Mom, We Got You a Husband!

The sound of papers hitting the table broke the silence in the room.

“This is the divorce agreement,” Dylan Edwards said coldly, his sharp eyes fixed on Cassidy. “Sign it.”

Cassidy stood frozen beside the bed, still holding the shirt she had been folding.

Her chest tightened.

Her husband stood across from her in an expensive suit, looking as calm as if he were ending a business deal.

Maybe that was all their marriage had ever been to him.

A deal.

“Changed your mind?” Dylan asked.

Cassidy swallowed the pain rising in her throat.

“No.”

She picked up the pen.

Her hand trembled as she signed her name.

Just like that, two years of marriage ended.

Dylan Edwards, the powerful CEO of Edwards Group, was no longer her husband.

But had he ever truly been hers?

Two years ago, Cassidy had agreed to marry him because her mother desperately needed medical treatment. The arrangement was simple. She would remain Mrs. Edwards for two years, and Dylan would pay the medical expenses.

Cassidy had accepted because she had no other choice.

What she had never planned for was falling in love with him.

Dylan picked up the agreement and looked at her signature.

“Pack your things and leave before I come home tonight,” he said. “I don’t want to see you here again.”

He dropped a check onto the bed.

“One hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That should be enough for you to start over.”

Cassidy stared at it.

Part of her wanted to tear it apart.

But pride would not pay her bills.

And after today, she would have no husband, no home, and nowhere else to go.

She quietly took the check.

Dylan turned and walked away without another word.

By nightfall, rain hammered against the windows.

Cassidy closed her suitcase and looked around the bedroom one final time.

Two years.

She had spent two years convincing herself that perhaps one day Dylan would look at her differently.

How foolish she had been.

She picked up her suitcase and opened the bedroom door.

Someone suddenly stumbled toward her.

Cassidy stepped back.

“Dylan?”

The smell of whiskey reached her first.

His eyes were unfocused, and his face was flushed.

He was drunk.

“Selena,” he whispered.

Cassidy froze.

That name hurt more than the divorce papers had.

Selena.

The woman who had always existed somewhere between them.

“I’m not Selena,” Cassidy said quietly. “Dylan, move.”

She tried to pass him, but he caught her wrist.

“Don’t leave me again.”

Cassidy stared at him.

Even now, he wasn't seeing her.

He was seeing another woman.

“Let go.”

“Selena…”

“I said let go!”

Cassidy pulled harder.

Dylan's grip tightened for a moment before he suddenly seemed to realize what he was doing.

His eyes focused on her face.

“Cassidy?”

She immediately pulled free.

The silence between them was unbearable.

Cassidy looked at the man she had loved for two years.

Then she looked away.

“You told me to leave,” she whispered. “So let me leave.”

Dylan said nothing.

That silence gave her the answer she needed.

The next morning, Cassidy was gone.

The rain had not stopped.

She carried her suitcase downstairs while an older maid followed behind her.

“Mrs. Edwards…”

Cassidy forced a small smile.

“Not anymore.”

She reached the front door and opened it.

Then stopped.

A beautiful woman stood outside.

She was tall and elegant, dressed in designer clothes, with perfectly styled hair and a graceful smile.

“Hello,” the woman said. “I'm Selena Johnson.”

Cassidy's fingers tightened around the handle of her suitcase.

Selena.

Of course.

“Dylan called me last night,” Selena continued.

Cassidy felt something inside her finally break.

She had barely signed the divorce papers, and Selena was already standing at the door.

Cassidy stepped aside.

“Dylan's upstairs.”

Selena entered as though she already knew the house.

Then she looked at Cassidy's suitcase.

“Leaving?”

Cassidy forced herself to meet her eyes.

“Yes.”

Selena smiled.

“I think you're making the right decision.”

Cassidy said nothing.

“He's liked me for years,” Selena continued softly. “Dylan just never knew how to deal with his feelings.”

Cassidy's throat tightened.

She didn't need to hear anything else.

“I hope you find someone who can make you happy,” Selena added.

Cassidy picked up her suitcase.

“So do I.”

Then she walked out.

The door closed behind her.

Her marriage was over.

Her home was gone.

