Chapter 1

The night before our tenth wedding anniversary, I had a nightmare.

In the dream, I walked into Elijah Lopez's office and caught him passionately making out with his secretary.

I was absolutely devastated, but I stood my ground, demanding a divorce to defend my love and my dignity.

But instead of remorse, Elijah used his massive industry connections to blacklist me. He blocked every single path I had, leaving me with absolutely no way out.

Having nowhere to go, I was reduced to begging on the streets just to survive.

When I woke up, I headed to his office to drop off a homemade lunch I had packed for him.

And sure enough, I walked right into that exact scene.

His secretary had flushed cheeks and shot me a provocative look.

Elijah didn't even flinch. He just arched a sharp brow, asking casually, "So, what? Are you going to throw a fit?"

Thinking about how my nightmare ended, I flashed him a dazzling smile.

"Of course not! Kiss her all you want. I'll just pretend I didn't see a thing."

*****

Elijah's face hardened, one eyebrow arching up.

"Is this your way of playing hard to get?" he asked, slipping his hands into his pockets with a casual arrogance.

I shook my head lightly, walked over, and placed the lunchbox directly into Linda May's hands.

"He has a terrible stomach," I told her. "Please make sure to keep an eye on him. From now on, I'll take care of the cooking, and you can handle the feeding. Let's make it a fun little partnership, shall we?"

Before Linda could even open her mouth, Elijah clamped his hand around my wrist, his annoyance flaring.

"You claim you're not mad, so what kind of performance is this?" he snapped.

He pressed his lips into a thin line before offering his excuse.

"Linda just lost a game of Truth or Dare with the team. The punishment was to make out with a guy for sixty seconds. She couldn't find anyone else, so she asked me to step in..."

If I hadn't had that nightmare, I would have totally lost my mind right then and there. I would have called him a liar, screamed my lungs out, and demanded a divorce.

But seeing the exact same callous look in Elijah's eyes that I saw in my dream, I simply raised my free hand to cut him off.

"I get it. You were just playing along. I'm not blaming you," I said flatly.

Elijah choked on his next words, his intense eyes locking onto mine.

The room suddenly went dead silent.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elijah shoot Linda a look, silently ordering her to leave.

But instead of walking out, she stepped right up to me and burst into tears.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Lopez. I didn't mean to cross a line," she sobbed, her voice trembling. "It's just... that was my first kiss, and I couldn't just give it to some random guy, so I begged Mr. Lopez to help.

"Please don't be mad at him. If you need to vent, just take it out on me. I'm just a secretary, anyway."

She didn't mean to?

But this was hardly the first time she had tested my boundaries.

Somehow, a matching set of "couple" coffee mugs had mysteriously found their way onto Elijah's desk.

At company banquets, she always made a point to loudly announce to our clients that Elijah hated cilantro and only took his coffee with three sugars, subtly hinting that she knew my husband better than I did.

Whenever clients jokingly teased her about acting like the real Mrs. Lopez, she would just blush, lower her eyes, and smile, never once denying or correcting them.

For the sake of Elijah's reputation and the company's image, I had swallowed my pride and bottled up my fury for months.

But now, I was done tolerating.

I calmly pulled a tissue from my purse and handed it to her to dry her fake tears.

"Why would I take it out on you? Who else is going to look after Mr. Lopez at the office for me?"

I could practically feel the temperature in the room drop as Elijah's expression darkened.

"Are you done with your little act?" he growled. "Avery Bennett, there's a limit to how much you can play this game."

Then, as if struck by a thought, he shook his head and let out a cruel sneer.

"Honestly, you're much better suited for the role of the insecure wife, the one who completely loses her mind over the slightest breeze."