That night, in that same house, still in my wedding dress, he handed me a contract instead of touching me.
“I’ve got someone I like,” he said, like he was talking about the weather. Cold. Detached. “She’s not from the right background, and my family won’t accept her. But give me five years.”
I remember just staring at him, my hands shaking as I held the paper.
Five years?
“For these five years, you stay as my wife in name,” he continued. “I’ll take control of the Hayes family, and when I do, no one will dare say shit about who I choose. After that…” He looked at me like I was nothing more than a business deal. “We divorce. Clean. Simple.”
That night, I signed the papers like he wanted. My hands didn’t even feel like mine when I wrote my name. It was just… done. Like I’d already lost before anything even started.
Then I locked myself in the bathroom and cried until morning. No sound, just shaking and choking on it, biting my sleeve so no one would hear. Like that would change anything.
Less than three months into the marriage, Amber disappeared. Just… gone. I heard they had a huge fight before that, but no one told me details. I didn’t need them. I saw what it did to him.