He threw money on the bed after our one-night stand.
I threw it back in his face at his own inauguration.
By sundown, we were engaged. By the week's end — married.
Franklin Flemington needed a wife to secure his empire. I needed a miracle to save my family. For two years, we played our parts flawlessly — the golden couple the whole city envied.
Behind closed doors, I was invisible to him.
When the two years were up, I handed him divorce papers without blinking.
He stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "I've given you everything a husband should. What more do you want from me, Octavia?"
I smiled, signed my name, and walked out.
I thought that was the end. I thought I'd finally won.
I forgot one thing — Franklin Flemington has never lost anything in his life. And he has no intention of starting with me.
Game on.

"I—I have to go. Octavia, I'm so sorry, I really have to leave right now," Victoria stammered, her voice shaking as she abruptly set her rattling teacup down on the table.


She didn't even look back at the mountain of baby gifts she had just lovingly unpacked. Her eyes were wide with a frantic, desperate panic as she scrambled to scoop up her handbag from the armchair.


"Victoria, wait! Please, just hold on a second," I pleaded, rising quickly from the sofa and stepping toward her. I reached out to grab her arm, completely bewildered. "What is going on? Why are you rushing off like this?"


"I'll call you! I promise I'll call you later, Octavia. I just... I can't be here right now," she cried, her breath hitching as she practically sprinted past a frozen Flynn.


The door of the nursery slammed shut behind her, the echo reverberating through the sudden, suffocating silence of the room.


Chapter 273 - ~ 272