Chapter 1

Victoria Spencer sat at the dining table in a daze, staring at the divorce papers Aiden Smith had thrown at her. Her whole body was shaking.

An hour ago, she'd been happily preparing a candlelit dinner for their third wedding anniversary.

And now, he'd walked in with another woman and slapped the divorce agreement in front of her. "Victoria, sign it and make room for Bianca!"

'Make room.'

So these four years of marriage had been nothing but her own wishful thinking, a complete joke from start to finish.

Victoria looked at Aiden with red-rimmed eyes, trembling all over. "You want to divorce me for her? Aiden, have you forgotten who was there with you from nothing to where you are today?"

Aiden didn't listen. He just looked at her coldly, his eyes full of mockery. "You still have the nerve to bring that up? Victoria, look at yourself now. Your right hand is useless, you can't even hold a pen steady. What help can you be to me? Creative Haven's position now needs an internationally renowned designer like Bianca, not a cripple like you!"

Cripple.

Those word stabbed into Victoria's heart, making it hard to breathe.

Four years ago, that car accident happened because she was rushing to deliver design drafts to him. Her right hand was shattered, and it still hadn't recovered.

Q, the genius designer who had once amazed the whole city, had disappeared since then.

And now, he was calling her a cripple.

Victoria suddenly laughed, tears streaming down her face.

How could this man be so heartless?

Bianca, standing beside them with her arm linked through Aiden's, smiled brightly. She looked at Victoria with pity. "Victoria, Aiden is just thinking about the company. You know Creative Haven is at a critical stage for going public. With your hand like that, you really aren't suitable to stay by his side anymore."

Victoria stared hard at the couple, clearly angry.

"This is my home. Please leave!"

"This won't be your home much longer." Aiden spoke without emotion. "This house is marital property, but I paid the down payment, and I'm paying the mortgage. Victoria, for old times' sake, I won't ask you for emotional damages, but you're not taking this house."

He stared at her, finding it almost funny.

"You want me to leave with nothing?" Victoria looked at Aiden in disbelief. His features were still the face she'd loved for years, but suddenly she felt like she didn't know him at all.

In college, she'd pursued him. Back then, the Spencer family hadn't gone bankrupt yet. She'd married him against her family's wishes, lived with him in a windowless basement, ate instant noodles with him, and used her design talent to push him step by step to the top of his career.

And now, successful and famous, he was throwing her out.

"What else?" Aiden stepped forward and grabbed Victoria's chin hard, almost crushing it. "Everyone in the city knows about your Spencer family's dirty business—the tax evasion and all that."

He paused, then continued, "A woman from such a disgraceful family—what right do you have to my property? How can I trust someone like you to raise Yara?"

At the mention of their daughter, Yara, Victoria's whole body shook. She pushed at Aiden frantically. "You want our daughter? Aiden, you're dreaming! I carried Yara for ten months and gave birth to her. You thought she was a burden and never even held her once! What gives you the right to take her from me!"

"Because I have money, because I can give her the best education, and you—you can't even support yourself!"

Aiden shoved her away. Victoria fell to the floor, sharp pain shooting through her right hand.

She clutched her wrist, her face pale.

Actually, it wasn't just her parents who opposed the marriage—she'd had doubts herself.

There were things she couldn't tell her parents. If she'd told them Aiden had fertility problems, they definitely wouldn't have agreed to the marriage.

So by the wedding, she'd already completed IVF.

She'd never even mentioned divorce over that, and now Aiden was the one asking for it.

How ironic!

"Sign it!" Aiden looked down at her, his eyes completely cold. "Don't make me force you. You'll only be more humiliated."

Victoria looked up at Aiden, her heart growing colder and colder.

This was the man she'd loved for seven years.

This was what she got for giving all her youth and talent.

She felt like she'd never really known him at all.

In that moment, her heart died completely.

"Fine. I'll sign."

Victoria got up from the floor and picked up the pen with her shaking left hand.

Since he was heartless, she'd go along with it.

"Aiden, I loved you for seven years. I'll just treat those seven years as a joke. From now on, we owe each other nothing!"

Victoria held back her tears and forced out a smile more proud than anyone's. With her unaccustomed hand, she shakily signed her name on the agreement.

Just then, her phone on the table started vibrating frantically.

Victoria glanced at the screen. It was a call from the kindergarten teacher.

A terrible feeling instantly washed over her.

She answered the call, her hand shaking so badly she could barely hold the phone. "Hello..."

"Ms. Spencer, something's wrong! Yara suddenly fainted and had a terrible nosebleed that won't stop. The ambulance has taken her to City Hospital. Please come quickly!"

Thunder crashed in Victoria's ears.

She suddenly lost all strength. The phone fell to the floor with a bang.

"Yara..." Victoria murmured, then turned to rush out.

Aiden grabbed her wrist. "Where do you think you're going right after signing? Make it clear—when are you moving out!"

"Let go!" Victoria turned back, her eyes red, screaming hysterically. "Yara's in the hospital! Aiden, if anything happens to Yara, I'll make you both pay with your lives!"