Chapter 1
Dead silence crashed over the room in an instant. Even Cole, who had been halfway through shutting the door, froze mid-movement, the soft click of the door latching cutting off sharply.
He stared at me in disbelief, lips pressed into a thin line, his eyes swimming with a tangled mess of emotions as he lifted his head. "Bianca... don't mess around."
I swiped the stray tears off my cheeks, my heart throbbing in sharp, stabbing waves. "I'm not messing around. Cole, I want a divorce."
Cole's face darkened, his gaze sharpening with open disapproval. "Bianca, we've been married twenty years. How can you still throw childish tantrums like this?" He stepped back into the room, tossing his keys onto the entryway table. "Lila's ten years younger than you, but she's gentle and sensible. She knows she's in an awkward position, but she's never once complained. All she wants is to stay by my side with our kid. She hasn't done a single thing wrong." He paced across the rug, running a frustrated hand through his hair. "She gave birth to my child. You expect me to rip that baby away from her and dump her like trash? I can't do that. I won't be that cruel to her."
He tossed those words out like they meant nothing, casual as you please, but each one landed like a stone dropped into my chest, sending ripples of raw, searing pain curling through every part of me.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Twenty years ago, Cole and I fell head over heels in love.
We were young and completely on the same page; neither of us was ready to take on the huge responsibility of raising kids. I was terrified of the pain of childbirth, so Cole volunteered to get a vasectomy at the hospital. We still used protection every time we had s*x after that, just to be safe.
That decision faced fierce pushback from Cole's parents back then, but he didn't care at all.
His father, Victor, fled in a raging fit. He fired Cole straight from the family company and kicked both of us out of the house. So Cole struck out on his own, and we built our business from the ground up together, starting with absolutely nothing.
Ten years ago, pressure from both sets of parents to have a kid was at its worst.
Cole's mother, Martha, came to see me over and over, telling me over and over that the Langford family had to have an heir.
I started to waver, so I asked Cole, "Do you really not want kids? Even after your mom begged you so many times, do you still feel the same way about this? We could have a baby if you want, you know."
Cole laced his fingers tight through mine, his eyes soft and brimming with love. "Bianca, I don't want to put you through the agony of childbirth. And I don't want us to rush into being parents just because everyone's pressuring us. Can you understand that?"
I did understand, but I still told him, "If you ever change your mind and want a kid someday, just tell me. We'll figure it out together."
Cole promised he would.
Seven years ago, Victor stopped blowing up over the whole kid thing, and Martha stopped hounding me about having a baby too.
The old couple even decided to retire early, letting Cole take over the company. They moved to another city with nice, mild weather to enjoy their golden years, and only asked that Cole come visit them regularly.
I thought they'd finally come around and drop the whole kid issue.
Until I was scrolling through Martha's social media profile and spotted that photo of Cole with another woman and a little boy, posing like a perfect little family of three.
That's when it hit me. All those frequent trips Cole made to that other city? He wasn't going to visit his parents at all. He was heading to his other family.
Every single happy moment Martha had documented stabbed straight through my heart like a sharp sword, and the pain was so searing I could barely draw breath.
I tried to speak, only to find my voice was raw and ragged, barely recognizable. "What about me, Cole? Does it not count as cruelty when you treat me like this?"
A flicker of guilt crossed Cole's face, and his tone softened a little. "I'm sorry, Bianca. I was only trying to spare you the pain of going through pregnancy and childbirth. If you're okay with it, I can bring them over to live with us…"
I let out a bitter, humorless laugh. "So let me get this straight. My husband cheats on me, and not only am I supposed to forgive him, I have to accept his mistress's child too? And on top of that, I'm supposed to live under the same roof as her, running into her every five minutes?"
Cole had nothing to say about that. He didn't argue further, and before he left, he even had the nerve to "thoughtfully" usher all the parents and friends who'd been in the house out.
"I know this is a lot to take in all at once, Bianca. It's fine. You… take all the time you need to come around to it," he said. "But I'm not backing down on this. I can't leave Lila or the kid behind, not either of them."
I sat numb and motionless through the whole night.
When the first faint light of dawn seeped through the windows, I picked up the phone and called the company's lawyer.
"You know how to draft a divorce agreement, right? Draw one up for me. I'm getting divorced."
