Chapter 1

The other end of the phone fell silent.

After a while, Astrid Garrett drew a deep breath. Her voice was taut with emotion, as though she were desperately trying to hold something back.

"Are you sure?"

I closed my eyes.

"Yes," I said quietly. "Of course, I am."

Nicole Sterling had just signed the consent form authorizing the amputation of my leg.

At the time, she had been standing beside the doctor, her white coat still stained with Conrad's blood.

She still looked as cold and composed as ever, as though the man about to lose his leg weren't her husband, but simply another patient she was responsible for.

…

Five years ago, I had turned my back on the entire Garrett family for Nicole.

Back then, she was nothing more than an insignificant resident at a small affiliated hospital, while I was the sole heir to Garrett Group.

That year, her mother fell gravely ill and was left with an enormous mountain of medical debt.

Without telling my family, I sold the first house I had ever owned and gave her every penny.

Later, she told me she didn't want to depend on me, so I persuaded Dad to put her in charge of Garrett Group's most important healthcare venture.

In just a few short years, Sterling Hospital had grown from a private clinic into the largest hospital network in the city.

Half of that success came from Nicole's ability, and the other half came from Garrett Group's funding and connections.

But she never acknowledged that second half. She always said that everything she'd achieved was through her own ability.

And so, I never argued.

I thought that as long as two people loved each other, it didn't matter who gave more—until Conrad came back.

Her first love, the man she'd loved in her youth and carried in her heart for ten long years, had finally returned.

Just because he claimed he had a congenital heart condition and couldn't handle any emotional stress, Nicole began breaking her own rules for him, again and again.

He was afraid of the dark, so she drove across town in the middle of the night to pick him up.

He had no appetite, so she canceled my birthday dinner and went out herself to buy him food.

Once, he fell down outside the hospital. Nicole had been in the middle of preparing a wedding proposal for me, but the moment she heard what happened, she dropped the ring and rushed to him.

And all I had done was ask her one question.

"Nicole, do you still love him?"

Her expression immediately turned cold.

"Andre, can you stop being so unreasonable?"

I kept telling myself that she was only trying to make up for what she owed someone from her past—until what happened today.

"Andre, don't worry."

Astrid's voice pulled me back to the present.

"I'll send a helicopter over right now," she said. "And I'll pull all of Sterling Hospital's investments by the end of today. I'll bring you the divorce papers too."

"Alright," I replied, tightening my grip on the phone.