Chapter 1

Suzan’s POV

The double doors of the grand library were left slightly ajar, a thin sliver of warm, amber light cutting across the dark hallway of the Sterling estate.

I stopped dead in my tracks, the porcelain teacup in my hands rattling against its saucer. I had only come downstairs to get some hot water to soothe my restless stomach, a stomach that had been turning with a faint, persistent nausea for the past week.

"You are throwing away a diamond for a piece of glass, Draven!" Grandma Eleanor’s voice was uncharacteristically sharp, echoing with fierce disappointment. I had never heard her speak to her grandson with such venom.

"Suzan is a brilliant, gentle girl," Eleanor continued, her cane tapping aggressively against the hardwood floor. "She has stood by you for two years, endured your absolute neglect, and protected this family's reputation while you treated her like a ghost in her own home! How can you stand there and tell me you want to end this?"

I held my breath, my chest tightening so hard I could barely draw air. I pressed myself closer to the shadow of the doorframe, my heart hammering against my ribs.

"You forced this marriage on me, Grandmother," Draven’s voice was smooth, cold, and entirely unyielding. It was the tone he used when closing a hostile takeover.

"You fell for her sweet, innocent act. But I know who Suzan really is, I’ve seen the evidence of the girl she bullied in school, the rumors of the men she slept with before she wore my ring. I tolerated this arrangement to secure my position, but the two years are up."

A short, heavy silence fell over the room before Draven delivered the final, crushing blow.

"And more importantly... I have finally found the girl who saved my life all those years ago."

My hand trembled, hot tea spilling over the rim of the cup, burning my skin, I didn't even flinch.

"It was Cassandra," Draven said, his voice dropping into a register of quiet, profound reverence I had never once heard him use with me.

"She has the other half of the pendent, Grandmother, I have found the girl I actually love.

And I am ready to divorce Suzan. I will not waste another day of my life bound to a cruel, loose, manipulative bully."

The cup slipped from my fingers, shattering against the plush hallway carpet.

The soft sound of porcelain breaking was lost in the vastness of the mansion, but inside my chest, the final, fragile piece of my heart had just disintegrated.

The silver pendant. It was Draven, my stomach growling with realisation.

A dizzying wave of blackness threatened to pull me under. I remembered the heavy, suffocating smoke from the childhood kidnapping... the terrifying dark... and the boy I had dragged out of the burning warehouse before collapsing from a fever that erased my memories of his face. I had kept that silver brooch on my nightstand until the day it mysteriously vanished from my room.

Cassandra hadn't just stolen my father's love. She hadn't just fabricated the horrific rumors, the fake photos, and the lies that branded me a loose, malicious bully to destroy my reputation.

She had stolen my husband. She had taken the one pure, beautiful thing I had ever done and used it as a weapon to make the man I loved despise me.

My hand instinctively dropped to my stomach.

Three weeks ago, when Draven had come home drunk and desperate, pinning me against the wall and making love to me with a raw, frenzied passion, I had foolishly believed the ice was finally melting. I had let myself hope. But at the peak of our intimacy, as he held me tight in the dark, he had groaned her name.

“Cassandra…”

I had spent the last weeks in a state of numb, protective shock, secretly taking a pregnancy test that confirmed my worst fear, I was carrying his child. I had been terrified, wondering how I could raise a baby in this freezing, hostile cage.

But hearing his voice through the library door tonight, declaring his love for my stepsister, the fog in my mind vanished. It was replaced by a cold, sharp, maternal instinct.

He was going to divorce me for Cassandra. If I stayed, she would walk into this house as the new Mrs. Sterling. She would discover my pregnancy.

Any attempt to explain myself at this point will not yield results, rather will buy me more hate and name calling.

She would poison Draven's mind against our baby, branding my child a lie, just as she had branded me.

I will not let her touch my child, I thought, a sudden, fierce steel hardening in my veins. I will leave first.

I turned and glided up the grand staircase, a phantom in the dark.

The moment the heavy door of my bedroom clicked shut, my icy composure completely shattered. I collapsed against the wood, my knees giving way as a choked, agonizing sob finally ripped from my throat. I pressed my hands over my mouth, desperate to stifle the sound, but the tears flooded over my fingers, hot and uncontrollable.

It hurt. God, it hurt so much it felt like my chest was physically cracking open. The betrayal was absolute, a toxic poison running through my blood. But I couldn't afford to fall apart. Pride was a luxury for a woman trying to disappear from a billionaire.

If I left with nothing but the clothes on my back, I would be entirely dependent on bank accounts Draven could freeze with a single phone call to his legal team. If I wanted to protect my unborn child, I needed capital. Untraceable, liquid capital.

I dragged a large, sturdy leather suitcase out from the top of my closet and threw it onto the bed.

With trembling but purposeful hands, I walked over to my vanity and opened the heavy, velvet-lined jewelry box. Inside lay the glittering spoils of a hollow marriage, pieces Draven had gifted me over the last two years, not out of affection, but to ensure his wife looked the part of a Sterling matriarch at public galas. Especially when Grandma Eleanor insists I attend.

I didn't hesitate. I grabbed the diamond tennis bracelets, the platinum drop earrings, and the flawless sapphire necklace. I swept them all into a heavy canvas pouch and buried them deep in the center of the suitcase.

Next, I moved to the walk-in closet, bypassing the silk dresses and going straight for the high-value luxury assets. I pulled down the pristine Hermes Birkin bags and the limited-edition Chanel purses.

In the high-end consignment world, these pieces were as good as gold, easily exchanged for thousands of dollars in cash. I packed them tightly, buffering them with my most comfortable sweaters and practical clothes.

Draven had used his wealth to buy my compliance, now, I would use his wealth to buy my freedom.

I sat at my desk and pulled out my phone. With a few quick, silent taps on a private ride-sharing app, I secured a discrete premium car service.

With the ride confirmed, I pulled out the thick stack of divorce papers I had kept hidden for months.

My hand didn't shake.

I signed my name on the final line in bold, permanent black ink.

I waived every single asset in the legal text, the houses, the stocks, the official alimony. I wanted no ties to him. The valuables in my suitcase would be my final severance package.

Holding the documents against my chest, I walked back across the grand landing and entered his darkened bedroom one last time.

The room smelled of rain and cedarwood. Draven lay on his side, completely dead to the world, his sharp, aristocratic profile silhouetted against the weak, pre-dawn light.

I walked to his side of the bed, stepping up to the mahogany nightstand. With a firm, deliberate tug, I pulled the heavy, five-carat diamond wedding ring off my finger. I set it down on the wood, where it caught a stray glint of dawn. Next to it, I laid the thick, heavy stack of signed divorce papers.

Finally, I pulled a heavy, black Montblanc pen from my pocket, uncapped it, and laid it directly across the signature line meant for him.

"You told me that expecting anything more from this was a waste of my time," I whispered, my voice a hollow, barely audible rasp in the quiet room. "I'm finally listening."

I turned away from the bed. I didn't look back.