Married For Convenience, Loved In Death
He was staring out the window, his back to me
f emotion. "I don't want anything. No ali
of disbelief on his face. It qui
hing I've given you? The clothes, the cars, the jewelry, this ho
lips. It was a power move, a way to trap me. He thought
have to pay me back. Every single dollar I have spent on you
To cry. To plead. He ex
of calm. I had been preparing
ht," I
m off. He stared at me, his
m. But I had been smart. The unlimited credit card he'd given me wasn't just for purses and shoes. I had funneled millions into a
million dollars," he said, the number meant to shock and inti
it on his desk. It contained bank statements, stock portfolio summaries, and real estate hold
illion this afternoon," I told him
red at the papers, then back at me, as if seeing me for the first time. The man who thought he had bought and paid
older. Then, I took off the five-carat diamond ring he'd given me, the one that
eys are on the counter. The house
steps toward the door when I heard
a cho
re streaming through his fingers, dripping onto the pristine financial statements. T
. I had never seen him cry. I ha
is voice thick and broken.
. "It was a test," he choked out. "All of it. The video
, my mind refusing t
e back, I thought... I thought if I pretended to choose her, if I pushed you away, I could see if you really cared.
investigator sent me the proof an hour ago. She set the whole thing up to make you look
leaving behind a hollow ache. He hadn't betrayed me out of love for Chloe, but out of a profound in
ed and swollen. "I'm so, so sorry. I nev
d waited five years to hear, and now th
yself say. The words
d at me,
get on that stage, and you will tell the entire world that I am your wife. And you will expo
lled eyes. "Yes," he said immediately. "