When I was eighteen, I gave myself to Magnus Finck like a gift, wrapped in blind devotion.

That night, tipsy and aloof, he slid my clothes off without hesitation.

The next morning, he looked utterly composed.

“Evelyn, I’ll take responsibility for you.”

And he did exactly that.

Magnus kept his promise. He kept me close, treated me well and eventually married me. I became Mrs. Finck.

Everyone envied me for it. I had climbed the social ladder and landed at the very top—the darling of Greyton’s elite, wife to one of the most powerful men in the city.

I believed in the dream, too.

Until that night, at the company’s celebration gala. Magnus lost control in public, throwing punches to defend his assistant from a pushy client. He made a scene. Got arrested.

I bailed him out, using the family name to keep things quiet.

Outside the holding cell, I overheard him laughing with a friend, still half-drunk and unaware I was there.

His friend joked, “If you like her that much, just keep her on the side. Evelyn’s obsessed with you. Even if it blows up, she wouldn’t dare leave.”

Magnus let out a helpless chuckle. “She’s different,” he said. “She’s not like Evelyn… not that low. She didn’t throw herself at me.”

He continued, “She has nothing to do with me on paper. I couldn’t make her look cheap.”

So that’s what he thought of me. That I was cheap.

From eighteen to twenty-eight, ten years of my life, I had lived as his wife, his woman. But in his eyes, I had always been the desperate girl who threw herself into his bed.

——

A cold draft swept through the hallway outside the police station. I had been trembling before, but now I felt truly frozen.

So this was what I had become in Magnus’s world: the pitiful slut of a wife.

They always said the darling of Greyton was distant, refined and expertly masked. I hadn’t believed it before. But now, I saw the truth all too clearly.

I steadied myself, swallowed the pain and pushed open the door. The conversation inside stopped dead. Magnus and his friend turned to look at me.

Magnus calmly met my eyes and said flatly, “Sorry for the trouble.”

He was always polite to me. In public, they said he respected me.

I used to believe it, too. But after everything, I finally understood: He wasn’t being respectful. He was tired of me.

His friend nodded politely at me as we left the station. “Thanks for the trouble, Sis!”

I simply gave a small nod and followed the officer to finish the paperwork. I was his wife. Things like this were supposed to be my duty.

It was the middle of the night. Magnus had been drinking, so I was the one driving. He sat in the back seat. His usually neat hair was a mess, his crisp shirt torn at the collar and one of his hands was bruised and bandaged.

He'd always been the type to keep himself perfectly put together. Now, here he was: disheveled and bloodied… over a new assistant.

Suddenly, his phone rang. He answered it in a tone I hadn't heard in years—soft, warm.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry, I’m fine,” he said gently.

“It’s late. You should sleep. No need to wait up.”

Simple words, but the affection in his voice was unmistakable.

I looked at him through the rearview mirror—just in time to catch the smile he couldn’t hide as he hung up.

I asked, casually, “Was that the fight over Fina?”

“Evelyn, don’t start.” Magnus didn’t even flinch. “She’s my assistant. If someone disrespects her and I do nothing, how do you think that reflects on me?”

“You’re Mrs. Finck. You don’t have to deal with this kind of crap. But she’s not you,” he said.

It was just a question. But somehow, it set him off.

I kept quiet at that.

Still, he was annoyed. “Take me to the office. I’ve got work to finish.”

I glanced at him again.

Once upon a time, I would’ve worried. I’d have told him not to overwork himself, to take it easy. But such words were caught in my throat now.

I made a U-turn and drove him to the office.

As he got out, he said what he always did, like it was scripted. “Thanks for tonight.”

Then he slammed the door shut behind him and walked off without looking back.

It wasn’t until I was about to leave that I realized—he’d left his phone in the car.

I picked up Magnus' phone and went upstairs to his office.

Before I even reached my destination, I heard Seraphina’s voice from inside.

“Mr. Finck, thank you so much. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you today.” Her voice was soft, laced with tears.

Magnus gently pulled her into his arms, like it was the most natural thing in the world. “I’m here. Don’t be afraid,” he murmured.

She buried her face in his neck, crying without restraint.

Magnus looked down at her, eyes full of concern. He leaned in, his lips brushing the shell of her ear—until she suddenly pushed him away.

“We can’t,” she said, breathless, eyes red. “Mr. Finck, you’re married. We can’t do this.”

Mangus didn’t get angry. On the contrary, he moved toward her again.

His voice dropped, soft and deliberate. “Sera, if this is making you unhappy… I can get a divorce.”

My hands clenched into fists at my sides.

Magnus said it so easily. Divorce! As if the past ten years meant absolutely nothing.

I didn’t wait to hear the rest. He never once called me by a nickname, not even in private. Always “Evelyn,” cold and formal. Even in bed, he treated it like a task—distant, detached.

I had always been the one reaching out. The one trying. For ten years, that’s how it had been.

I used to think he was just emotionally reserved. But the truth was, he simply didn’t love me.

I bit down on my lip hard and placed his phone at the office door before turning to leave.

It had started to rain by the time I stepped outside.

The sky opened up and so did something inside me. I could barely hold myself together.

Distracted and overwhelmed, I ran a red light. The truck came out of nowhere. It smashed into the side of my car and I was trapped inside, unable to move.

My fingers finally found my phone. Out of instinct, I called Magnus.

