A Love Rewritten in Lavender

"The richest woman in Seavora?"

I froze halfway out of bed and stared at him.

The woman drowning in debt.

The woman who'd kept me a thousand miles away for seven years while I worked and took care of her sick father.

She was the richest woman in Seavora?

"Yep."

Shawn looked almost proud.

He pulled up an old news article on his phone and handed it to me.

"Seven years ago, when our families arranged our marriage, she was already the richest woman in Seavora. Though I deserve a little credit too. My family put a lot on the table to make it happen."

My hand shook as I took the phone.

The headline stabbed straight through me.

[Real-Life Fairy Tale! Billionaire Heiress Marries Wealthy Heir in Wedding of the Century!]

[Power Couple Leah Lambert and Shawn Fulton Become Seavora's Most Talked-About Newlyweds]

At the bottom was a date.

The exact date she'd insisted on moving to Seavora for work.

The same time we'd had the only real fight of our entire marriage.

So it had all been planned.

While I'd spent sleepless nights clutching my phone and crying over her...

She'd been in another man's bed.

In this marriage, I was the outsider.

Bitterness crawled up my throat.

I doubled over and retched.

Across the room, Shawn suddenly grabbed his stomach.

"Honey..."

Before he could finish, Leah was already at his side.

"Doctor! Somebody get a doctor!"

She threw her arms around him.

A team of doctors rushed in with a wheelchair and hurried him out.

The room fell silent.

I threw up until nothing came out except bile.

Tears dripped onto the floor.

The hospital door swung slowly behind them, almost mocking me.

I remembered our wedding.

Standing in front of my mother's grave, Leah had sworn she'd take care of me for the rest of her life.

Turns out that was a lie too.

I sank back onto the bed.

After who knew how long, Leah finally returned.

Alone.

Like nothing had happened, she sat beside me and blew gently on a bowl of oatmeal.

"Eat something. It'll help your stomach."

The sweet smell drifted over.

All I tasted was bitterness.

She'd probably learned that from taking care of Shawn.

"Who are you?" I looked at her and laughed softly. "Do I call you Leah? Or Ms. Lambert?"

Silence.

A few seconds later, she answered.

"Yeah, I lied. So what?"

Her voice stayed calm. "I'm the Lambert heir. You're a self-made nobody from a town nobody's heard of. No money. No status. No connections. We were never supposed to happen.

"This is the best outcome you could've had. I still love you. I still play the role of the perfect wife. Why can't you stop making things difficult and try to understand me for once?"

Perfect wife?

I stared at her.

For a lie, she'd made me give up a senior executive position in Seavora.

For a lie, she'd kept me trapped in a small town for seven years.

That was her idea of being a perfect wife?

Letting people laugh at me.

Keeping me stuck in the kitchen.

Treating me like some fool whose only dream was being a househusband.

What a joke.

She reached up to touch my hair.

I pulled away.

Fighting another wave of nausea, I said, "We're getting divorced. Today."

"No."

Not a second of hesitation.

"Then I'll sue you for bigamy!" I snapped. "I'll send you to prison!"

The words tore out of me.

Leah only shook her head.

Her voice was calm.

Almost gentle.

"Wystan Wren, you can't."