Chapter 1

Ten years into my marriage with Shannon Jervis, the golden girl of the elite world, I received a video that changed everything.

When I confronted her with my phone in hand, she remained calm and simply shrugged.

“I have nothing to explain. Your health has always been poor. I didn’t dare push you to try something you couldn’t handle. But people have needs, don’t they?”

I froze in place. My arm went numb as I held onto my phone.

“So, that’s your excuse?”

Shannon did not reply. She only looked at me with a detached, indifferent gaze.

“To be honest, you haven’t been someone I could proudly show off for years.”

I stared at her, and something inside me went cold.

The forever we had promised each other had only lasted ten short years.

Chapter 1

Shannon Jervis took the phone I was holding up and tossed it onto the coffee table.

After glancing at the contents on the screen, she casually turned it off.

“To be honest, I’ve grown tired over the years.”

She suddenly spoke as she rubbed her temples. Her expression was unchanged.

“I’m already in my thirties, but I still feel that spark when I see younger guys.

“I originally planned to hide this from you for the rest of my life. But now that you’ve found out, I don’t have to worry about your feelings. I won’t have to keep it from you anymore.”

With that, Shannon let out a sigh of relief.

Yet every word she said felt like a needle piercing straight through my heart. The pain was so intense that I could barely stand upright.

I forced a faint smile.

“Shay, this isn’t funny. Just tell me it’s not true, and I’ll believe you.”

Shannon looked at me with a complicated expression.

Her eyes held pity and impatience, but there was no trace of guilt.

She brought out an agreement from the room and slid it in front of me.

The few words printed in black on the page left everything I wanted to say stuck in my throat.

“I’ve already signed my name. If you don’t wish to continue the marriage, do the same. We’ll part on good terms, and I’ll give you money.

“If you want to stay married, then we’ll remain husband and wife. But you can’t interfere with my private life, and I won’t interfere with yours.

“As long as we maintain appearances in front of the media and don’t affect the stock price, that’s all that matters.”

Shannon tapped her fingers against the table. There was a hint of impatience in the gesture.

I opened my mouth. My eyes were stinging with the ache of unshed tears.

“Why? We’ve been together for more than twenty years…”

Shannon stepped closer and took my hand.

Her fingers traced my wedding ring, and the words I had not finished saying caught in my throat.

“It’s because we’ve been together for so many years that I want to try being with someone else.”

She paused briefly before looking up with a smile. Her dimples appeared on her cheeks.

“Why don’t you try finding someone else too? I won’t stop you.”

I lowered my gaze, pulled my hand away, and spoke in a hoarse voice.

“I won’t get divorced. I devoted twenty years of my life to you. Do you really think you can wipe it all away with money?”

Silence settled over the room.

It was not until a shrill ringtone pierced the silence that Shannon finally picked up her purse from the couch.

She glanced back at me.

“Jude, sooner or later, you’ll understand.”

Then, the front door slammed shut behind her, sending a gust of air through the room.

The dinner I had prepared to celebrate Shannon’s return from her business trip still sat on the dining table.

I breathed heavily. The fury in my chest burned with nowhere to go.

My gaze landed on the divorce agreement on the table. I reached for it and tore it into shreds.

Then, I swept all the dishes and food onto the floor.

The sound of breaking glass echoed through the empty living room.

After ten years of marriage and another ten years of dating, I had spent a full twenty years of my life by Shannon’s side.

She kept making more money, and we kept moving into bigger homes. Yet her heart only grew colder.

When I received the video, I thought it was nothing more than an AI face swap or some kind of prank.

Never once did I imagine that Shannon would be the one to betray our marriage first.

The torn pieces of the divorce agreement lay at my feet, and seeing Shannon’s name in the signature section made my eyes sting.

As I bent down to clean up the mess, the sharp edges of the paper cut my fingers.

I did not even care about the blood dripping from my fingers.

I tried to keep myself busy, hoping to distract myself, but Shannon’s words from before she left continued to echo in my mind.

Just moments earlier, we had still been talking about our tenth wedding anniversary, but the very next moment, that video shattered everything.

The whole thing was so absurd that it felt like a dream.

Chapter 2

I sat motionless in the living room for the entire night.

Overnight, news of Shannon’s new lover had made the entertainment headlines.

The internet was flooded with reports about it.

There were photos of the yacht Shannon had spent a fortune buying for her new lover, along with footage of the two of them speeding across the river bridge.

Even netizens were discussing it.

[No matter how much people love each other, it always ends the same way.]

[How many rich people are actually faithful? Having new lovers is hardly unusual. I just never expected Shannon Jervis to be like this.]

[I heard she loved Jude Stafford so much back then that everyone knew it. The fireworks on their wedding never stopped.]

[They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on fireworks every fifteen minutes, and the display lasted for three full days and nights.]

It felt as if Shannon had intentionally made sure those news reports reached me.

The countless comments made my chest tighten.

