I Bet My Life on a Faithless Man

The young woman Royce Drayton has his eye on is fierce. He throws 200 million dollars at her, but she still refuses to leave her broke boyfriend. In a rage, Royce locks her away in his Crescent Shores villa for seven full days and nights. The staff whisper that Royce has his ways, that he can turn even the most defiant woman soft and willing. Afterward, he comes to me with the same easy apology he always gives. I can't even count how many times he cheats on me. Just like right now, I'm still giving him the cold shoulder over the secretary who crawls into his bed the month before, but he's already over her and on to someone new. It makes my jealousy feel pointless and a little pathetic. At some point, he stops even bothering with excuses and just tells me, "You're my only real wife. Isn't that enough?" I even start convincing myself that no man can resist temptation, especially not one who owns the entire city of Grayport. He's just playing around, and his heart is still mine. That's all that matters. But when I find out this young woman gets Royce to add her name to the Drayton family registry in just ten days, something I spent ten years trying and failing to earn, I know he's truly fallen for her. Later, I bring the terms of an old wager to Royce's mother myself. "I lost. I'll leave Grayport." "Sweetheart, love isn't something you win or lose." There's pity in her eyes, but she doesn't ask me to stay. She only asks, "Will you come back?" I beg the Draytons for their blessing to marry Royce. I cut ties with my own parents, give up everything, and swear never to leave this city. Now, standing at the waterfront one last time with the harbor wind on my face, I know I'm never coming back. Chapter 1 The moment I found out Royce Drayton took Blythe Renner to my private stable, I floored it the whole way there and slammed straight into his car, leaving it totaled. Royce didn't even flinch. But when he noticed the bruise swelling on my arm from the impact, his expression darkened. "Does it hurt?" "Why would you bring her here?" I shook off his hand, my voice trembling. "Why?" The stable was his gift to me for our third wedding anniversary, and the last safe place I had left in Grayport. The tabloids in the city used to joke that Royce's women could be found anywhere, at galas, in shopping malls, on yachts, even in our own marital bed. This stable was the only place that was purely mine. "It's just a stable. If you like it that much, I'll buy you another one." Royce said it like it was nothing, and from the look on his face, he probably didn't even remember where this one came from. He'd given me too many things over the years. Anniversary gifts, holiday gifts, make-up gifts, just-because gifts, and gifts to smooth things over after cheating. Before I could even process the sting of his indifference, I caught a glimpse of the white horse Blythe was riding, and my breath caught. Luna was a foal I delivered with my own hands and raised from birth. I was pregnant on our third anniversary. The baby came early and died just six hours after birth from underdeveloped lungs and heart. My body was already fragile because of an earlier accident, and that was my sixth pregnancy. I'd spent seven months on strict bed rest just trying to hold on. But it was all for nothing. The doctors told me I would probably never be able to carry a child again. I lost the will to live and sank into a depression so deep I nearly ended things. Then Luna came along. The foal was stuck during delivery, still wrapped in the birthing sac, and I was the one who reached in and pulled her free with my bare hands. She wobbled to her feet, and I was the first person she came to, looking up at me with those wide, bewildered eyes like she'd already decided I was her mother. From that day on, I raised her like she was my own child. She was gentle and affectionate, never once ill-tempered since the day she was born. But now, the riding crop in Blythe's hand was coming down hard on Luna, again and again. Chapter 2 Royce followed my gaze, but all he saw was the young woman on horseback, clumsy but determined, and the corner of his mouth lifted without him even realizing. "Blythe just landed a period piece with riding scenes. She's never been on a horse before, and Luna is gentle, so I let her practice." "Get her off." My teeth were chattering. Royce assumed I was just jealous and smirked. "It's just a horse, Mrs. Drayton. Be a little more gracious." I turned and shoved open the stable gate, stepping in front of Blythe and Luna. "Get down!" Before I could even reach the reins, gentle Luna suddenly panicked, rearing back with her front hooves about to come crashing down on me. In that split second, Royce shot past me without sparing me a single glance, because the only person he saw was her. "Blythe!" I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for impact, but Luna recognized me. To keep from hurting me, she wrenched her entire body to the side, let out a sharp cry, and bolted. Blythe screamed, clinging to her back. Royce pulled out a gun. Several shots rang