Chapter 1

"Do whatever you want!" my husband, Lucas Gardner, retorted in a furious tone laced with impatience. "You'd better not regret it and come crying back to me!"

In the next second, he ended the call before I could even say anything.

Regret it? I certainly wouldn't.

The only thing I regretted was being so blind as to fall for him back then, especially since I had let myself suffer so much indignity over these years when I had once been known in the business world for being unstoppable and decisive.

…

As I was in the middle of packing my suitcase, a crying Kimberly Lane came running in. She was Lucas' current assistant and also his first love.

"Selina, I'm so sorry. I was here the other day to deliver some documents to Mr. Gardner, but my period suddenly came. That's why I took one of your pads to use. I didn't think you'd misunderstand.

"Please don't divorce Mr. Gardner. Otherwise, I'll never be able to prove my innocence."

I listened to her insincere apology, my lips curving into a cold sneer. "If I don't divorce him, how else am I supposed to clear the way for you?"

Kimberly's voice instantly became choked with tears. "Selina, how could you say that? I've never thought about interfering with your marriage with Mr. Gardner. I—"

I interrupted her with, "Is it that you never thought about it or that you couldn't do it?"

Back then, the Gardner family wanted Lucas to pick out a wife from among the socialites in the city. As an illegitimate child of the Lane family, Kimberly was the first to be excluded from the list.

Seven years later, the Lane family had long since gone bankrupt by the time Kimberly returned to the country. Thus, the only way for her to get close to him was to become his assistant.

Kimberly burst into even more pitiful crying. "Since you don't believe me, I'll just resign! Is that good enough for you?"

"Do whatever you want!" I tossed Lucas' earlier words to me back at her before lowering my head and ignoring her.

Ever since Kimberly started working as his assistant two years ago, I've brought up a divorce with Lucas countless times. Every single time, she would also say that she would resign.

Now that I was genuinely going to divorce Lucas, Kimberly was still using the same trick to garner sympathy.

Lucas had long since grown tired of my jealous behavior, yet he remained as helpless against her pretentious methods as ever.

"Selina, please don't leave! Don't divorce Mr. Gardner!" Big, fat tears slipped freely down Kimberly's cheeks as she played up the heartbroken, innocent act. She even seized my arm and shook it vigorously, just like in those TV series. "Hit me if you want! Just please, don't be angry anymore!"

With that, she seized my hand and brought it to her face, where she began slapping herself with it.

I watched her terrible acting, my brows furrowing into a frown as I silently counted, "Ten, nine, eight—"

I didn't even get to seven before Lucas dashed inside anxiously. "Stop it!"

He roared at me furiously, "Selina Quinton, you've gone too far! At the end of the day, Kimmy is still our classmate! How could you bear to hit her?"

Like all the times before, Lucas arrived just in time to see me hit Kimberly and immediately assumed that I was guilty without even learning the truth first.

I shook my head with a bitter smile. He was getting skilled at the act of being the knight in shining armor who had come to save the damsel in distress.

Setting down my suitcase, I took my time straightening my back before focusing my attention on Lucas first.

"Go see an optometrist if you have such bad eyesight. I hit her? As if I would dirty my hand like that!"

"You!"

My retort rendered him momentarily speechless.

Then, I turned to look at Kimberly.

"If I remember correctly, I didn't actually hear a knock on the door, nor did I get up to open the door for you." Staring intently into her eyes, I continued, "So, how did you get in here?"

Kimberly's face drained of all color as she swayed on her feet and almost fell to the floor.

However, a muscled arm was quick to dart out and wrap around her waist in support.