
"You disgust me."
Logan glared at the woman standing before him—his wife, Vivian, who had cheated on him. The woman he had once loved and cherished, now looking at him with cold indifference.
His fists clenched, his jaw tight with anger.
Across from him, Vivian crossed her arms, her expression unreadable. "Lower your voice,Logan," she said, sounding annoyed rather than guilty. "There's no need for this drama."
"No need?" Logan's voice was sharp with disbelief. "I just caught my wife cheating, and you expect me to stay calm?" He stepped closer, his eyes burning into hers. "How long, Vivian? How long have you been making a fool out of me?"
Just moments ago, Logan had received a video. A video of Vivian entering a hotel room with a man—intimate, undeniable proof of her betrayal.
The surveillance footage was only forty-three seconds long.
And he had watched it eleven times.
He had been waiting for Vivian to come back and question her in person, hoping for her explanation.
But now, she wasn't even denying it.
How ironic!
Vivian's jaw tightened, as if bored with the conversation already. "Does it even matter? We were bound to end anyway, Logan."
Then, with a composure that might have impressed him under different circumstances, she set her bag down on the armchair, walked to the writing desk by the window, and pulled open the bottom drawer.
She placed a document on the coffee table between them.
Logan looked down at it.
Divorce papers. Already prepared. Already filled in.
"I was going to bring this up this evening," Vivian said, smoothing the front of her jacket. "You've saved us both some time."
Logan stared at the papers for a long moment. "You were going to bring it up?"
"Yes."
"Not an explanation. Not a conversation. Divorce papers." Logan let out a bitter laugh, his fury twisting into something more painful.
"Logan." Her voice was flat, almost bored. "Don't make this into something dramatic. You and I both know this marriage has been dead for years."
"Is that what you think?"
"It's what I know." She sat down across from him, crossing her legs. "You want honesty? Fine. I'll give you honesty. You have been completely and utterly useless to me. As a husband, as a partner, as anything. You contribute nothing. You bring nothing to my life."
Logan said nothing. He took a slow breath, trying to control the storm raging inside him.
"My career is where it is because of my own work," Vivian continued, her tone sharpening with the confidence of someone who had rehearsed this. "My connections, my strategy, my effort. Every single result is mine. Don't sit there with that look on your face and pretend you had anything to do with it."
"Is that what you believe?"
"It's what's true."
"Vivian—"
"And before you start listing all the tiny, insignificant little things you think you did for me," she cut in, her voice turning cold, "save it. I don't need your list. I have someone now who actually moves things forward. Someone with real influence. Real power."
Logan looked at her steadily. "Brandon Holt, right?" His stomach twisted, but he forced himself to stay composed.
Something flickered across her face — surprise that he knew the name, quickly smoothed over. "He secured a partnership with Imperial Group for me today. Do you understand what that means? Imperial Group. The largest conglomerate in this city. Billions in investment, Logan. Billions."
Her eyes were bright now, not with emotion, but with the particular gleam of ambition fully unleashed. "Brandon did that. In one afternoon. Can you imagine what the next five years look like with someone like him beside me instead of—" she gestured at him, a brief, dismissive motion "—this?"
The word hung in the air like smoke.
Logan looked down at the divorce papers again.
The irony was so complete it was almost architectural.
The chairman of Imperial Group was him. Had always been him. For years, he had kept his true identity buried — a necessary consequence of the falling-out with his family, a wound that had never fully closed.
Nobody in Creston City knew that the faceless, reclusive founder behind Imperial Group's empire was the same man who had been living quietly in Vivian Chase's penthouse, eating her takeout and attending her corporate dinners and being called useless at family gatherings.
The partnership she was glowing about?He had approved it himself. Last week.
He had planned to tell her everything on the day the deal was officially announced — to finally reveal who he was, to close the distance that had been growing between them for years, to give their marriage a real foundation.
Instead, she had taken the news, handed the credit to another man, and prepared him a set of divorce papers.
"You really believe Brandon Holt got you that deal?" Logan said quietly.
"I know he did."
"You're too certain." He sneered.
"Why are you repeating everything I say?" Vivian's voice sharpened with irritation. "Yes, I'm certain. Brandon has connections at the highest levels. Unlike you, who has — what, exactly? What do you actually have, Logan? What have you ever had?"
Logan clenched his fists so hard his nails dug into his palms, but he said nothing.
There was no need. He picked up the pen from the coffee table.
She watched him.
He thought about the girl he had once known — years ago, on a cold street in this same city, when he had been at the absolute bottom of everything. A girl who had stopped. Who had been kind. Who had left behind a silver ring he had carried ever since as the only proof that genuine goodness existed in the world.
He had spent years believing Vivian was that girl.
He had been wrong.
The pen moved across the signature line.
"Logan." Vivian's voice carried a note of surprise — she had expected resistance, bargaining, something to dismiss. Not this. Not quiet, immediate finality.
He set the pen down and stood.
"You'll regret this decision," he said. Not as a threat. As a simple statement of fact, delivered without heat.
Vivian recovered quickly, her chin lifting. "The only thing I regret is not doing this sooner."
Logan looked at her for one long moment — at the woman who wore his years of silent investment like a costume she had made herself — and then he turned and walked to the door.
"You're nothing, Logan," she called after him, her voice slicing across the room. "You always were. A useless, pathetic leech who rode my coattails and called it a marriage. Enjoy whatever gutter you crawled out of."
He did not look back.
The front door closed behind him without a sound.
