After I Regained Sight, I Filed For Divorce

Chapter 2

I faked being woken up by him, blinked my bleary eyes open, and tangled my fingers around the man's hand. "Honey, what were you saying just now?"

Gavin's voice was rough and gravelly, his thumb brushing over my palm absentmindedly. "Did I wake you up, baby?"

I sat up straight and pressed a soft kiss to the tiny mole at the corner of his eye. "No, honey, I just happened to wake up."

A hot, hungry glint flared in his eyes. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and the corner of his eye flushed a soft pink. He leaned down, crowding over me, his voice rough and thick. "Baby…"

I firmly pushed him away, my voice soft and sweet as I pouted. "I'm too tired tonight, honey. I just want to sleep."

The man sucked in a sharp hiss of breath. After a long beat, he huffed a helpless, amused laugh. "My bad. Let's get some sleep. After we go to the hospital tomorrow, come back to the old family house with me."

Half-asleep, I heard him mumble under his breath, so quiet I almost missed it.

"I knew you first. Why did you have to fall for Gideon?" He paused, his voice cracking slightly. "I can give you anything… Just don't leave me…"

*****

I'd known from the very start that the man tangled up with me every night wasn't Gideon.

Gideon was always cold and distant, frigid and perpetually disinterested in any sort of intimacy. He never even let me touch him after dark.

But Gavin? He was a ravenous wolf that never got full. And don't even get me started on his body, which was total, ripped, god-tier perfection.

I'd hired someone to look into things, and the recordings I got laid the whole ugly truth bare, straight from their own mouths.

"Gideon, don't you think we're being too mean to mess with Valerie like this? She's already blind, for God's sake," Alessia said.

Gideon's voice dripped with disgust and contempt as he answered, "She deserves every bit of it. If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't have lost the ability to have kids. We're just taking one kid from her. She should be grateful to you."

I'd seen this coming, sure, but the words still knocked the wind out of me. I sat there in a daze for the entire afternoon.

I'd thought my secret crush had finally turned into something real? Turns out it was all just a cruel, calculated joke at my expense. But even after digging up the whole ugly truth, I decided to play along with this sick little game.

The next morning, I'd barely blinked awake when I spotted the man perched nearby, tapping away at work.

The second he noticed I was up, Gavin's usual frosty, detached expression melted into something soft and warm. "Sleep well? I'll go whip up those garlic butter noodles you love so much."

I nodded, my voice honeyed as always. "Love you, hubby."

The tips of Gavin's ears flushed bright pink, and I had to bite back a grin.

Gavin is a phenomenal cook, for the record.

Gideon, on the other hand, never stepped foot in a kitchen. Back when Old Man West had forced him to spend two months getting to know me, he'd always stare at the meals I made with such naked disgust he might as well have been looking at garbage. He wouldn't take a single bite, even when the food went completely cold.

Watching Gavin's busy back bustling around the kitchen, I thought back to the mumbled whispers he'd let slip in his sleep the night before.

This whole messed-up game they'd built around fake love? I'm already halfway to winning.

"What're we heading to the old family estate for today, hubby?" I asked between slurps of warm, savory noodles, my eyes fixed on Gavin's face.

A dark, unreadable shadow flashed across his eyes for half a second. "Nothing important. Just meeting some nobodies. We only need to show up for a minute, that's all."