And the woman Dylan truly wanted had already taken her place.

Cassidy stood in the rain for several seconds before her phone suddenly rang.

Mom.

She answered immediately.

“Mom?”

“Cassidy…” Sameen's weak voice came through the phone. “I don't think I'm going to make it.”

Cassidy's blood ran cold.

“What happened?”

“Just come quickly.”

The call ended.

Cassidy forgot everything else.

She hailed a cab and rushed to the hospital.

By the time she arrived, her clothes were soaked.

She hurried toward her mother's private room and pushed open the door.

Then she stopped.

Her mother wasn't alone.

A middle-aged man stood beside the window.

He wore an expensive suit and watched Cassidy with an expression she immediately disliked.

“Cassidy!” Sameen complained from the bed. “You finally remembered you have a mother.”

Cassidy stared at her.

Her mother's face had color.

Her hair was neatly styled.

She didn't look like someone who had nearly died.

“Mom?”

“I've been waiting forever. I'm starving.”

Cassidy slowly lowered her bag.

“You said you weren't going to make it.”

“I meant I wasn't going to make it much longer without food.”

Cassidy couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Sameen looked at her soaked clothes.

“Why are you dripping everywhere?”

“I got caught in the rain.”

Sameen sighed impatiently.

Then she pointed toward the stranger.

“This is Jaylord Harver, CEO of Harver Group. He's an old friend.”

Jaylord smiled.

Cassidy didn't return it.

Something about him made her uncomfortable.

Then Sameen asked the question Cassidy had been dreading.

“You're divorced now, aren't you?”

Cassidy slowly nodded.

Sameen immediately held out her hand.

“Where's the money?”

Cassidy frowned.

“What money?”

Her mother's expression changed.

“You spent two years married to Dylan Edwards, and you're telling me you walked away with nothing?”

“Mom…”

“You ungrateful girl!”

Cassidy flinched.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Sameen demanded. “Did you think about me at all?”

Cassidy stared at her mother.

She had sacrificed two years of her life because she thought Sameen was dying.

And somehow, it still wasn't enough.

“Get out,” Sameen snapped.

Cassidy couldn't take anymore.

She turned and walked into the hallway.

But she hadn't gone far when voices carried through the partly open door.

“So?” Sameen asked.

Cassidy stopped.

“What do you think of my daughter?”

Jaylord chuckled.

“She's beautiful.”

“Then we have a deal?”

Cassidy's stomach dropped.

Deal?

She moved closer to the door.

“How much?” Jaylord asked.

“Seven hundred and fifty thousand.”

Jaylord laughed.

“You've lost your mind.”

“She's Dylan Edwards' ex-wife.”

There was a short silence.

Then Jaylord spoke again.

“Thirty thousand.”

“Thirty?”

“Take it or leave it.”

Cassidy's face went pale.

No.

Her mother wouldn't.

She couldn't.

Then she heard Sameen say the one word that destroyed whatever hope remained.

“Deal.”

Cassidy stumbled backward.

Her own mother had just put a price on her.

Before she could leave, Sameen called from inside.

“Cassidy! Come here!”

Cassidy forced herself back into the room.

Sameen smiled as though nothing had happened.

“Mr. Harver is leaving. Be polite and say goodbye.”

Cassidy looked at Jaylord.

His smile made her skin crawl.

“I need to change first,” she said.

Sameen nodded quickly.

“Of course.”

Cassidy borrowed clean clothes from the nurse's station and entered the nearby bathroom.

She locked herself inside and gripped the sink.

Her marriage was gone.

Selena had returned.

And now her own mother had betrayed her.

Cassidy splashed cold water onto her face.

She needed to get out of this hospital.

She needed to get away from all of them.

Then someone knocked.

“Cassidy?”

Jaylord.

Her body went still.

“Open the door.”

Cassidy didn't move.

“I have nothing to say to you.”

A low laugh came from the other side.

“Your mother didn't tell you, did she?”

Cassidy stared at the locked door.

“Tell me what?”

Jaylord's next words made her blood run cold.

“She already took my money.”

Cassidy slowly stepped backward.

Then the door handle began to move.

And Cassidy realized her nightmare hadn't ended with Dylan.

It had only begun.