He threw money on the bed after our one-night stand.
I threw it back in his face at his own inauguration.
By sundown, we were engaged. By the week's end — married.
Franklin Flemington needed a wife to secure his empire. I needed a miracle to save my family. For two years, we played our parts flawlessly — the golden couple the whole city envied.
Behind closed doors, I was invisible to him.
When the two years were up, I handed him divorce papers without blinking.
He stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "I've given you everything a husband should. What more do you want from me, Octavia?"
I smiled, signed my name, and walked out.
I thought that was the end. I thought I'd finally won.
I forgot one thing — Franklin Flemington has never lost anything in his life. And he has no intention of starting with me.
Game on.

For hours, Franklin and I just sat together on the edge of the mattress. He hadn't paced, and he hadn't raged; instead, he sat completely still, he tried to process the fact that his Aunt Maria's decades-old malice was fueled by a twisted, unrequited obsession with his father.


I stayed right beside him, shifting closer, wrapping my arms securely around his broad shoulders. I didn't try to fill the silence with empty, reassuring words. I just let him lean his heavy forehead against my neck, breathing him in, letting him know through my touch that no matter what it was, we will get through it together .


"She hated me because I look like my mum and dad," Franklin murmured, his deep voice thick, rough, and entirely exhausted. He pulled back slightly, staring blankly at the floor. "Every time she looked at me, she didn't just see her nephew. She saw the man who rejected her for my mother."


Chapter 284 - ~ 283