“What is it?” His voice was cold, flat.

I forced myself to speak through the pain. “I was in a car accident. I’m stuck in the car… I can’t get out.”

Gasoline was leaking from the truck. I could smell it. If it caught fire, the whole thing could blow.

Before I could even finish my sentence, I heard Seraphina’s voice on the other end.

“Mr. Finck, you must be tired. Let me give you a little massage.”

Magnus didn’t hesitate. “I’m in the middle of something. I’ll send someone.”

Just like that, he hung up. He never handled things himself. Maybe he thought he was being responsible by delegating, but every single time, it was the same.

There was always a meeting, always a business trip, always something more important than me.

Even his assistant’s report mattered more than the fact I was trapped in a wrecked car.

“Eve! Are you okay?”

A man’s voice broke through the chaos—slightly breathless, laced with concern.

I turned my head and, to my surprise, saw Sven Hauser, Magnus’s closest friend. So this time, Magnus hadn’t even bothered with a staff member. He’d sent Sven.

“I’m stuck. I can’t get out.”

Sven frowned, glanced around and ran back to his car. A minute later, he returned with tools and worked quickly to get me free.

Once I was out, he looked me over carefully, his expression tight with worry. “Can you walk? I’ll take you to the hospital.”

He looked more panicked than I did. But I didn’t move right away. I leaned against his arm for balance.

“Sven,” I said quietly, “you’re a top lawyer, right?”

He met my gaze, confused but attentive.

I managed a weak smile. “Then could I trouble you to draw up a divorce agreement for me?”

***

At the hospital, they told me my shoulder was fractured from where the car had crushed in.

Plenty of other injuries too. They kept me for observation in case of a concussion.

I stayed two days. Magnus didn’t call once. Even I signed the discharge paperwork myself.

It wasn’t until I stepped back into the house that his name showed up on my phone.

“Evelyn, come pick me up.”

Soon after, he hung up with no explanation like usual.

To everyone else, I was Mrs. Finck. In reality, I felt more like his on-call, unpaid maid.

A moment later, my phone buzzed with a location pin. I sighed, grabbed my keys and headed out the door, pushing through the pain to drive.

When I arrived at the private lounge, I found Magnus slumped on the couch, looking utterly defeated. For a man as ambitious and composed as he was, that was a rare sight.

One of his friends handed him another drink. “Come on, Magnus. She’s just an assistant. If you want a woman, it’s not that hard.”

“Seraphina turned you down? Big deal. There are a dozen women dying to throw themselves at you.”

Someone in the corner snickered and added under their breath, “Like Eve.”

Laughter erupted from the room.

So this was why he was drinking himself into a stupor. It was over Seraphina turning him down.

My hand froze on the doorknob. For a long moment, I just stood there, my jaw clenched. Then I pushed the door open and walked in.

The room went quiet in an instant.

One of his friends looked up, startled, then forced a smile. “Well, look who’s here—Mrs. Finck.”

I didn’t even acknowledge him. I looked straight at Magnus. “I’m here to take you home.”

Magnus stood slowly, his face unreadable. He staggered a little as he approached, then casually draped his arm around my shoulders, leaning into me without a word.

Before I could leave, a voice cut through the silence.

“Mr. Finck,” Seraphina said, standing just inside the doorway. “If you were going to have your wife pick you up, why did you message me?”

I turned to look at her. Her face was scrunched up like she was wounded. “You didn’t have to go this far just to humiliate me.”

Magnus’s expression changed immediately. He was furious. He turned to his friends and barked, “Who used my phone to message her?”

The silence in the room thickened.

“I said, who did it?” His voice rose.

No one dared speak. No one moved.

He looked like he was ready to explode. “If any of you think this kind of prank is funny, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Stay the hell away from Sera.”

Seraphina stood frozen, her cheeks burning red, her eyes full of unshed tears. She spun around and rushed out, barely holding herself together.

Magnus panicked. He could barely walk straight, but without a second thought, he let go of me and stumbled after Seraphina.

“Sera, don’t be upset… wait, please—just wait!”

I stood there watching the two of them disappear down the hallway. Strangely, I didn’t feel much of anything. Maybe because deep down, I’d always known I was the one he’d drop the second someone else called.

Once Magnus was gone, the room slowly came back to life. Voices returned, low at first, then louder.

“Jesus, I’ve never seen him that angry.”

“Think he’s serious about her this time?”

“Obviously. Anyone can see it. People who throw themselves at him just come off cheap.”

More laughter broke out.

They didn’t bother lowering their voices. Magnus didn’t care about me, so they didn’t have to either.

My shoulder, already fractured, ached badly where he had leaned on me earlier. I reached up to press against the pain, ready to leave.

Then I heard Sven’s voice behind me. “Eve.”

I turned.

Sven's expression was tight, like he was holding something back. “Let me drive you home.”

He must’ve been in the room the whole time. He saw everything, heard everything.

I didn’t know what he thought about any of it. I wasn’t sure I cared anymore.

Sven had always been there—Magnus’s best friend, from the very beginning. From the moment I fell for Magnus, Sven had been at his side. He’d seen every pathetic moment of mine. And I wasn’t going to pretend cover it up.

***

The ride home was quiet. Sven didn’t say a word the entire way.

Right before I opened the car door to leave, he finally spoke. “You really sure you want a divorce?”

I nodded.