Ashley POV
"Thank you, it's beautiful." I closed the door after thanking the delivery man for the fresh flowers that had just arrived. I wore the beautiful flowery frock and the small diamond necklace Alex had bought for me. It was our third anniversary, and I was bubbling with excitement. Finally, I was ready to confess how much I loved him. I spent hours preparing his favourite dishes, making sure everything was perfect. Now, all I could do was fix my eyes on the door. I was eagerly waiting for him to come home.
Finally, the wait was over. The doorbell rang. My heart skipped a beat as I rushed to open it. Alex walked inside, loosening his tie. He looked exhausted, likely from the important meeting with the board of directors. I still hoped he would notice the effort I had put into everything.
"Welcome home, Alex!" I greeted him cheerfully, staring at his face for a reaction.
"Hey," he muttered without looking up from his phone.
My heart sank a little, but I tried to stay positive. I had worked too hard for this moment. I served him dinner, but he barely glanced up. He scrolled through his phone, acting indifferent. He had seemed tense lately. But today, it was as if I didn’t even exist.
"Do you like dinner? I made all your favourites," I said while trying to catch his attention.
"Yeah, looks good," he replied absentmindedly. Disappointment welled up inside me.
After a few moments of silence, I couldn’t hold back any longer. "You know what day it is today?" I asked.
He silently ate his food, giving no indication that he had heard me. Then, without warning, he pulled a file from his coat and slammed it in front of me. My eyes widened as I saw the bold word "DIVORCE" on the cover. Next to it were tickets to Norway. He wanted to send me away.
"What... What is this?" I stammered. The words barely made it out of my mouth.
"Today marks three years since we got married. It also means our three-year contract has ended. There's no need to continue this marriage," he said flatly as if we were discussing a business deal. It felt like the ground had slipped from beneath my feet. I was too shocked to respond immediately.
"What do you mean by that?" I finally managed to ask. My hands were trembling as I struggled to hold onto the divorce papers.
"Our marriage was just a deal. Have you forgotten that? Or did you start thinking it was real?" His tone was icy, cutting through me like a knife. My grip tightened around the edge of the table. My knuckles turned white.
"I thought everything had changed after that night. Our marriage was consummated..." I began, but he interrupted me.
"That night? Do you really think our marriage became real just because we spent one night together?" he scoffed. His words pierced me like daggers.
I was speechless. In the three years we had been married, he had only touched me once, and that was months ago. He came home too drunk to control himself. I had been foolish to think he might have started loving me. It seemed he hadn’t developed any feelings for me, even after all this time.
“I fulfilled all my duties like an ideal wife. I endured all the tantrums from your mother and sister. And now, you want me to divorce you?" I said, hoping for some sign of regret or hesitation. But Alex paused only briefly before continuing.
"Fulfilling duties? You forgot what you did with Vini last evening?" he sounded upset. How can he forget the chaos that happened last evening?
"I told you I didn't put peanuts in food," I said he seemed upset about it.
"Stop lying, who else would do something like this? Vini had a peanut allergy. If I had not taken her to the hospital she could have died."
I recalled how he held Vini in his arms and rushed to the hospital with a worried face. Later blamed me for killing her.
"I am tired of explaining myself. Why would I trouble your business partner? And would you just divorce me because of this?" I asked, Alex laughed sarcastically.
"Diana, nobody knows who you are. Not even yourself. Your presence in my life brings nothing but misery. You got everything you could ever deserve." he said, his words shattering my heart into pieces.
"So, this is your final decision?" I asked, laughing bitterly at myself for even needing to ask.
"Yeah. When I come back, make sure you’ve signed those papers," he said, leaving me alone with the divorce papers and my shattered hopes. I stared at the documents. I almost forgot that our relationship had always been just on paper. Memories from the past three years flooded my mind.
Three years ago, I had opened my eyes to find myself lying on a private cruise in the Mediterranean Sea. The first face I saw was Alex's, a handsome face that appeared concerned as he held my shoulder. My mind was as blank as paper, not a single trace of my past remaining. I was struggling to remember who I was, and where I lived.
At the same time, Alex proposed that I marry him for three years. He offered me a home, a new name, and everything I could need, while he would get to fulfil his family's pressure for marriage. With nowhere else to go, I accepted his offer and married him. I signed a three-year contract. As per the contract, I had to divorce him after three years.
