로그인HeidiMaya smiled at me in a way that screamed victory, and I didn’t need any explanations. She had always been Jace’s first choice, his first love. It only made sense that they were married now. What I couldn’t understand was the silence surrounding it. No announcements, no photographs of any kind that had once flooded the internet when Jace had been so eager to present her as his wife. Maybe he had simply chosen another hidden contract marriage the same way he once had with me.I lifted my gaze and offered a polite smile, forcing the sudden heaviness in my chest to settle.“Good evening, Mrs. Stanford.”The title that had once belonged to me tasted strange on my tongue, yet saying it aloud brought an unexpected emotion inside me. Jace turned toward her, his voice low but still clear enough for me to hear. “What are you doing here?”Maya’s smile remained soft, “You’ve been gone all day, honey. I finally got your schedule from your assistant and decided I wanted to be here for your
HEIDI“Miss Heidi, are you sure you’re leaving now?”I looked up from the patient file and smiled at Grace. “I promised Ethan I’d pick him up from school today. I’ve missed the last three pick-ups. If I disappoint him again he’ll refuse to talk to me for the rest of the evening.”Grace laughed. “He really knows how to make you feel guilty.”“He learned from the best.” I grabbed my bag. “Don’t jinx me.”The afternoon traffic was heavier than usual. Twenty minutes later I parked outside the school. I spotted Ethan immediately, clutching a football to his chest. The moment he saw me his face lit up.“Mummy!” He ran so hard I barely had time to crouch before he threw himself into my arms.“Hey, my handsome boy.”He thrust the ball at me. “Look! He signed it!”“Who?”“Captain Jace! He came to our school today. He watched me score a goal and then he signed my ball. He told me I play well. I said I wanted to be just like him and he told me not to be exactly like him—he said I should be bette
~~ 5 years later ~~HEIDI“Mummy! Hurry up!”The excited little voice echoed through the apartment before a pair of small feet came pounding down the hallway. I barely had time to close the lunchbox before a five-year-old wrapped his arms around my waist.“Easy there,” I laughed, brushing messy dark hair away from his forehead. “We’re already running late.”“No, we’re not.” He puffed out his chest. “My watch says we still have eleven minutes.”I glanced at the bright plastic watch on his wrist. The hands had stopped moving months ago. “Oh, has it?”He nodded seriously. “Uh-huh.”“Ethan, your watch doesn’t even work.”“It does.” he pouted.I crouched until we were eye level. “Then tell me what time it is.”He stared at the frozen face for a few seconds before flashing me a grin that looked painfully familiar. “It’s… morning.”I burst out laughing. “Thats very specific.”He giggled and reached for the lunchbox. “I can carry it. I’m a big boy now.”“I know that.”Those dark eyes, Jace’s
Jace’s POVI stood in the doorway of the bedroom staring at the empty space where Heidi’s things used to be. Her side of the wardrobe was empty. The little bottles of lotion she always left on the dresser were gone. Even the ridiculous mug she insisted on using every morning had disappeared. Three years. I had worn the marriage like a secret temporary contract, like something I could walk away from whenever I no longer needed it. So why did the thought of her actually being gone make it hard to breathe?I kept staring at her wardrobe , thinking about her. The way she had loved me without ever demanding I love her back. I had treated that love like background noise. Now the silence it left behind was deafening.My phone rang and I glanced over it. The caller ID says Maya. I let it go to voicemail for the first time. When it rang again I answered.“Jace? Can I come over?”I looked around the empty rooms. “Yeah. Come.”Twenty minutes later she was at the door, soft smile, familiar perfu
HEIDII didn’t sleep that night, I sat in the back of a taxi with my forehead against the cold window, watching Jace’s neighborhood disappear. My suitcase rested beside me. Inside it, still tucked away, was my wedding ring. I hadn’t been able to leave it behind. Maybe that made me weak. Or maybe some part of me simply wasn’t ready to admit the marriage was already over.By the time I reached my mother’s house the sky was beginning to lighten. I carried the suitcase straight to the guest room, closed the door, and sank onto the bed. My body was exhausted, but my mind kept replaying the night—his arms around me, the slow way he had moved inside me, the way he had looked at me afterward as if he was seeing me for the first time. For a few hours I had let myself believe something might finally change. Morning brought reality with it. I was still only Heidi Reed. His physiotherapist. The woman he had married because he needed a status and I needed tuition. Nothing had changed except tha
HEIDI’s povFor three years I had built my life around a man who never cared about me. The realization hurt. I decided within me that I was finally done with letting Jace use me anymore.At the clinic my colleague caught me staring at his latest scan for too long. “Are you even listening?”I blinked. “Sorry. I’m fine.”She laughed. “You always say that.”The scan showed the injury healing well. I should have felt relieved. I felt nothing. My phone vibrated.Jace: Where are you Heidi?.I locked the screen without answering. An hour later at the training facility he was already waiting. The moment he saw me his eyes narrowed.“You didn’t answer my messages.”“I was working, Jace.”“You always reply.”I opened my bag. “Sit down.”He didn’t move. “You’re angry with me. You’ve barely spoken in three days.”“I’ve been busy.”“You’re treating me like a stranger.”I almost laughed. “Aren’t I?”He caught my wrist. “You don’t get to shut me out.”I looked at his hand until he released me. Somet







