My Husband Had Two Anniversaries… And I Was NeitherChapter 1
On our seventh wedding anniversary, I was supposed to leave the country to present my breakthrough nerve-interface design at an international medical competition. Instead, I ended up standing in a cold office, holding a form like it meant anything.
I checked the details out of habit and then I frowned.
“Um… excuse me? Your record’s wrong. I’m married. Not divorced.”
The woman behind the glass barely looked up at first. Just clicked her mouse, bored, like my life was just another file.
Married. I was married.
Felix Gallardo wasn’t just my husband. He was… everything. A monster to the world, a king in the shadows, a man people whispered about like saying his name too loud might get them killed. A mafia boss who could burn cities down if he felt like it.
And mine.
Possessive didn’t even begin to cover it. Felix didn’t let go of things that belonged to him. And I belonged to him.
Even if I wanted to leave… he wouldn’t let me. So how the hell could I be divorced?
The staff checked again. Then again.
And then she looked at me like I was the crazy one.
“It’s correct,” she said flatly. “You and Mr. Gallardo divorced four years ago. That same day, he remarried. Why? Did you just bump into a wall or something? Women these days. Tsk.”
My chest tightened.
“T-that’s not possible. You’re making a mistake.”
She shook her head and raised her brow. “No mistake. His current wife is Shannon Eastman. Do you know her?”
Do I know her?
I think something inside me just… snapped.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I know her.”
God, I knew her too well.
Seven years ago, she tried to ruin my wedding. Screaming, crying, throwing herself at Felix like a lunatic. He didn’t even blink. Just told his men, “Get this bitch out of my sight.” Twenty bodyguards dragged her away while I stood there shaking in my dress.
Four years ago, she broke into his office and stripped naked on his desk. Said she’d do anything for him. Anything.
Felix didn’t even look at her. Just picked up the phone and said, “Police. Now. There’s a fucking problem in my office.”
She got locked up for fifty days.
Five years ago…
My hand started aching like it remembered before I did. She came into my office like a storm. No warning. No logic. Just rage.
I didn’t even have time to react before she grabbed the axe on her bag and chopped off my right hand like I was nothing. I screamed in pain.