Chapter 1

Nora's POV

"Fuck me, Daddy... harder... yes, just like that..."

The filthy, desperate moan hit me the second I pushed open our bedroom door, and I froze with one hand still resting on the doorknob.

Then I looked up.

My best friend, Nadia, was on all fours in the middle of our matrimonial bed, the sheets tangled around her knees, while my husband, Dennis, was behind her, one hand fisted in her hair and the other gripping her hip so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.

He was driving into her with deep, punishing thrusts, and the sound of skin slapping against skin filled the room.

For several seconds, my mind simply refused to process what my eyes were seeing.

Dennis was with Nadia.

My husband was sleeping with my best friend.

I stood there staring at them, unable to breathe, while the reality slowly settled over me like a heavy weight pressing against my chest.

I had spent the entire afternoon rushing through work because I wanted to surprise my husband with dinner for our fifth wedding anniversary.

I had even left the office earlier than usual, ignoring the mountain of paperwork waiting for me because I wanted to do something special for Dennis.

I thought I was coming home to surprise my husband.

Instead, I was the one being destroyed by a surprise I never could have imagined.

My eyes slowly adjusted to the scene in front of me, and the more clearly I saw them, the more painful it became.

They were both naked, completely consumed by each other and so lost in what they were doing that neither of them had noticed me standing at the door.

My fingers tightened around the doorknob as the reality finally sank in, and something inside me shattered.

"What is going on here?!"

My scream tore through the room so violently that my throat burned.

They both turned toward me.

Nadia froze first, her eyes widening as she quickly grabbed the sheets and pulled them over her body, but what shocked me most was the complete lack of guilt on her face.

She didn't look ashamed, horrified or even embarrassed about being caught in bed with my husband.

Instead, she looked irritated, as though I had interrupted something private that I had no right to see.

Dennis was even worse.

He didn't react like a man who had just been caught cheating on his wife with her best friend.

There was no panic in his eyes, no desperate attempt to explain himself and no trace of shame on his face.

He calmly pulled away from Nadia, reached for his boxers and put them on slowly, completely unbothered by the fact that I was standing in the doorway watching everything.

When he was done, he looked at me with nothing but irritation.

"What are you doing here, Nora?" he asked coldly. "Weren't you supposed to be supervising my shipments?"

For a moment, I simply stared at him because I couldn't believe those were the first words he had chosen to say to me.

A hollow laugh escaped my mouth before I could stop it, and I shook my head slowly as my hands trembled at my sides.

"Are you serious right now?" My voice cracked as tears began burning behind my eyes. "That's what you're asking me?"

I pointed between him and Nadia, my hand shaking so badly that I could barely keep it steady.

"I just walked into our bedroom and found you in bed with my best friend, and you're asking me about shipments?"

Dennis's jaw tightened slightly, but his expression didn't change.

"And what do you want me to say?" he asked calmly. "That I'm sorry and we pretend this never happened?"

My chest rose and fell sharply as I fought to hold myself together.

"Yes," I whispered. "At least have the decency to give me an explanation for this disgusting behavior."

He laughed under his breath, and the sound made my stomach twist.

"I'm not sorry, Nora."

I blinked at him, stunned by the complete lack of remorse in his voice.

"What?"

Dennis rubbed his jaw before finally looking directly at me.

"If anything," he said, his voice becoming colder, "I think you walked in at the right time."

I looked between him and Nadia, my whole body shaking as I tried to understand what he meant.

"So what is this?" I asked, my voice breaking. "She's the reason, isn't she? My best friend is the reason you've been ignoring me and denying me sex this whole time?"

Dennis didn't answer immediately. Instead, his eyes slowly moved over my body, and the disgust on his face was impossible to miss.

"I'd rather shoot myself seven times in the head than have sex with you, Nora."

My lips parted in shock.

"W... What?"

"Have you taken a good look at yourself?" he asked coldly. "Just look at the way you're sweating. You fucking weigh two hundred and fifty pounds, Nora."

He slammed his fist against the dresser, and I flinched at the sudden sound.

"I'm tired of pretending in this hellhole you call a marriage," he continued, his voice flat and stripped of whatever little emotion he might have had left. "You're the worst mistake of my life."

"That's not fair..."

The words came out as a broken whisper, and I shook my head desperately while tears rolled down my cheeks.

"You know it's not my fault."

Dennis stepped closer, his eyes hardening.

"Then whose fault is it?"

