Chapter 2

It was rare for Logan to step foot in our house, but this time, he brought seventeen-year-old Leo with him.

Staring at the divorce agreement spread out on the coffee table, his brow furrowed deeply.

He nudged the boy forward. "Leo, say hello to your godmother."

Leo squirmed, looking away awkwardly without uttering a word.

I cut in before he could try. "I never agreed to be his godmother. Don't flatter me."

All these years, Logan had never worked a single day.

The house and the car had been bought outright by my mother before our wedding, so legally, he had no claim to them in a split.

During our marriage, I had managed to save about five hundred thousand dollars. That was community property, which meant a fifty-fifty split.

I just wanted to make a clean break. "I want this settled quickly. You can take three hundred thousand. I'll take the rest."

Logan clearly hadn't expected me to be so firm, and his face instantly darkened.

Seeing that the marriage was beyond saving, he sat down and immediately started scheming to squeeze out every penny he could.

Without a shred of shame, he declared, "Leo is turning seventeen. In a few years, he'll be getting married. You know I've worn myself thin raising him, so I haven't been able to buy him a condo or a car."

"Since we're really doing this, I'll take two hundred thousand in cash instead of three. But in exchange, you need to sign over those two downtown luxury apartments to Leo's name. Consider it compensation for my wasted years."

Back when we discussed children, he had tried to force me into officially adopting Leo.

I had adamantly refused and adopted my daughter, Shirley, instead.

Yet that never stopped Logan from assuming all my hard-earned assets naturally belonged to Leo.

That was why he felt entirely entitled to demand my downtown properties without the slightest hint of embarrassment.

"Not a chance," I rejected flatly.

"Why not?" Logan snapped, shooting a venomous glare at Shirley, who was standing quietly nearby.

"Are you saving those properties for this worthless freeloader? Have you lost your damn mind, Audrey?"

A sharp, throbbing pain shot through my chest at his cruel words.

"First of all, what I do with my property is none of your business. But one thing is certain: Leo is a complete stranger to me, and he will never see a single dime of my money. Second, my daughter is not a freeloader!"

In all our years of marriage, this was the very first time I had ever openly defied Logan.

My friends used to call me a pushover, baffled by how I let him walk all over me for nearly two decades.

In truth, I had wanted to scream and tear things apart countless times.

I resented him for obsessing over his dead ex. I hated him for forcing me to abort my baby just so he could dote on hers.

I despised the months he spent dwelling near her resting place, and the insufferable, poetic posts he put on Ins every day, painting himself as the world's most devoted martyr.

If he loved that woman so deeply, why on earth did he marry me?

Then, the self-loathing would creep in: wasn't it my own fault? What right did I have to throw a fit?

Back then, I knew full well he hadn't moved on from Chloe, yet I chased after him anyway, foolishly believing that pure devotion could melt a frozen heart.

Sixteen years of endless giving, and my devotion had amounted to nothing.

I couldn't compete with a ghost, and I had failed to carve out even the tiniest corner in the heart of the man I loved.

Logan began unloading all his supposed grievances:

"Did you ever really love me? At our wedding, you made all those sweet promises about how you'd accept me unconditionally, and now you want to throw me away! Why didn't you leave earlier? You dragged me along until I'm an aging man with no career, and now you just breeze out the door, leaving me to face the rest of my life alone..."

Toward the end, his voice broke into pathetic sobs.

Leo stepped up dutifully, rubbing his back with gentle pats. What a touching picture of father-son devotion.

I had nothing left to say. I didn't even have the energy to argue.

Before walking out the door, Logan left me with his ultimatum:

"I'll sign the papers on two conditions. On top of the two downtown properties, you have to help me financially support Leo until he finishes college, buys a home, and gets married. And until then, you are forbidden from remarrying or having children with another man."

I looked at him coldly. "In your dreams."