Within those three years, I slowly fell in love with him, even though there wasn’t a typical husband-and-wife relationship between us. But everything had changed two months ago when Alex came home drunk. He was drowning in alcohol, and I didn’t know what was wrong with him. The touch I had craved for so long... I surrendered myself to him that night, losing my virginity to the person I loved. But the next morning, he dismissed it as a mistake and left. Even so, a small hope had stayed in my heart, but now that hope was shattered.
I grabbed the divorce papers and stepped out of my room with a heavy heart. As I tried to leave, my elbow was grabbed by my mother-in-law, Melissa.
"You bitch, where were you until now? Don’t you know it’s my dinner time? Is the princess resting in her bedroom?" Melissa greeted me with gritted teeth.
I clenched the divorce papers in my hand, no longer willing to tolerate it. I jerked her hand off me angrily.
"Yeah, she didn’t even come to massage my shoulders. This bitch forgets why my brother brought her here," Andy, my sister-in-law, added, her teeth grinding together.
They had been upset with me from the first day of my marriage. They wanted Alex to marry someone powerful, someone who could boost his business. Even though he was already rich, a wealthy partner would have taken him to even greater heights.
"Did I hold your hand? Or your mouth? You can prepare it yourself. I’m not your maid," I said, starting to leave.
"Don’t forget you’re just a burden on Alex’s shoulders. My son is ready to marry the only daughter of the Weber family, a girl who can give him everything you couldn’t. But you’re sticking to him like a sucker plant. Why won’t you just die?" Melissa spat, gripping my shoulder again. My heart sank as I realized Alex was divorcing me because he was marrying that girl. I pulled my hands away from Melissa.
"Mom..." Alex’s voice cut through the air as he caught his mother, staring at me with tapered eyes. "Why the hell are you hurting Mom?" he shouted at me.
"What about me? She was trying to hurt me!" I tried to explain, but Alex pretended not to hear it.
"Can’t you respect her? She’s the elder of this house," Alex yelled at me instead. I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I signed the divorce papers immediately.
"We are no longer together, Mr. Alex. Thank you for everything," I said, and with those words, I quickly left his house. I left behind everything I had once thought was real.
I was walking down the street. I still had no idea where would I go. My stomach growled, I had barely eaten anything since morning. Suddenly, my head began spinning. I felt like I was going to faint. Before anything like that could happen, I rushed to the family hospital.“Diana, Congratulations. You’re pregnant,” Doctor Shelly announced with a warm smile but I left speechless. “What? Are you sure?” I stammered, my mind reeling. I had clearly missed my period, but I’d been so caught up in the chaos of life that I hadn’t paid any attention to it. She turned the screen on and showed me.“Look here… This is your baby,” she said, pointing to the tiny dots on the screen. They already touched my heart. It had been three years since my marriage to Alex, and we had never thought of something like this. I could already imagine a baby playing in Alex's arms.I rushed home in the middle of the night, desperate to tell Alex about my pregnancy. I called his number, but Secretary Jin picked up.“
"Miss Diana, this is your food. Make sure to eat healthy." The nurse placed the food on my table. Even though it's been 24 hours since I woke up, I still had no appetite. I held the spoon and began eating when all of a sudden an old man entered the ICU room. I was scared to see him; he might have been around his late seventies. Two women followed him inside and they closed the door. He appeared so desperate."Take her inside." He gestured towards the girls. They set aside my food and pulled me out of bed by holding my hand."Who are you? Tell me who you are?" I started screaming. Those women dragged me into the changing room and undressed me. I was stunned, thinking something worse was ready for me. They turned me around and looked everywhere at my back. They started scratching my back, even using some kind of laser thing on my body. I was scared because even though they were female, they were as powerful as men."Can you tell me what's going on? You are troubling me, and I can sue y
I stopped the car at the airport, Vini's flight was a bit delayed today. The first thing she wanted to do after arriving here was to see me."Alex..." She stood in front of the car. I barely had time to step out before she wrapped her arms around me in a tight embrace."We would have missed the party if you come an hour late," I told her as we got into the car. "That won't be possible. I am a daughter of Weber, it's the first event of the Weber family. How could it start without me?" She said blowing her nails. "How was your vacation?" I asked her, she was excited about her trip before leaving."Yeah! I enjoyed it but I missed you." She folds her arms into mine. I smiled. Tonight, we were heading to a party at the Weber house- a rarity in itself. The reason for the party has not been revealed yet. But something might be special. Even my engagement with Vini was low-key. "Where are you taking me?" Vini asked.“Not just yet. We’re stopping by my place first to pick up Mom and Andy,”
