After My Death, He Knew My Heart Was Hers

Sophia Windsor's POV: I had once thought that marrying Vincent Reed was the luckiest break of my life. Yet, on the fateful day of my cancer diagnosis, I saw him gently supporting his beloved as they emerged from the hospital, shooting me a look as cold as ice. After my death, he found out that the heart beating in his cherished one's chest was mine. In the end, it drove him to madness. I'd lived a calm, uneventful twenty-something years. But that day, life dealt me a fatal blow. The test results came back: terminal colorectal cancer. My friend was a doctor. When I asked him how much time I had left, his eyes darkened with grief. He wouldn't give me a straight answer, only kept promising he could cure me. I'd known him for years. How could I not tell he was lying to me? This disease was just like my marriage. It could never be fixed. I headed home from the hospital and sank onto the sofa to wait for my husband. He ran his own company, and it had been booming. In just three short years, he'd built an unshakable name for himself in our city. By midnight, the grandfather clock in the living room boomed across the silent room, and twin headlight beams sliced across my face. I glanced out the window. It was his car. Seconds later, the front door clicked open, and he stepped inside. He wore a crisp white shirt, my favorite look on him. This was the face I'd dreamed of and memorized so well I could draw it every single day, but right now it was completely blank, with no trace of emotion at all. He tugged at his tie as he walked straight past me, like I wasn't even there, like I was just thin air. "Let's get a divorce." Staring at his broad back, after working up every last bit of my courage, I finally forced the words past my trembling lips. His footsteps stopped short. He turned around, his gaze flat and empty, as if he'd forgotten how to smile a long time ago. "Sophia, would you just die if you stopped stirring up drama?" His words came out sharp enough to cut, almost venomous. That made sense. I'd threatened divorce before, back when I was desperate for his attention. In his eyes, I was just a clingy, drama-seeking woman. But this time... it wasn't a threat. It was real. Vincent was my first love. I'd pined after him for ten whole years, and I finally got my wish when we married. But he never loved me, not really. Now that I was dying, I didn't want to drag him down with me anymore. And I didn't want to drag myself through this empty marriage either. I drew in a deep, shaky breath, not bothering to argue or explain. I pulled the divorce papers out of my bag and laid them on the coffee table in front of me. I zipped my bag shut and set it off to the side, hiding the bottle of painkillers the doctor had prescribed inside, then picked up a pen and held it out to him. I'd already signed my name on the divorce papers. All he had to do was put his signature down, and they would go through the formalities, and every last tie between us would be cut clean, forever. He stepped toward me, but didn't even glance at the papers on the table. He just took the pen from my hand. When he leaned close, that sharp, crisp, clean scent of his wrapped around me. It smelled exactly the same as it did the day I first met him. Nothing had changed. "You've really planned this out well, haven't you, Sophia? How much money do you want out of this divorce?" I froze for a second, then gave a bitter laugh. Vincent had built a considerable fortune for himself, so I couldn't really blame him for thinking that way. After all, there had always been a huge, unbridgeable rift between us. Four years ago, the Reed Group, one of the biggest, most well-known companies in the city, collapsed spectacularly overnight. Vincent's father went to prison, and he was forced to sell off every last asset he had to pay off the family's debts. I would never, ever forget the way he forced himself to hold it all together back then. That was when someone approached me with a deal. If I left Vincent, they would throw him a lifeline and pull him out of the hole he was in. I agreed. I shook my head at that memory and set the record straight. "I don't want a single cent from you. Isn't Bella Jennings the one you love? Once we divorce, you can finally marry her." "I know exactly what you're like. You're two-faced, all sweet words to my face, stabbing me in the back behind my back." The second the words left his mouth, Vincent slammed the door and stormed out.