Chapter 1

My ex-wife, Lillian Harmon, managed to find out where my daughter, Rosetta Coleman, and I were living now, though I had no idea how she did it. She kept hanging around my doorstep, demanding that I let her in.

Having reached the end of my rope, I threw the door open and gave her a stern warning. "Ma'am, if you continue to trespass on private property, I'll call the cops!"

At those words, her expression hardened. Confusion and disbelief clouded her face. "Daniel, you weren't like this before… We've been married for a decade…"

I sneered, "Oh? In that case, just how was I before?"

Lillian parted her lips, but she couldn't come up with an answer.

I hadn't changed. My attitude toward her had.

We had been secretly married for ten years, and Rosie was nine now. Yet, Lillian never once treated us kindly, nor did she ever acknowledge us as her family.

It all started because she had gotten drunk, slept with me, and ended up pregnant with Rosie. Lillian believed I took advantage of her, resulting in her getting pregnant out of wedlock and being forced to marry me.

For Rosie's sake, I constantly tried to mend our relationship, fruitlessly putting in effort, only to be met with cold indifference. I had done that for a decade. Now that my heart had gone cold and I was no longer catering to her every whim, Lillian wasn't used to it.

"Where's Rosie? And why are there women's clothes on the couch?" Lillian craned her neck to peer into my house. Then, she tensed up.

Rosie was the nickname I had given our daughter. Lillian had never used it before. This was a first.

"Rosie is out playing with her mother. As for the clothes on the couch, they belong to my newlywed wife," I explained calmly.

Lillian took an abrupt step back. Her hand trembled as she reached out to steady herself against the doorframe.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and a flash of pure shock crossed her face. "How... How could you marry another woman? We... We aren't even divorced yet!"

I shook my head before correcting her. "I left the divorce agreement on your desk three months ago."

As Harmon Group's CEO, Lillian was a workaholic who practically lived in her office 24/7. There was no way she hadn't seen it. She most probably simply hadn't taken it seriously.

At the end of the day, she was so sure of herself and so certain that I would never leave her that she assumed I was just throwing a tantrum. But now that I was actually following through with it, she was losing her composure.

Clenching her fists, she looked me in the eye and said, "I don't agree to the divorce!"

I couldn't care less. "Since our marriage was never legally registered, I don't need your consent to dissolve it."

Back then, I practically begged Lillian to register our marriage, but she put it off with every excuse imaginable. When I suggested holding a wedding ceremony, she was equally unwilling. In the end, we simply had a meal with both our relatives and got married.

After that, she used her heavy workload as a pretext to stay at the office every day and night. In other words, she rarely came home. Yet here she was, telling me she didn't want a divorce. What kind of game was she playing now?

Noticing the heartbroken and regretful expression on her face, I felt nothing but a sense of irony.

Like a madwoman, she abruptly grasped my arm and tried to drag me out. "Haven't you always wanted to register our marriage? Let's go do it right now!"

I shook off her hand. "It's too late. I don't want to anymore. Your heart was never with us, so what difference does it make whether we're officially married or not? Besides, I already have a new wife, and she is far more devoted than you ever were."

Lillian looked devastated. She clutched the corner of my shirt, and her lips quivered as she pleaded with me. "Can you give me one more chance? I'll make it up to you and Rosie!"

I pushed her away. "It's over between us. Let go of me! I don't want my wife to see this."

As soon as my words fell, my wife, Vivienne Schwartz, came home, holding Rosie's hand. The two of them were inseparable. Anyone would think they were a biological mother and daughter.