out, and the white figure crumpled to the ground. "Luna!" I screamed and ran to her, only to find a sight that shattered me. Luna's eyes were still open, her white coat soaked in blood. Royce was already ahead of me. He scooped up Blythe, who didn't have a scratch on her but had fainted, and shouted for a doctor. The look he threw my way was cold enough to stop my heart. He even called me a lunatic. "I want her to pay for this with her life!" I stormed into the hospital, lunging for the gun Royce had used to kill Luna. For the first time, Royce dropped the indifferent act. His dark eyes burned with fury as he shoved me away. "Enough! If you hadn't barged in and spooked the horse, none of this would've happened. Will you stop making everything into a scene?" I stared at him in disbelief. He actually thought I did this on purpose. Seeing me sway on my feet, Royce seemed to realize he'd gone too far, but after a few deep breaths, his voice was still hard and cold. "Look at yourself right now. No wife of mine acts like this." In the glass door, I caught my own reflection, wild-eyed and completely unraveled. My voice came out hoarse. "I want a divorce. I don't want to be Mrs. Drayton anymore." I was so tired. I was just so tired. Exhaustion was written all over Royce's face too, and he went quiet. He didn't grab my face in a rage and force me to take it back the way he always used to. Ten years ago, when I first came to Grayport, I had no idea who Royce really was. He'd married me back home behind his family's back, and when the truth came out, they beat him within an inch of his life, but he still refused to say the words to let me go. "I'd rather die than be apart from you." But now, after a long silence, Royce just stared at me, cold as ice. "Don't be stupid, Celia. You'd never actually leave me. Have you forgotten? You cut off your own parents for me. "Without me, you have nothing. So, stop threatening me with divorce, because if I ever take you up on it, where exactly would you go?" His words hit like a bomb going off in my ears. I knew I had lost the bet. Chapter 3 Ten years ago, Royce left Grayport under a false identity to prove himself up north. At a cocktail party, he noticed me, a complete stranger, drinking a glass of wine that had been spiked. He meant to rescue me, but instead walked in on me smashing the bottle over the creep's head. I'd dug the broken glass into my own thigh to keep myself conscious, and by the time it was over, my leg was a bloody mess. Royce told me he'd never met a woman as fierce as me, and that was why he pursued me. We hadn't been together long before he brought me back to Grayport, and that was the first time I realized the kind of old-money empires people saw on TV actually existed. Cutting ties with my parents was the Draytons' first condition for letting me into the family. They could barely stomach a daughter-in-law who wasn't up to their standards, and they certainly weren't going to tolerate my relatives showing up looking for handouts. Humiliating me was the least of what they did. That was the first time I formally asked for a divorce. My parents were ordinary people, but they loved me. I chose to leave quietly by ferry. When Royce found out, he raced to the dock and threw himself into the freezing water without a second thought, swimming desperately after a ferry he had no chance of catching. As a child, his family's enemies had kidnapped him and taken him out to the open sea, and he'd been terrified of the water ever since. But he fought through that fear for me. Maybe even fate took pity on us, because the ferry broke down right where it was. I stood on the deck crying, and he was in the water crying. That single leap was all it took. I was willing to bet my whole life on him. The doctor came out to say that Blythe was awake, and Royce left without looking back. "Go home and cool off." How could he be this cold to me? I picked myself up off the floor, burning with enough jealousy and hatred to storm that room and tear it apart. But every ounce of that fury shattered the moment I heard their voices through the door. "You bit me too hard!" Blythe's voice was bratty and spoiled. "Your mouth tastes like cigarettes. Didn't you promise me you'd quit?" Royce pulled her close, still shaking with relief that she was safe. "You scared me. I couldn't help myself, so I had one. "Just this once. One last time." Royce was actually quitting smoking for Blythe. I stood frozen. A tabloid reporter once asked Royce to name the three things he couldn't live without. His answer was, "Celia, the Draytons, and cigarettes." Even I had never been able to get him to quit. Even when we were trying to conceive, all he'd done was cut back to half. The pain in my chest was so sharp I could barely stand, and my hands were too numb to push the door open and face them. Did Royce's heart really still belong to me? I chose to run away instead. Three days later, Royce sent me a new horse. I brought it to a villa under my name, one he'd given me as a consolation gift after I burned our house down when he brought another woman into our