Chapter 1

James' POV

Feeling satisfied upon seeing the topic I had paid for shoot up the trending chart, I prepared to turn in for the night.

Not even 30 minutes later, Wanda Foster's hurried and heavy footsteps sounded outside the room.

"Is this your way of getting revenge, James Gulliver?" she demanded. "Who is she?"

She then threw a photo in my face.

One half of the photo showed a flirtatious image of me as I lounged on the bed, while the other half of the photo showed my brother, Mason Gulliver, pressing Wanda against a window in an explicit position.

It was the same photo that I had sold to the paparazzi. They had then posted it online with the caption, "The Fosters Reach a New Agreement: They'll Leave Each Other Alone and Have Their Own Fun."

I sat on the edge of the bed and lit a cigarette.

"Isn't this what you wanted? The one thing you shouldn't have done was trample over my pride and fool around with my father's bastard son!"

Wanda's breath hitched in her throat. Instead of continuing the conversation, she gritted her teeth and repeated, "Who is she?"

"You don't need to know. It's only fair that way."

In the past, I swore to myself that I would learn everything about her lovers no matter the cost. I was still young back then and couldn't stand not knowing.

However, I realized later that she changed her lovers before I had a chance to take action. It was why I gave up on my endeavors a long time ago.

Wanda suddenly let out a sinister cackle.

"You have some nerve, James!"

Her gaze fell on the scratches on my shoulder before she pounced on me and pinned me to the bed.

Caught completely off guard, I couldn't stop her from stabbing a sharp blade into my shoulder, covering up the scratch marks with blood.

"Have you lost your mind, Wanda?" I roared.

Wanda's eyes were completely bloodshot as she pressed her weight down on me. A vein in her forehead pulsed rapidly.

"This will be your first and last time! I'm going to bury that trending topic. You better return to normal before I lose control."

Wanda's definition of "normal" was the way I didn't even flinch when explicit photos of her and her lovers spread like wildfire online. I also simply accepted all the items that they sent me, including used condoms and stained pants.

Wanda's dark eyes bore into mine for a long time. She only released her hold on me when she saw the sheen of sweat beading across my forehead from the immense pain. Then, she pulled out a roll of bandages from the bedside drawer.

"Don't touch me!" I snapped as I shoved her away.

Wanda got off the bed, her expression darkening. "You only put up an act to piss me off, didn't you? Why are you still pretending? You're willing to discard your pride just to catch my attention. What else can you possibly do, James?"

She accidentally cut my arm with the knife as she was ranting, causing blood to soak the silk sheets.

I gritted my teeth in pain, but the ache in my heart overshadowed everything else.

Wanda didn't even blink as she stared at me. Her gaze was nearly devoid of emotion when she said, "Mom was right. A man like you who crawled your way up from the bottom of the food chain will never do anything worthwhile or be presentable.

"Why did you even bother to find someone to put on this act? Just divorce me if you actually have the guts to do it! Your brother is a thousand times better than you anyway!"

Wanda stormed out of the room without sparing another glance at me after she was done speaking.

A few moments later, a divorce agreement bearing her signature was sent to my phone. In the agreement, we would split our assets 70 to 30, with me receiving the bigger portion.

Wanda was still convinced that I wouldn't leave her.

I penned my signature on the document before dialing a number and confirming my time of departure.

As I did so, I wondered why Wanda was so confident that the woman I slept with didn't actually exist.