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. "