Back when Shannon’s company was relisted on the stock market, she stood before the press, holding my hand as she made an announcement.

“This is my husband. He’s my first love and the man I’ve loved for more than a decade. He stood by me through the hardest period of my life. Without him, the Jervis Group you see today probably wouldn’t exist.”

She linked her arm through mine, smiling so happily that her dimples deepened.

That same day, she made me a promise in front of the cameras.

“I will love Jude for the rest of my life.”

The interview was still online, having become a celebrated love story in others’ eyes.

People said only a love that deep could ever lead to marriage, but Shannon’s “forever” had lasted only ten short years.

The person standing beside her had become someone else.

Just as she had once treated me, she stepped in front of the reporters with a faint smile on her lips.

“Micah is still in college. If you have any questions, ask me. He’s young, so don’t make things difficult for him.”

My vision blurred as I forced myself to watch the news interview over and over again, almost as if I were punishing myself.

I only stopped when Shannon called. Her voice was as gentle as ever.

“You saw the news, didn’t you? Everyone online is already wondering whether we’re divorced. After all, it was only a matter of time.

“If you’ve thought it through, you can sign the papers right away, or would you rather see it for yourself?”

She sent me an address.

I tightened my grip on the phone until my knuckles turned white.

I could not tell whether it was the faint hope I still held onto or my unwillingness to accept it that drove me there, but I headed to the location Shannon had sent me.

Before I even reached the door, I heard laughter spilling out from the private room.

“Shay, if you do this, what about your husband at home?”

Through the crack in the door, I heard Shannon answer with indifference, “He’ll be my ex-husband soon.”

My hand curled into a fist at my side as I pushed open the private room door.

In an instant, every pair of eyes in the room turned toward me.

The first person I saw was Micah Snook, the college student Shannon had been seeing.

He was exactly as she had described him: young, handsome, and arrogantly defiant.

When he saw me, he raised his brows provocatively and wrapped an arm around Shannon’s waist.

“Shay and I made a bet, Mr. Stafford. If you showed up today, you’d have to drink this. You wouldn’t refuse to show me some respect, would you?”

My breath caught as I looked up at Shannon.

Her silence was an obvious acknowledgment of the bet.

“I don’t drink.”

I rejected the offer coldly and stared directly at Shannon.

“I have something to say to you.”

She only sighed and looked at me with a hint of exasperation.

“Jude, you’ve always been so boring. It’s just a little alcohol. You act as if I’m asking you to risk your life.”

I pressed my lips together as sharp pinpricks of pain spread through my chest.

Right in front of her, I downed the entire bottle of liquor.

The smile on Shannon’s face faltered.

She had clearly forgotten that, back then, I drank for her until I ended up having half my stomach removed.

Shannon had been allergic to alcohol since childhood.

However, when it came to entertaining clients and securing business deals, drinking was unavoidable.

I refused to let her touch even a drop.

I attended her business dinners, secured her partnerships, and drank recklessly with clients to bring in deal after deal.

In the end, I had half my stomach removed, and my body was completely worn down.

“Can we talk now?”

My voice came out hoarse as a sharp pain twisted through my stomach and darkness crept into my vision.

Only moments before I lost consciousness did I see the color drain from Shannon’s face.

Chapter 3

When I woke up in the hospital, Shannon was nowhere to be seen.

The doctor stood beside my bed, studying my chart with a furrowed brow.

“Where’s your family?”

I shook my head weakly.

Without another word, the doctor moved on to the next patient.

A young couple occupied the bed beside mine.

The girl kept fussing over the boy, chiding him for being careless, yet the love in her eyes was pure.

It was the same way Shannon used to look at me.

My phone on the bedside table buzzed again and again with anonymous messages.

Each message contained photos of Shannon and Micah getting matching tattoos, going bungee jumping, visiting a church together, and watching the Northern Lights.

Shannon was right. She was happier with Micah than she had ever been with me.

Then, another anonymous message came through.

[Mr. Stafford, being young has its advantages. Wouldn’t you agree?]

There was an unmistakable note of provocation in Micah’s words, and I had no way to argue with him.

It was not until the third day of my hospital stay that Shannon finally came to see me.

She sat beside my bed. She looked at me as if she wanted to say something, but she could not find the words.

“Micah’s still young and doesn’t know any better. Don’t hold it against him.”

Her very first words were in Micah’s defense.

The numbness in my heart gave way to a dull ache.

“Does it still hurt?”

She took my hand, seemingly trying to figure out how to explain herself.

“I forgot you can’t drink anymore, but you knew that yourself and still went through with it. Were you deliberately trying to make yourself suffer?”

When I remained silent, Shannon seemed to realize she had said the wrong thing.

She brushed her hair back in frustration, inadvertently revealing the red marks on her neck.

In the end, she let out a defeated sigh.

“I’m sorry.”

I pulled my hand away and averted my eyes, refusing to look at her again as an uneasy silence settled over the hospital room.

After that, Shannon seemed to become a different person.