I stared at him.

"Mine?"

I quickly shook my head.

He didn't give me the chance to say anything else.

"Is it my fault that you're always hungry and you eat more than fifteen times a day?"

"Dennis..."

"Oh, let me finish," he snapped.

I fell silent, my fingers curling into the fabric of my dress as I tried to hold myself together.

"It's my fault that you have no dress size and you can't even go to the gym? And as if that's not enough..."

He paused, looking at me with a coldness I had never seen in him before.

"You're barren."

My chest caved in.

"Dennis!"

The name left my lips as a choked cry, and the tears began falling faster, but he didn't even react.

He simply stared at me as though I were something he had already made peace with hating.

"Why are you acting like I told a lie?" he asked. "You've undergone ten IVFs in five years, and you come back empty every single time."

My knees felt weak, and I reached for the edge of the dresser to keep myself standing.

Dennis stared at me without the slightest hint of sympathy.

"So please tell me," he said, his voice low and controlled again, "what exactly are you good for?"

I looked at him through my tears, desperately searching his face for something familiar, some small sign that the man I loved was still somewhere inside him.

There was nothing.

His eyes stayed locked on mine.

"Honest advice, Nora, just die. The world is honestly better without you in it."

I felt as though the entire room had gone silent.

If anyone had told me that the man I had sacrificed everything for, the man I had supported when he had nothing, the man I had helped become one of the top five businessmen in New York, would one day stand in front of me and tell me that the world would be better without me in it, I would never have believed them.

Because I knew Dennis differently.

Or at least, I thought I did.

I met Dennis when he was just a struggling entrepreneur who was still trying to find his place in New York.

I was new to the city, and on my first day there, I attended a business conference where someone stole my bag.

I remember standing there in shock, not even knowing what to do, when Dennis noticed what had happened and immediately chased after the thief.

When he finally returned with my bag, I was shaking so badly that I could barely speak, so Dennis bought me coffee and stayed with me until I calmed down before offering me a ride home.

It was love at first sight for me.

I fell for the kind man who had gone out of his way to help a complete stranger, and for the longest time, I believed I had found the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

Somehow, over the years, he changed.

And instead of accepting that the man I married was no longer the man I had fallen in love with, I kept trying to fix what was breaking between us, even when it stopped making sense.

I went days without food because I thought losing weight would make him look at me differently.

I pushed myself until I fainted, ran laps around the estate until my legs could barely carry me and spent hours in the gym trying to force my body into something I believed he could love.

But no matter what I did, it was never enough.

My body only became another thing he hated about me.

I wiped my tears with the back of my hand before turning toward Nadia, and the heartbreak inside me quickly gave way to rage.

"You..."

My voice shook violently as I stared at the woman I had once considered my sister.

"I trusted you, Nadia. I told you everything about my marriage, and all this time, you were sleeping with my husband?"

Nadia stared at me for a few seconds before suddenly bursting into laughter.

The sound made my stomach twist.

She slowly slid off the bed, letting the sheet fall around her body before picking it up and wrapping it loosely around herself.

"Oh, please," she said, rolling her eyes. "Spare me the pathetic performance, Nora."

My chest tightened as she smiled at me.

"And since we're finally being honest, I've been his mistress for over three years now."

My heart dropped.

Three years?!

She had been sleeping with my husband for three years, and I had been sitting beside her, crying to her about my marriage and trusting her with every secret I had.

Nadia stepped closer, her eyes glittering with venom.

"And let's not pretend you didn't practically hand him to me. Weren't you the one crying to me every other week that your husband wouldn't have sex with you because he found your body repulsive?"

I stared at her in disbelief.

She let her gaze travel slowly over my body, making no effort to hide the contempt in her eyes.

"Look at you, Nora. Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Your body is so disgusting, yet you keep clinging to a marriage that died the day it started."

"Stop."

My voice came out weak, but Nadia only smiled.

"Dennis came to me because I'm everything you're not. Not only am I sexy, but I know exactly how to handle him."

She glanced at Dennis before looking back at me, clearly enjoying every second of my pain.

"Do you know he fucks me every day on this bed?"

My face burned with humiliation.

Nadia moved even closer, her voice dropping as though she wanted every word to cut as deeply as possible.

"So tell me, how exactly is this my fault that you failed as a wife?"

Something inside me snapped.

Before I could think about what I was doing, my body moved on its own.

I stepped forward and raised my hand.

"HOW DARE YOU..."