Everyone in Riverton knew Serena Prescott, the heiress of the Prescott family, collected boyfriends for the short term and never kept them for long.

In five years of marriage, she had gone through ninety-nine new lovers.

People in our circle said I had world-class patience, that I was the perfect husband who could endure anything.

Then a swimming coach named Mason Clark appeared at Serena's side.

Mason came from an ordinary family, yet he made her break her own rule about never bringing new lovers home.

Serena gave me two choices.

Either calmly accept him moving in, or take the money and leave, ending our marriage.

Everyone was waiting to see me swallow my pride for love and keep playing the useless, obedient husband.

This time, I chose divorce.

Because in my last life, I chose to endure it, and all I got was Mason pushing further and further.

He forbade Serena from sharing a room with me and only allowed her to see me once a month.

In the end, the two of them had a son and a daughter and lived in endless glory.

I guarded a marriage that existed in name only, then died of illness in a nursing home.

Now that I've been given another life, I no longer have any attachment to her.

I took half the fortune in exchange for the freedom of the rest of my life.

The private room fell into a silence as dead as a morgue.

A crack finally appeared in Serena Prescott's calm expression. She asked again, "Caleb Warren, are you sure?"

I didn't answer. I signed my name at the end of the divorce agreement.

Then I pushed the agreement toward her.

"Yes. I'm sure.

"When will the money be transferred? I'll go home and pack in a while."

How could I not be sure?

In my last life, I'd been naive enough to think that as long as I was still her husband, no one could cross that line.

We'd had so many years together. I thought that as long as the misunderstanding from back then was cleared up, our relationship could still return to what it had once been.

What I waited for instead was Serena and Mason Clark growing old together with children and grandchildren, loving each other until the end.

Meanwhile, I guarded an empty marriage and became an invisible housekeeper in the Prescott family.

Everyone mocked me as a useless man who couldn't even control his own wife.

In my old age, when I went to the hospital to bring Serena food while she was sick, I overheard her bragging to Mason.

She said the scandal back then, the one about me spending the night with five women, had been arranged by her.

"Honestly, there was nothing wrong with him. He was just too boring. Who'd want to spend a lifetime with a dull block of wood like that?"

"You're really ruthless," Mason said.

She laughed softly, without the slightest guilt. "If I hadn't been ruthless, how would he have obediently listened to me and let me cheat?"

It hit me like a bolt of lightning.

No wonder every time I'd tried to explain, she'd coldly told me to shut up.

Because she'd known the truth all along.

She didn't love me anymore, but she used a lie as a shackle and trapped me for an entire lifetime.

She trampled my feelings underfoot, watched me suffer for her, and took pride in it.

Now, looking at her young face again, I felt no love at all.

Only a wave of nausea.

The whispers in the private room began again.

"Look at that. He's playing hard to get, isn't he?"

"I bet he won't last three days before he comes crying back to Serena."

"Exactly. Without the Prescott family, what is he?"

Someone deliberately turned toward Mason and exclaimed in an exaggerated tone, "Still, our Mason is young, handsome, and in great shape.

"Serena must be so lucky at night. Unlike certain older men who look like they can't even stand upright."

Mason, the person being praised, pressed his lips together and pretended to be shy.

"It's not just at night. Daytime too. I've got the stamina, after all."

He deliberately glanced at me and added with an innocent expression, "Oh, I didn't mean the old man can't perform. Please don't misunderstand."

The room burst into laughter.

Serena sat there without saying a word.

Just like countless times in the past, she didn't defend me.

I tugged at the corner of my mouth and stood.

Since we're already divorced, I no longer have any duty to entertain these clowns.

Over the years, I didn't just manage every messy detail of Serena's personal investment company.

I also handled all her trivial affairs and went with her to entertain these friends who only knew how to mock me.

Since we're already divorced, I no longer have any duty to entertain these clowns.

In the decorative mirror in the hallway, I saw my reflection.

My skin was sallow, my eyes were sunken, and my gaze was full of a bone-deep exhaustion.

I was only thirty, yet I looked fifty.

I tugged at the corner of my mouth. The man in the mirror smiled too.

Yes, I looked old. I looked awful.

But from now on, I wouldn't.

I had just taken a step when Serena's voice sounded behind me.

I was a little surprised. I hadn't expected her to actually follow me out.

"I know you're only acting out of anger.

"How about this? Move into that little villa in North Ridge first. I'll visit you when I have time.

"Even if you no longer have the title, all these years still mean something."

She crossed her arms. Her tone carried a trace of impatient charity.

I refused coldly. "No, thank you. I'm divorcing you willingly.

"If you really have even half a shred of feeling left for me, please transfer my share of the assets as soon as possible."

With that, I didn't look at her face turning ashen. I turned and strode away.

When I walked out of the hotel, the winter wind struck me head-on, but I felt lighter than I had in years.

By the time I got home, my belongings had been thrown into a corner by the door like trash.

People were coming and going inside the villa. Movers were carrying things out.

Richard and Margaret Prescott's laughter floated through the open doorway, full of joy.

"Mason is so much better. It hasn't even been three months, and our Serena is already pregnant."

"Unlike a certain useless man who occupied the position and couldn't give us a child."

I lowered my eyes, hiding the mockery in them.

Serena and I had once had a child too.

I only found out after she'd already had it removed.

She said she was still young and didn't want to be dragged down by a child so early.

Later, when her parents blamed me harshly, I took all the responsibility onto myself.