Outside, the afternoon air was clean and sharp. Logan stood at the top of the steps and exhaled slowly.
The driveway curved away from the building in both directions. Along it, parked in a precise, unbroken line, sat seven luxury vehicles — each one worth more than most people earned in a decade. Standing beside them, in identical black suits, a row of men snapped to attention the moment the door opened.
In unison, they bowed.
"Mr. Mercer," the nearest one said. "We've been waiting for you, sir."
Logan descended the steps, slipping his hands into his pockets.
"Let's go," he said quietly.
Latest Chapter
CHAPTER 55
The dining hall felt heavier after Logan stepped out, the chatter dipping into a tense hush that no one else seemed to notice. Emma sat there, the world tilting softly around her from all the drinks, her face blank and cold like she had already checked out.Vivian slid in close with a fake-sweet smile, her fingers wrapping around Emma's arm like a trap snapping shut."Come on, Emma, you poor thing, you look like a dizzy little rat who wandered into the wrong cage," Vivian cooed, tugging her up. Her eyes sparkled with cruel delight, thinking how perfectly this trap was closing. Ashley jumped in on the other side, giggling as she looped an arm through Emma's."Yeah, let's get this worthless bug out of here before she pukes on the fancy tablecloths like the disgusting insect she is," Ashley added, her nose wrinkling in fake concern while her grip pinched hard enough to bruise.Emma's expression stayed icy and detached, her body moving on autopilot, not fighting but not caring either, lik
CHAPTER 54
Logan understood this with the kind of absolute certainty that came from having watched Vivian's face very carefully during the delivery of her story. There was no gift because Vivian Chase didn't do things without purpose, and the purpose of this entire evening, the purpose of getting Emma drunk and separating her from Logan, had nothing to do with celebrating a birthday.The elevator arrived before he reached it, doors sliding open with mechanical precision. He stepped inside and pressed the button for the first floor, watching the doors close as the car began its descent.The question, the only question that mattered, was what Vivian was planning.Back in the dining hall, Vivian was leaning forward slightly, her voice dropping to the intimate register of a woman sharing a secret with someone she trusted."Can I tell you something," Vivian asked, her eyes holding Emma's with gentle insistence. "Something I've been thinking about all evening?"Emma's chin lifted slowly. "What?""I th
CHAPTER 53
The dining hall door closed behind Logan with a soft, definitive click.For a moment, Vivian stood motionless. Her expression, which had been carefully arranged into warmth and generosity, shifted with almost imperceptible smoothness into something else entirely. The softness drained from her face, replaced by a cold clarity that made her eyes look sharp and calculating. A small smile pulled at the corner of her mouth, the kind that belonged to someone watching a complex plan slide into its proper place like machinery finally aligned.She exhaled slowly through her nose, satisfaction moving through her with the particular warmth of anticipation.Everything was working perfectly.Across the dining hall, Ashley and Trevor had stopped pretending to focus on their meals. Their attention had locked onto the unfolding situation with the focused interest of people watching entertainment that had been specifically designed for their enjoyment.Trevor leaned toward Ashley, his voice dropping t
CHAPTER 52
"I completely forgot." Vivian's hand moved to her mouth with practiced dismay. "I had a gift prepared for you. For your birthday. Since we share the same date, I had something made specifically. And I left it in the lobby downstairs." Her expression arranged itself into genuine-seeming apology."I'm so sorry. I was so busy with the preparations that I completely forgot to bring it up. It's with the concierge on the first floor."Emma blinked, surprise moving across her face. "You got me a gift?""Of course I did." Vivian's voice was warm, almost hurt that the question needed to be asked. "We've known each other for years, Emma. Whatever's happened between us recently, that doesn't erase everything."Emma's expression softened in a way that Logan recognized with quiet alarm. Alcohol had done what he had been afraid it would do, dissolved the careful layer of skepticism she had been maintaining all evening and left something more open underneath."Vivian, you didn't have to do that," Em
CHAPTER 51
The champagne was cold and sweet in a way that made it deceptively easy to drink.Emma held her flute and told herself she was in control of the situation. She was not drunk. She was simply relaxed, which was a completely different thing, and she was fully capable of distinguishing between the two.Logan, sitting beside her, watched her accept the second refill Vivian's server had brought to the table with the expression of someone who had made a calculation and was not pleased with the result."You should slow down," Logan said, his voice low enough for only Emma to hear.Emma's eyes moved to him, slightly slower than usual. "I'm fine.""You've had three glasses in forty minutes.""It's a celebration." Emma straightened in her chair with the careful deliberateness of someone whose coordination had started requiring conscious effort. "I'm celebrating. People drink at celebrations. That's what celebrations are for."Logan reached across the table and moved her champagne flute two inche
CHAPTER 50
Brandon's smile stretched, fake as painted plastic, and he patted Logan's back once, hard enough to be felt."Think about it," Brandon said, and then he turned and walked away, his stride carrying the particular confidence of someone who believed they had just delivered a speech that would be remembered.Logan watched him go, his expression completely unchanged, his eyes tracking Brandon's movement across the room with the neutral attention of someone observing something they already understood completely.The dining hall was smaller than the celebration space, more intimate, with long tables arranged in a configuration that immediately established hierarchy. The head table, closest to the kitchen, was where the most important guests had claimed seats. The middle tables were for the secondary tier of guests. And at the far end of the dining hall, separated from the main action by considerable distance, was a single small table.It was where Logan and Emma were directed.A server, foll
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