Chapter 3

James felt more and more confused. He should've resented his legal wife—me—for controlling his life, but now that he was actually free of me, he couldn't help feeling agitated and restless.

I was lying in bed, idly playing games on my phone, when I suddenly received a text message from James.

"Have you made up your mind? You'd better not try playing hard to get."

My anger instantly flared, and I promptly blocked him.

James stared at his phone.

When he realized that I wasn't replying, he became even more furious. Even he couldn't put up with Yvette's fussing much longer, so he decided to call me directly.

When he heard the robotic voice notifying him that he'd been blocked, he was so mad that he smashed his phone against the ground.

In the past, whenever we had a falling out, I would be the first to relent and butter him up, and he would always take the out.

This time, however, a month went by without me seeking him out.

I received a message from my secretary, Ellen Weber, that read, "Ms. Churchill, the schedule for our next quarter's product launch has been finalized, but we haven't been able to contact Mr. Linden."

It looked like James was determined to make trouble for me.

He wanted me to apologize to Yvette? He could dream on.

When I recalled how he'd humiliated me before, my anger flared higher, and I abandoned any thought of getting him to host the product launch.

I abruptly thought of someone else.

"Ellen, help me contact the Hendrick family's heir," I instructed.

The system was still modifying the main plot bit by bit, but I'd already decided to give up on James completely.

Yvette frowned at James, who spent all day staring at his phone.

She asked in puzzlement, "Haven't you already decided to teach her a lesson and thoroughly embarrass her during the product launch? You even hired some reporters ahead of time to put her on the spot."

James' expression hardened, and he snorted coldly. "Without me, they won't be able to go ahead with the product launch. She'll have no choice but to apologize to you and beg me on her knees!"

He thought to himself that as long as I pleaded with him, he would agree to help.

He knew that the male lead was necessary to proceed with the product launch, so he was waiting for me to make the first move, just like I had countless times before. Then, the story would unfold as it was supposed to.

However, up until the morning of the product launch, I never contacted him.

I'd already sought out Zayne and asked him to stand in for James. Everything was proceeding more smoothly than I expected, and would likely have continued to do so had James not shown up.

He shoved open the door and rushed into the conference room. When he saw Zayne standing on stage, he looked as if he'd swallowed a lemon.

"Where did this man come from? Who allowed him on stage?" he demanded.

He rudely interrupted the product launch, earning him side-eyed looks from everyone present. I frowned and suppressed the urge to roll my eyes.

Not only did James bail on me for the product launch, but he had now come to cause trouble at the venue.

"This is our new product's ambassador, Zayne Hendrick. Do you have any objections to that, sir?" I asked with a smile.

Everyone looked toward me, then turned scrutinizing gazes on me and James—the couple who'd just recently made headlines.

James strolled slowly and confidently onto the stage, acting as if he had some sort of hold over me.

"You tried to pull a fast one by hiring a fake ambassador, didn't you, Mia? You certainly have some nerve to try and deceive so many people," he said mockingly.

I said nothing, even as the audience erupted into uproar and chaos descended upon the venue.

"No way! Could Ms. Churchill have cheated on her husband first and is now trying to help that other man rise to power through this stunt?"

"Ms. Churchill, if this ambassador is a fake, it'll be difficult for us to believe in your company's credibility! We'll have to reconsider our partnership."

"If your company was willing to settle for a random stand-in, may we take it as a valid reason to assume that the quality of your company's products isn't as good as you claim either?"