Betrayal: My Husband's Mistress Wanted My Life, I Took His EmpireChapter 1

After Justin Simmons cheated on me,

he needed to give his mistress a title.

So for the nineteenth time, he sat across from me and asked for a divorce.

"The house and the cars go to you. Assets split fifty-fifty. What more could you possibly want?"

"Louisa Payne," Justin said, exhaustion carved into every line of his face as he looked at me. "She's pregnant."

"When the baby comes, it can't be born without a legitimate name. Can you think about me for once?"

I studied him. From the affair, to trying to force me out with nothing, to today, when he'd finally made concessions. I laughed.

"Honey," I said, my smile thin, my voice barely above a whisper. "My answer hasn't changed."

"You want my signature? Over my dead body."

——

"Louisa!"

Justin's voice cracked upward. He shoved to his feet and roared at me.

"If you're so eager to die,"

"then sign the damn papers first!"

He kicked the chair over and closed the distance between us, fisting the collar of my shirt.

"I've already bent over backward for you. What more do you want?"

"What more do you want?!"

"You'd rather drag me down with you, is that it?"

"Louisa!"

"I don't love you anymore!"

"I don't love you anymore!"

Something inside him broke. His grip loosened, and he collapsed against my shoulder like a wounded animal, his voice dissolving into something close to a whimper.

"Louisa, I'm begging you."

"Let me go."

"I don't want anything, Louisa. Nothing. I just want her. She's all I want."

I felt the tremor running through his voice, and my mind pulled me back seven years, to when Justin had knelt before the entire Simmons family for me. He'd been shaking just like this, crying until he had nothing left, forcing out the words through sheer will.

"I don't want an arranged marriage."

"I don't want whoever you've picked for me."

"I only want Louisa."

"I love Louisa."

"I'm hopelessly in love with Louisa, and she's the only one I want to be with."

Justin Simmons, golden son of the Simmons dynasty. The sole heir. All he had to do was nod, and the world would have been handed to him on a silver platter.

But he didn't.

He stood by my side, unwavering, and said those words with the same tone, the same look on his face as today.

"Louisa."

"I'll give up everything."

"Even my life."

"As long as I have you."

Seven years.

That was all it took for everything to change.