. Shaw, according to your prenuptial agreement, the earliest time you can obtain the divorce certificate is in roughly ten days."

Ten days.

Alex swirled the liquor in his glass.

In ten days, everything would return to the way it should have been. From then on, everything about Eva would have nothing to do with him.