Perhaps it was out of guilt, or perhaps her conscience had finally caught up with her. Either way, during my hospital stay, she never left my side, making sure I took my medication and personally preparing meals to help with my recovery.

For a while, it felt as though everything had returned to the way it used to be.

When a crisis struck the Jervis family, Shannon went from being the golden girl of the elite world to someone who lost everything in an instant.

As they were unable to repay their debts, her parents took their own lives in their home.

By the time I found Shannon, she had already tried to end her life.

Thankfully, she survived, and from that day on, I swore I would protect her for the rest of my life.

During the hardest years Shannon and I endured, we once stayed in a motel that cost only ten dollars a night and shared a can of soup for a meal.

Knowing how exhausted I was from delivering food to make a living, she secretly gave me the last piece of bread we had.

Back then, getting sick was our greatest fear because we could not afford medical care or even basic medicine.

Through the rusty window of that motel, Shannon would often stare at the endless traffic and towering buildings outside.

“Jude, we have to get out of here someday.”

Those were the words Shannon said more often than anything else.

Eventually, we did.

However, somewhere along the way, she changed.

That night, the dim light beside the hospital bed flickered softly.

As Shannon sat in the chair, dozing off, I watched her almost greedily before finally looking away.

No matter what, she had changed. She would not be able to keep this up for long, since her heart was no longer with me.

Sure enough, a single call from Micah was all it took to wake her.

She did not even bother to say a word to me before grabbing her coat and hurrying out of the hospital room.

Chapter 4

The next day was supposed to be the day I was discharged from the hospital.

After she left, Shannon called me, but the tenderness that filled her voice over the past few days was gone.

“Micah has been suspended. Did you have someone do this? He’s threatening to end his life now. If anything happens to him… don’t blame me for showing no mercy, Jude.”

Before I could respond, Shannon hung up.

News about Micah spread rapidly, with one viral post after another dominating the trending page.

[You keep calling Micah the other man. Where’s your proof? Shannon has clearly wanted to divorce Jude for a long time.]

[A woman who follows her heart without hesitation is what a true strong female lead looks like. Jude is so petty that he would even target a younger man.]

[Hasn’t Jude always lived off Shannon? He stayed home as a househusband. Men like that are the most useless.]

The entire online narrative had turned against me.

However, that was not all. Shannon, who rarely posted anything on social media, made a post of her own.

[The bond Jude and I shared for more than twenty years ends today. I can no longer tolerate a man who has achieved nothing.]

Her words undoubtedly pushed me straight into the fire.

I quickly completed the discharge paperwork, but the moment I stepped out of the hospital, I was surrounded by reporters.

The constant flashes from their cameras made it impossible for me to keep my eyes open.

It was as if I had committed some unforgivable crime.

I forced my way out of the crowd and returned home in a miserable state.

When I opened the door, I saw Shannon sitting on the couch with a tablet in her hands.

The news was playing on the screen, and my own pale face stared back at me.

“Were you behind all of this?”

My voice was frighteningly hoarse.

Shannon did not deny it. Instead, she slid a new agreement toward me.

“Was I wrong, Jude? Haven’t I been the one supporting you all these years?

“You had people spread rumors that he was a kept lover and the other man. He ended up losing his scholarship because of it.

“I never realized you could be this jealous.”

A laugh escaped my lips as all the resentment and anguish I had bottled up over the past few days finally erupted.

“So, that’s why you twisted the truth in front of the media? Micah is the other man. We’re still married!

“You know better than anyone why I have no job. As for how your company got to where it is today, I built it by sacrificing my own health!”

Shannon’s expression instantly darkened as she struck me across the face without a moment’s hesitation.

The force of the slap left my ears ringing.

“I never asked you to do any of that. You chose to. I could’ve kept the company going even without you.

“Haven’t I treated you well all these years?

“You lived in a big house and drove a luxury car. But what can you do? All you ever do is keep bringing up these things to make me feel guilty and get my attention.

“Jude, you brought this on yourself. You’re the one who enjoys making these self-sacrificing gestures just to feel like a martyr!”

She seemed to be pouring out every complaint she had buried over the years.

“You really embarrass me. At least Micah is young and handsome. I can be seen with him in public without people mocking me. What about you? What do you have to offer me?”

My eyes reddened, and the tiny flame of hope I had held onto finally died.

Everything I had endured and every lie I had told myself over the past few days suddenly seemed like a cruel joke.

People often revealed their truest thoughts when they were consumed by anger.

Shannon still seemed to have more to say, but I picked up the pen beside me and signed my name on the agreement.

She parted her lips, but no words came out.

Then, she picked up the divorce agreement and flipped through the pages. Her fingers tightened around my name at the bottom of the page.

“We’ll meet at the courthouse once the waiting period is over. Half of your company shares will go to me.”

With that, I dropped the pen and turned away, leaving the home I had lived in for ten years.

I could feel Shannon’s gaze following me as I walked away.

However, this time, I would never look back.