"I swear, the position of Mrs. Morton will always be yours. Isn't that enough?"
I stared at him and almost laughed.
"Zane, you don't actually think I care about being Mrs. Morton, do you?"
His mother, Hannah Morton, was vicious and cruel. From the day I married in, she treated me like an enemy—never granting me an ounce of the dignity the title should've carried. It was just an empty label, useful only as her excuse to torment me.
Zane's eyes narrowed. His voice turned cold.
"But you need to be Mrs. Morton, baby."
"Your father owes a fortune. Without my monthly payments, his hands would've been chopped off by now."
"Your mother's health is failing. It's the Morton family's medical team keeping her alive."
"Madeline Simmons—isn't all your luck just because you married into the Morton family and have your husband to clean up your messes?"
Looking at his smug face, I closed my eyes for a moment.
Yeah.
Lucky.
I'm so damn lucky.
If I hadn't overheard what he said to my parents that day, maybe I would've stayed lucky forever.
I walked out of the Morton Group building and stopped at the base. Turned. Looked up at the landmark tower cutting through Graystone's skyline.
Ten years ago, before we married, the Morton family wasn't the richest in Graystone.
Back then, that title belonged to some crude real estate tycoon.
He wanted me.
Named me specifically—demanded the Simmons family hand me over.
My dad was about to agree.
But Zane knelt outside our house. Three days. Three nights. Until my dad finally relented and gave him two more years.
Two years to outmatch the richest man in the city? Nearly impossible.
I stayed up all night thinking. Then I sold the herbal medicine formula I'd spent years developing—fifty million dollars—and gave every cent to Zane.
He delivered.
In six months, he had the status to marry me.
It drizzled on our wedding day.
The cold, damp air made his knees—ruined from kneeling—ache so badly he could barely walk.
But he lifted me anyway. His face pale, his smile radiant.
"Madeline, from now on, I'll protect you. No one will ever bully you again."
That was the first time in my life someone treated me like I was precious.
So this is what it feels like to be loved.
But…
Could love that deep actually fade?
Like morning dew.
Like lightning.
Ten years later, I can barely find any trace of how Zane once loved me.
Only cheating. Betrayal. Lies.