bed. The painting in the living room was from the last time I caught him with a secretary, the wall of Hermès bags was from the first time I caught him cheating, and the couture jewelry in the safe was from after he got a woman pregnant and I cleaned up his mess. Royce was right about me. I never knew when to quit. But even the most stubborn person would get tired of running into the same wall. I came here to dig out the wager I'd signed in secret on our wedding day, so I could take it to Royce's mother and hold up my end of the deal. But when I reached the estate and stood in front of the stone steps where Royce and I had once begged his family for their blessing, it all came flooding back. He'd refused to eat or drink, starving himself to prove he was willing to die before he'd give me up. Even now, I have to admit that I still love him. Leaving Royce would be like tearing myself apart. In just those few seconds of hesitation, I was already talking myself out of it again. No man can resist temptation, especially not one who owns the entire city of Grayport. He was just playing around, and his heart was still mine. I was still his real wife. I just never expected to find Blythe at the Drayton family estate. Chapter 4 "Word travels fast." Royce didn't seem surprised to see me. "If you're here to object, I'll save you the trouble. You don't get a say in Drayton family matters." He stepped in front of Blythe, shielding her with his whole body. Object to what, exactly? I had no idea what he was talking about, but a wave of unease washed over me. Royce's mother, Sylvia Harwood, called me into the family chapel alone and pointed to a page in the family registry. I saw a single line of text. "Royce Drayton's wife—Blythe Renner." It was like having ice water dumped over my head. My entire body went cold, and I read the line again and again, unable to believe it. "Royce says that since he can't legally marry Ms. Renner, he wants to give her a legitimate place in the family by adding her name to the registry." Sylvia's tone was flat, as though she'd long grown used to scenes like this. "You know as well as I do that since his father passed, the Draytons are his. No one can stop him." Ten years ago, even though Royce and I had a legal marriage certificate, in the Draytons' centuries-old tradition, only a woman whose name appeared in the family registry was considered the true Mrs. Drayton. In the eyes of his family, I was his wife by law, but they never actually recognized me. I was legitimate on paper and nothing more. I'd always felt the sting of that, and Royce had stood in this very chapel and sworn to me that he would make sure I was properly entered into the registry one day. I spent ten years fighting for that place, and Blythe earned it in ten days. So, he hadn't forgotten after all. He just decided that spot no longer belonged to me. Royce had truly given her his heart. I'd seen what Royce looked like when he loved someone, so I couldn't accept him not loving me anymore. I could turn a blind eye to his occasional wandering. But I couldn't lie to myself and pretend I was still the only one. I'd lost completely. I pulled the crumpled wager out of my bag and slowly smoothed it flat. Sylvia, who was usually so composed and detached, showed a flicker of real emotion for the first time when she read what it said. "You actually kept this." After a quiet moment, she sighed and tried to explain on her son's behalf. "Royce doesn't actually want to leave you. He just..." She was defending him, trying to make me stay, even though she had been the one who fought hardest against our marriage in the first place. It was almost funny. By now, I was already the Mrs. Drayton that all of Grayport recognized. Even the sharpest tabloid columnists had long stopped calling me "that poor Ms. Shaw from nowhere." When I wanted to leave, even my impossible-to-please mother-in-law was willing to accept me just to keep me here. But the man who once swore himself to me had changed. So, I cut Sylvia off mid-sentence and said, in a voice that left no room for doubt, "I want a divorce, and I want to leave Grayport." On my way out of the chapel, I happened to overhear Blythe playing coy with Royce. "What if Mrs. Drayton won't accept me and wants to divorce you?" "She'd never divorce me." Royce didn't even have to think about it. "You don't know how much she loves me." His voice was smug and certain. "Don't believe me? I'll make you a bet. Let's see how long her cold shoulder lasts this time." He thought it over for a second and smiled, completely sure of himself. "I give it a week, tops, before she accepts you and comes running back to me." It was pathetic, truly pathetic, that even after hearing him say all of that, I still loved him. But some people loved so they could hold on, and some people loved so they could walk away with their dignity. This time, Royce was the one who lost. Before I left Grayport, I stood at the waterfront one last time and let the harbor wind wash over me. I thought of Sylvia's final question. "Will you come back?" I shook my head. I was never coming back.