Chapter 1

Jacob's POV

Anna Green's answer sent the entire hall into an uproar.

"Ms. Green, can you tell us more? How did you two meet?"

The reporters surged toward her.

By the time I came back to my senses, the hall had emptied, leaving me there alone. Somehow, I made it to the parking garage.

Anna was still there, as though she'd been waiting for me. She came over as soon as she saw me.

Instead of explaining herself, she went straight to the point. "Nancy needs another blood transfusion next week. I only confirmed the relationship because it was what Tyler wanted."

After a brief pause, she added, "We were just putting on a show. Don't let it bother you."

Her words left a crushing weight on my chest. Once again, it was all because of Tyler Cooper.

Anna and I had a four-year-old daughter named Nancy Pollard. She had been diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia shortly after she was born.

For Nancy's sake, Anna had brought in nearly every renowned specialist in the country. After all that searching, Tyler was the only donor they found who could be on call whenever Nancy needed blood.

From then on, Anna gave him anything he asked for.

This wasn't the first time she had used Nancy's illness as an excuse to give Tyler his way. She had let him move into our villa and even smashed our wedding portrait just to please him.

And now she had actually stood before the press and told the world she was with Tyler.

We had been married for five years, yet Anna still kept me hidden as though I were the other man.

I clenched my fists at my sides. Holding Anna's gaze, I gave her a humorless smile. "So you'd sleep with Tyler too if he asked?"

Every time I brought up going public with our marriage, Anna shut me down. It was always her career or that the timing wasn't right.

She wouldn't even publicly acknowledge Nancy as our daughter. As far as anyone knew, Nancy had been born out of wedlock.

"Or maybe you've already slept with him. Anna, I'm your husband. I'm not some guy you have to sneak around with!"

My shout echoed through the parking garage.

Anna's face darkened, and an uneasy silence fell between us.

Then the passenger-side window of a luxury car parked nearby rolled down, and Tyler poked his head out. He looked surprised to see me, but a smile quickly spread across his face.

He rested one hand on the window ledge and called out, "Mr. Pollard? I knew there was something familiar about the reporter back there. I had no idea it was you."

A ring flashed on his finger, and the sight stopped me cold. My eyes dropped to Anna's hand. She wore its match.

All the fight went out of me.

Anna had never worn her wedding ring. I had stumbled across it in the storage room once while cleaning the house.

She said wearing it would raise questions. She needed the public to believe she was single.

Anna moved to block my view of Tyler, then turned to him and said gently, "Roll up the window. It's cold, and you haven't been well lately."

When she looked at me again, conflict flickered in her eyes. "Jacob, I'm only doing this for Nancy. Tyler is the only person willing to keep donating blood, so I'm giving him what he wants.

"If you want Nancy to stay alive, stop making a scene. You know what you're supposed to write, don't you?"

Anna drove off with Tyler as soon as she finished speaking.

I stood there, numb, until another car's horn jolted me out of my daze.

When I checked my phone, Anna's announcement was already all over the trending page. People online gushed over them, flooding the comments with congratulations.

I gripped my phone tighter. Before I knew what I was doing, I pulled up a photo of our marriage certificate from my private album and posted it on social media.