Chapter 1

My husband told me he had met his soulmate—and demanded an open marriage.

I didn’t cry or argue.

I signed the divorce papers on the spot.

He assumed my broken family background made me too desperate to leave.

He expected me to beg.

Instead, the moment I walked out, the one man he had spent years flattering, chasing, and failing to impress turned his attention to me.

Now my ex-husband is on his knees in public,

while the man he fears most wraps an arm around my waist and asks where I want to go next.

After Brandon came back, he excitedly shared with me that he had never met someone so compatible.

They went skydiving together, skiing together, and climbed to the peak of Mont Blanc...

Their souls resonated; they were each other's muse.

"Ava, you should go out and see the world too, or maybe start dating.

"Honestly, we got married too early, mistaking habit for love.

"Why don't we try an open marriage?"

Brandon's face was beaming with sweetness as he generously suggested.

I stared at Brandon's handsome face, tracing from his brow bone to his jaw with my eyes.

Less than three years after graduation, he had already become a stranger to me.

I paused for a moment, then chuckled:

"No need for such trouble, let's just get divorced.

"Since you like her so much, I'll step aside."

A flash of surprise crossed Brandon's eyes.

"Ava, you know your situation. Who else would want you if you divorce me?"

I was slightly stunned, not expecting him to use this to poke at me.

Yes, what was my situation?

My mother ran off with someone.

My father was a gambling addict who drowned in a muddy pond while drunk.

Even my grandmother who raised me passed away a few years ago.

I was alone, like duckweed, with no one to rely on.

This was the vulnerability I had revealed to him in my fragile moments, and now it had become his leverage to manipulate me.

Brandon was so sure I couldn't leave him that he dared to flaunt his new love interest right in front of me.

The promise he made when we got married - to love and care for me for a lifetime - was like a sharp knife, repeatedly twisting in my heart.

I took deep breaths, hands gripping the edge of the table, staring at him steadily, my tone resolute:

"I said, I want a divorce."

Brandon was stunned for a moment, a smile unconsciously appearing at the corners of his mouth.

"Since you insist on divorce, I have no choice.

"Ava, it's not that I want to let you down, you're forcing me to do this.

"Don't come back begging me later."

When I went back to the room to pack my things, I overheard Brandon's conversation with his friend.

"Brandon, are you really divorcing your wife?"

"She's trying to pressure me with divorce, so I'll let her have her way.

"Sabrina's been clinging to me tightly, I don't have time to deal with her petty jealousy.

"She has no family here, it won't be long before she comes crawling back begging me to remarry her."

A wave of bitterness washed over me. I directly threw our wedding photo along with the wedding ring into the trash can.