Lisa pushed open the apartment door, expecting... she wasn't sure what she was expecting. But what greeted her was darkness and silence."Alex?" she called out, flipping the light switch in the entryway. The overhead light flickered on, illuminating a thin layer of dust on the console table by the door. "Alex, are you home?"Silence.Lisa frowned, stepping further inside. The apartment felt wrong—cold, empty, abandoned. She walked through the living room, her heels clicking against the hardwood floor, and her irritation grew with each step.Dust had accumulated on the coffee table. The kitchen counter hadn't been wiped down. There were no dishes in the sink, but that was because no one had cooked anything. The apartment looked exactly as it had days ago when she'd left with Ben—untouched, uncleaned, unlived in."Alex!" Lisa's voice rose sharply, echoing through the empty rooms. "Where the hell are you? Why haven't you cleaned this place? It's a mess!"She stormed down the hallway towa

Lisa looked at her phone again, at the blocked messages and failed calls. In the past, Alex would have been home by now. He would have cooked her dinner, asked about her day, tried to smooth over whatever fight they'd had. He would have been there, constant and reliable as the sunrise.But now he was gone. And the silence he'd left behind was deafening."Fine," Lisa said, standing up abruptly. "Fine! If he wants to play games, if he wants to threaten me with divorce, then two can play at that. I'm not going to chase after him. I'm not going to beg him to come back. He wants to leave? Let him leave!"She threw the divorce papers back onto the counter with more force than necessary. "I'll show him. I'll prove that I don't need him. I never needed him. He was just... convenient. A firefighter with no ambition, no drive. I lifted him up, gave him a better life, and this is how he repays me?"Lisa paced the apartment, her fury building. "He'll come crawling back. They always do. Once he re

The name hit Lisa like a physical blow. She tried to keep her expression neutral, but Ben must have seen something because his eyes narrowed."It is Alex, isn't it?" Ben's voice took on an edge. "Lisa, you signed the divorce papers. It's over. Why are you still thinking about him?""I'm not—""Don't lie to me," Ben interrupted, leaning forward. "I see the way you keep checking your phone. The way you look at the door like you're expecting someone to walk through it. You're waiting for him to come back, aren't you?"Lisa's hands clenched on her desk. "That's not—I'm just—" She took a breath, trying to organize her thoughts. "I thought he would at least try to contact me. We were married for three years, Ben. And now it's like I never existed. Like those three years meant nothing.""They didn't mean anything," Ben said bluntly. "At least not to him. He left you, remember? He's the one who walked out. He's the one who filed for divorce. If you meant anything to him, he wouldn't have give

Chapter 18Lisa stared at her untouched salad, pushing the greens around her plate without any real interest. They were sitting in an upscale bistro near the BaiShui Group headquarters, one of Ben's favorite lunch spots. The place was elegant, expensive, and completely wasted on Lisa's current state of mind."You haven't eaten anything," Ben observed, watching her with barely concealed frustration. "Lisa, you need to take better care of yourself.""I'm not hungry," Lisa muttered, setting down her fork."You haven't been hungry for three weeks," Ben pointed out. "You've lost weight. You're not sleeping well—I can see the circles under your eyes even through your makeup. This can't go on."Lisa looked up at him, and for a moment, her carefully constructed facade cracked. "Ben, I need to tell you something.""What is it?"She took a deep breath, her fingers twisting the napkin in her lap nervously. "Alex and I... we're getting divorced. Actually divorced. It's not a threat or a fight any

Alex's hand trembled slightly, the cleaning spray he'd been using nearly slipping from his grip. The sight of Mia standing there in nothing but a silk bathrobe, her hair cascading over her shoulders, her legs bare—it was enough to make any man lose his composure."I—uh—" Alex stammered, turning quickly back to the counter he'd been wiping. "Good morning. Or afternoon. Whatever."Mia's lips curved into an amused smirk. She brought the coffee cup to her lips, taking a slow, deliberate sip while her eyes never left Alex. Then she reached up with her free hand and twirled a strand of her blonde hair around her finger, a gesture that was both innocent and utterly devastating."What's the problem, Alex?" she asked, her voice carrying a teasing lilt. "You look like you've seen a ghost.""Nothing," Alex said quickly, perhaps too quickly. "No problem at all. Just... surprised to see you home. Shouldn't you be at the office? It's Thursday. Don't you usually have meetings on Thursdays?"Mia padd