You're just a stepdaughter. I wasn’t talking about you." Grandpa snapped. He jerked his hand away from hers with a scowl. It clearly showed Grandpa didn't like her. "Grandpa, it's okay. You don't need to be worried now." Alan approached and placed his hand on the grandpa's shoulder calmly. He whispered something in Grandpa's ear, and Grandpa nodded in agreement. "This party," Grandpa began, "was held to introduce the new managing director of Weber Group." Grandpa called me on stage. I smiled and approached the stage. He held my shoulder and watched me with pride in his eyes. "Miss Ashley is our new managing director. She is very capable and deserving of this position. I hope our business partners get an opportunity to introduce themselves," Grandpa said, and everybody seemed shocked. Alex and Vini appeared dumbfounded. I had never seen Vini's face this displeased before. All the staff and other people gathered around me and started pestering me. A tall and handsome man approached m
Dylan Marcov: It was just a few years ago that the research center staff informed me they had found the body of a fifteen-year-old girl whose DNA matched Ashley's. In that moment, I lost all hope. I believed she had died, she would never return, and I almost gave up on her getting back. I accepted the fate that we would never meet again. That night, after my meeting with the Harper Group at the Blue Hilton Hotel, I stepped into my Rolls-Royce. As soon as I turned on the headlights. a figure appeared in front of me. I froze. My heart seized in my chest as I stared at that sweating, pitiful face. Was it Ashley? I could not trust my eyes. She banged on the bonnet of my car and screamed, taking me out of reverie. "I am pregnant.. Please help me.. blood here.." She cried. I barely had time to process her words before she collapsed on the ground. Amount blood dripping through her thigh. I rushed ou
Ashley POVThe noise outside drew us out of the room. As I stepped out, I was shocked to see Alex being stopped by Dylan's bodyguard."Let me go inside! Do you know who I am?" Alex threatened Fred, but Fred didn't even move. He seemed loyal to his master, Dylan, and was only waiting for his unspoken command. Dylan's mere nod made him release Alex's hand."Alex, why are you making such a scene?" I demanded. I was frustrated. There were still many things I wanted to discuss with Mr. Dylan, and any interruption was the last thing I expected.“And what are you doing here with Mr. Dylan?” Alex countered, his face darkened with suspicion. “And that too, alone?”“That’s none of your business,” I replied while Folding my arms tightly across my chest. “We’ve been divorced for six months now. You’re engaged to Vini, remember Alex? Maybe focus on her instead of me.”"What happened?" Alan appeared, his brows arching in surprise as he took in the tense scene: Alex, Dylan, and me—a precarious trian
The file felt heavy as it weighed on my new responsibility. Dylan Marcov's name seemed to jump off the page in bold, commanding letters. As I began reading it, my eyes widened in disbelief. Three hundred billion. It was one of the largest deals I’d ever heard of, perhaps one of the biggest in the history of our business."Why is this deal still pending?" I demanded while glancing at Lucy. The proposal had been made over a year ago, yet there hadn’t been any movement."They have not accepted yet. Perhaps we got a silent rejection," Lucy replied in a low tone, implying it was unlikely to be accepted.I had heard about Dylan Marcov from Alan and seen his name all over the internet—described as a ruthless, selfish man with no room for kindness. But I felt a little kindness in his heart when I was in the hospital. The challenge seemed immense, but not impossible."I have decided. I will secure this contract," I said, and Lucy's eyes widened. I could almost hear the unspoken mockery in her
My mind screamed at his womanizer image. The way his intense gaze traced over me, my skin like a flame. Even though he appeared calm, I could feel the heat radiating from him. He had already trampled my private space. I pushed him back with my hand."Sorry, Mr. Dylan. But I’m not the kind of girl who jumps into bed for a deal. I’m a woman with dignity," I stated firmly.His eyes narrowed as a flicker of disappointment crossed his face."No one has ever dared to touch me, let alone push me." He stared at my palms with a sharp gaze. Even though he appeared scary, I still resisted. Perhaps he thought I was the kind of woman who would throw herself at anyone just because I married Alex. But he was wrong. He stared at me closely, as if he were trying to find something hidden beneath my defiance."Miss Ashley, nothing in this world comes for free. I don’t engage in anything that doesn’t profit me. And considering your company’s current situation..." He continued, sliding the paper across th