Serena simply watched me get cursed out by her parents without saying a word on my behalf.

Back then, I kept making excuses for her. I told myself she just wasn't good at expressing herself.

Now, thinking back, love and the absence of love had always been obvious.

In less than three hours, news alerts on my phone went wild.

"Prescott Group Parents Welcome New Son-in-Law in High Profile Move. Former Husband Thrown Out."

"Serena Prescott Publicly Announces Grand Wedding With Mason Clark."

Serena, who had always been sparing with words in front of the media, gave a rare interview and warned everyone:

"Please don't spread baseless rumors and hurt Mason. I will pursue any false statements to the fullest extent."

The public recognition and protection I'd dreamed of for years, she finally gave today.

Only I wasn't the person receiving it.

I swiped the video away and stared at the text message showing that five hundred million had arrived in my account.

Then I smiled.

I casually booked the most luxurious private club in Riverton.

My phone buzzed nonstop. My best friend, Miles Dawson, called.

"Caleb? Are you all right?"

His voice on the other end was cautious, full of worry.

I was in a good mood. I even laughed out loud.

"I'm great. Are you free? Come out for a spa and massage. My treat."

Miles shrieked. "Have you lost your mind?"

I relaxed under the hands of several masseurs and said lightly, "I haven't lost my mind.

"I've just gotten divorced."

There was a long silence on the other end.

He couldn't believe that I, the man who had thrown away every ounce of dignity for Serena Prescott, could be so calm.

After all, he'd seen with his own eyes how humble I'd been for Serena all these years.

"Come over," I said. "I need to talk to you about something anyway.

"I want to start a company."

"Holy shit!"

This time, Miles's shout was full of wild joy.

"You finally came to your senses!

"I told you years ago that you were being stupid. You were the top finance prodigy at Franklin University, and you ran off to work like an ox for the Prescott family.

"The media even called you a kept man. I felt suffocated just watching it happen."

More than suffocated. It was stupid.

In my last life, I single-handedly turned the nearly bankrupt Prescott Group into a national industry leader.

Because of that, the Prescott family became the richest family in the country.

But I, the Prescott Group vice president who had worked myself to the bone, earned less than a thousand dollars a month.

The trillion-dollar fortune I had spent my life building ultimately benefited Mason Clark and his children.

Before I died, I couldn't even afford a two-dollar hot dog. I died cold, hungry, and destitute.

This life, I wanted to see whether the Prescott family could still shine without me, Caleb Warren.

Haircut, styling, full-body spa.

After the full treatment, I looked like a completely different person.

The hollow-eyed, gray-haired middle-aged man was gone.

In his place stood a young man with neat black hair and a tall, straight frame.

Miles walked around me, clicking his tongue in amazement.

"That's more like it. Back when you were at Franklin, you were definitely one of the better-looking guys.

"The way you looked before was so shabby I could barely stand to see it."

In the past, to please Serena's parents, I had barely spent a penny on myself.

Even if I had only a thousand dollars in hand, nine hundred had to go toward the Prescott household's daily expenses.

Even then, they still thought I was after their money, an insatiable parasite.

Now, I didn't care anymore.

I snapped my fingers, ordered several bottles of the most expensive liquor in the club, and smiled at Miles.

"Tonight, we drink until we drop."

News that I was preparing to start a company spread quickly, and the market was soon full of gossip columns predicting my failure.

A few people who truly understood my abilities quietly asked whether they could invest.

More people called me overconfident and waited to watch me become a joke.

Even Serena called me personally.

"Caleb Warren, you think you can start a company just because you have some money now?

"If you want to work, come back to Prescott Group. Don't embarrass the Prescott family out there."

It was the same old belittling tactic.

I calmly reminded her, "Miss Prescott, we're already divorced. What I do has nothing to do with the Prescott family."

Her breathing sharpened, but she still suppressed her anger.

"Enough. Stop acting out. Come back. That project with the Bennett family last time..."

"Not my problem."

I cut her off directly. "You've got the wrong person."

So that was why she had remembered me. There was a project she couldn't handle.

I had secured several highly profitable international deals for Prescott Group.

Without me, the people at Prescott couldn't manage the follow-up at all.

She was enraged and shouted, "Caleb Warren! When you squander all the money in your hands, don't come crying back to me."

I rolled my eyes and hung up.

Who would be begging whom was still undecided.

Serena stared at the disconnected call and flung the phone aside in fury.

She was used to my obedience and had never seen me this out of her control.

A restless sense that things were slipping beyond her grasp rose in her chest.

The marketing director beside her asked nervously, "Ms. Prescott, is Mr. Warren willing to come back?"

"Get out!"

Serena shouted in humiliation and anger.

Mason hurried over and wrapped his arms around her from behind, soothing her softly.

"Don't get so angry. You're pregnant."

He helped her calm her breathing with a pained expression, though something else flashed in his eyes.

"Serena, it hurts me so much to see you this tired. Why don't I come into the company and help you?"

Serena frowned, not quite approving.

"You don't have any experience. Why don't you rotate through a few departments first and get familiar with things?"

Mason immediately became unhappy, his mouth turning down in grievance.

"Why did Caleb get to become vice president as soon as he arrived? Am I worse than him?"

Serena instinctively wanted to retort that Caleb was a top finance prodigy from a famous university, so what did Mason have to compare with?

But when the words reached her lips, she saw Mason looking like he was about to cry, and her heart softened again.