He threw money on the bed after our one-night stand.
I threw it back in his face at his own inauguration.
By sundown, we were engaged. By the week's end — married.
Franklin Flemington needed a wife to secure his empire. I needed a miracle to save my family. For two years, we played our parts flawlessly — the golden couple the whole city envied.
Behind closed doors, I was invisible to him.
When the two years were up, I handed him divorce papers without blinking.
He stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "I've given you everything a husband should. What more do you want from me, Octavia?"
I smiled, signed my name, and walked out.
I thought that was the end. I thought I'd finally won.
I forgot one thing — Franklin Flemington has never lost anything in his life. And he has no intention of starting with me.
Game on.

Every time my phone vibrated, my heart did a treacherous little somersault, only to settle into a leaden weight when the screen showed a news alert or a random text. It had been days since I stormed out of his apartment—days since I saw him standing there with her. I couldn't help but wonder if I simply wasn't enough to compete with the shadow of Octavia. Or perhaps, in his eyes, I was still just the little girl from the estate, the one he could pat on the head and forget.


The realization hurt more than I cared to admit. With my design project for Candice on a two-month hiatus, the silence in the Harrington mansion felt deafening. I needed to move. I needed to breathe air that didn't smell like Dorian Harrington's expensive cigars or the sterile, haunting memories of a love that was never mine.


I dialed my sister Ayanna. She picked up on the third ring, her voice bright and bustling.


Chapter 189 - ~ 189