EMPOWERED ME

For six years, my husband, Corbin, used his severe mysophobia as an excuse for why he could never touch me. I believed him, until I saw him tenderly caress another woman-his ex-girlfriend, Annis. When I was later left bleeding on the pavement after saving her life, he walked right past me to comfort her, his eyes filled with a fury I'd never seen.

He didn't ask if I was okay. He didn't call for help. He just looked at me with disgust and said, "My priority is you," to her, before walking away.

The final blow came when Annis smugly revealed the truth: Corbin only married me for my family's connections. He called our marriage a "contract."

I wasn't his wife; I was a business deal.

So, while he was distracted by Annis's "anxiety" in my hospital room, I had him sign a document he thought was a template for a friend. It was our divorce agreement. He's about to find out he's not just single-he's also broke. Because I just gave away every last cent of the fortune he gave me to win me back.

Chapter 1

Kennedy POV:

For six years, I convinced myself that my husband, Corbin Franco, couldn't stand to touch me because of his severe mysophobia and OCD. But that lie shattered today, the moment I saw him gently tuck a stray strand of hair behind another woman's ear.

In New York's elite circles, Corbin and I were a paradox. He was the city's most brilliant and ruthless prosecutor, the "Ice Prince" of the Manhattan DA's office, a man whose cold precision in the courtroom was legendary. I was Kennedy Pitts, a socialite and heiress from a family whose money was so old it was practically fossilized. We were the perfect, glossy power couple on paper.

In reality, our three years of marriage, preceded by three years of dating, had been a landscape of polite distance.

Our home was less a shared space and more two separate, sterile territories. His side of the closet was organized by color, fabric, and season, each hanger precisely one inch apart. My side was… well, it was a closet. We had separate bathrooms, separate studies, and, of course, separate beds in a master suite so large our sleeping quarters were in different zip codes.

Every surface in his domain was wiped down with antiseptic cloths hourly. He wore gloves to handle the mail. He never touched doorknobs with his bare hands. He owned more hand sanitizer than a hospital.

And he never, ever touched me.

Not a casual hand on my back as we entered a gala. Not a simple holding of hands while we walked in Central Park. Our wedding kiss had been a brief, sterile press of his lips to my forehead, a gesture so devoid of passion it felt more like a diagnosis than a declaration of love.

For six years, I had tried. Oh, how I had tried.

In the beginning, I' d playfully try to link my arm with his, only to have him stiffen and pull away as if my skin were poison ivy. "Kennedy, please," he would murmur, his voice tight with a discomfort that I mistook for a symptom of his condition. He would then retreat to his bathroom for a solid ten minutes of furious hand scrubbing.

I tried cooking for him, pouring my love into gourmet meals, only to watch him politely decline, explaining he could only eat food prepared in a kitchen he had personally supervised for sanitation.

I bought him gifts-cashmere sweaters, expensive watches, first-edition books. They would be accepted with a cool, "Thank you, Kennedy," and then disappear into a designated "gift closet," never to be seen, worn, or used.

I accepted it all. I told myself this was the price of loving a genius. I told myself his mind was a finely tuned instrument and his phobias were the unfortunate side effect. I believed that beneath the layers of latex gloves and antiseptic wipes was a man who loved me, in his own unique, untouchable way.

I was a fool.

And I knew it, with the blinding certainty of a lightning strike, on this crisp autumn afternoon.

I was at an outdoor cafe in SoHo, waiting for my friend Madison, when I saw him. Corbin was supposed to be in court, delivering the closing arguments on a high-profile fraud case. But there he was, sitting at a small table not twenty feet away.

And he wasn't alone.

He was with a woman. She was delicate, with large, doe-like eyes and an air of fragility that seemed to command protection. Corbin's entire posture, which was usually ramrod straight and tense, was relaxed. He was leaning forward, his focus entirely on her.

I watched, my coffee growing cold in my hands, as she shivered slightly in the breeze. Corbin immediately shrugged off his tailored suit jacket-a jacket I knew cost more than a small car-and draped it over her shoulders. He did it without a flicker of hesitation.

Then, his hand, the same hand that would flinch if I accidentally brushed against it, came up. He wasn't wearing his customary gloves. His bare fingers, long and elegant, gently brushed a wisp of her dark hair from her cheek. He tucked it behind her ear, his touch so tender, so natural, it made my breath catch in my throat.

He was smiling. Not his usual tight, polite smile for the cameras, but a genuine, soft smile that reached his ice-blue eyes and warmed them in a way I had never seen.

The world tilted on its axis.

His mysophobia. His OCD. The impenetrable fortress of rules and rituals that had defined our entire relationship… it was a lie. Or, at the very least, it was a selective affliction. A weapon he used exclusively against me.

My hand trembled as I raised my phone, the screen shaking so badly I could barely focus. I zoomed in, the image pixelated but undeniable. Corbin, my husband, caressing another woman's face with an easy intimacy he had denied me for 2,190 days.

Click.

The shutter sound was like a gunshot in the quiet ruin of my heart.

"Kennedy? Earth to Kennedy!" Madison's voice snapped me back to reality as she slid into the chair opposite me. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

I couldn't speak. I just swiveled my phone and showed her the picture.

Madison's perfectly sculpted eyebrows shot up. "Whoa. Is that… Corbin? Who's the girl? I've never seen her before."

The question hung in the air. Who was she? Who was the woman who could melt the Ice Prince?

My voice was a raw whisper. "I don't know."

Madison leaned in, her expression turning serious. She squinted at the photo. "Wait a second… she looks familiar. Hold on." She pulled out her own phone, her thumbs flying across the screen. After a moment, she let out a low whistle. "Oh, honey. You're not going to like this."

She turned her phone towards me. It was a university alumni page. A younger Corbin stood with his arm around the same woman, both of them beaming. The caption read: Law School Prom King and Queen, Corbin Franco and Annis Holder.

"Annis Holder?" The name was unfamiliar, a blank space in the six years of history I thought I shared with him.

"Corbin's college girlfriend," Madison said, her voice gentle. "They were… intense. The 'it' couple of Columbia Law. Everyone thought they'd get married."

"What happened?" I asked, my voice hollow.

Madison hesitated. "It's ancient history, Kenny. He never told you?"

I shook my head, a new wave of cold washing over me. He had never mentioned her. Not once.

"She has some kind of rare bleeding disorder," Madison explained softly. "Hemophilia, I think. It was a big deal back then. Corbin was crazily protective of her. There was this one time, during a mock trial competition, she got a paper cut. Just a tiny little thing. Corbin stopped the entire proceeding, carried her out of the room, and drove her to the emergency room himself, blowing off the final round. He lost the competition, a scholarship was on the line. He didn't care. All he cared about was her."

My mind went blank. A paper cut. He had thrown away a scholarship for her over a paper cut.