"Your husband is back in New York! And guess who he brought with him? That manipulative little snake just landed at JFK with him!" Candice Keller's phone buzzed against the mahogany desk. A message from her best friend, Ellery Macdonald, flashed across the screen. "You know, the woman whose mother saved his life and who's been hanging around the Montgomery family ever since!" Candice didn't look up from the three-hundred-million-dollar merger file spread across her desk. She was reviewing the final clauses in her corner office at Sterling & Sterling LLP, high above Midtown Manhattan. As the firm's youngest equity partner, she had little patience for distractions. But Ellery's next message made her pause. "I'm sending you a picture. Tell me I'm not seeing things." Candice opened the attachment. In the high-resolution photo, a tall, broad-shouldered man was shielding a petite, frail-looking woman as they walked out of the airport's VIP channel. He wore a dark bespoke trench coat, and the familiar custom tourbillon watch on his left wrist caught the harsh glare of the terminal lights. It was Aloys Montgomery, heir to the Montgomery fortune—and the husband who had left her behind in New York for five years. The woman clinging to his sleeve was Chastity Harper. For the past five years, Candice had quietly had her firm's investigators look into Chastity. Their findings—including cross-border records, checks on her educational credentials and medical history, and documented inconsistencies in her past statements—had been preserved in a confidential file on the firm's secure server. It had sat untouched for months. Now, with Aloys back in New York, Candice had a reason to reopen it. Candice's amber eyes stayed completely flat. She zoomed in on the image until the pixels sharpened around Chastity's pale fingers, which were clutching the sleeve of Aloys's coat. Under the desk, Candice pressed her right thumbnail hard into the center of her palm. A faint, crescent-shaped scar from years of holding back her temper turned bright red against her skin. Her phone vibrated again. "What are you going to do?" Ellery demanded in another message. "Want me to bring a baseball bat to the Upper East Side and block the door?" A faint, cold smile touched the corner of Candice's lips. She typed a reply with one hand. "No need. It has nothing to do with me." She flipped the phone face down on the desk and returned her gaze to the merger contract, treating the return of her estranged husband like a piece of junk mail. Five minutes later, a knock sounded at the heavy double doors. A junior partner stepped inside, holding a supplemental agreement and its internal review sheet. Candice uncapped her Montblanc pen and signed the review sheet in one fluid motion. "Check the indemnity clause on page four and the tax schedule in appendix B," she said, her voice cool and even. "Fix both loopholes before sending it to the client." The junior partner nodded with a look of awe, took the folder, and backed out of the room. Once the doors clicked shut, silence settled over the office again. Candice leaned back against the leather headrest and closed her eyes. Immediately, the memory of a heavy snowstorm in Boston five years ago flashed through her mind. Her stomach twisted tight. She snapped her eyes open, forcing the nauseating memory down, and reached for the bottom drawer of her desk. Deep inside lay a document she had drafted months ago. Bold black letters across the cover page read: Uncontested Divorce Agreement. She lifted the packet out and ran her fingertips over the cold legal terms. Her gaze sharpened. The desk intercom buzzed, and her receptionist spoke through the speaker. "Ms. Keller, your private driver is waiting in the lobby." Candice slipped the divorce agreement into her Hermès Birkin bag, stood up, and put on her tailored black trench coat. She walked out of the office, her heels clicking against the marble floor as assistants in the hallway stepped aside to clear her path. Taking the executive elevator straight down to the underground garage, she settled into the backseat of her black Maybach. "Take me to the Upper East Side penthouse," she told the driver. As the neon lights of Manhattan blurred past the tinted windows, she opened her bag and checked the asset division clauses one last time. Twenty minutes later, the Maybach glided into the underground garage of a luxury building overlooking Central Park. Candice rode the private elevator to the top floor and pressed her thumb to the scanner, pushing open the heavy redwood doors that her husband had not walked through in five years. The vast apartment was dark and empty. She walked over to the Italian leather sofa in the living room, sat down, and placed the divorce agreement right in the center of the black marble coffee table. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a slim cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag. Sharp smoke curled into the dim room. On the wall, an antique clock ticked steadily until the hands pointed to ten o'clock at night. Out in the foyer, the electronic lock let out a soft beep, followed by the heavy sound of the front door being pushed open.

The front door opened halfway, but no footsteps entered the living room. Instead, low voices drifted in from the hallway as a bodyguard set down the luggage and stepped back toward the service elevator. Candice's fingers stilled around her cigarette. She stood up from the sofa and walked quietly across the rug to the floor-to-ceiling windows connected to the open terrace. She pushed the glass door open and stepped outside. The freezing November wind whipped at her trench coat as she looked down at the street below. In front of the building's main entrance sat a black Rolls-Royce Phantom. The streetlights stretched the shadows of two people standing by the open car door across the pavement. Aloys Montgomery stood near the curb, his dark gray bespoke overcoat framing his tall build and sharp jawline. Standing right in front of him was Chastity Harper, wearing a thin white cashmere dress and shivering as she looked up at him. Since her mother had died saving Aloys years ago, Chastity had used that debt to attach herself to the Montgomery family like a shadow. Down on the sidewalk, Chastity suddenly broke into a fit of heavy coughing, her body swaying as if she were about to collapse into the cold wind. Aloys frowned and reached out to steady her shoulders, his posture stiff with reluctant obligation. Chastity used his grip to throw herself straight into his chest, wrapping both arms tightly around his waist and burying her face against his coat. Watching from the terrace high above, Candice curled her lip into a mocking smile. There was no anger in her chest, only the absurd sensation of watching a cheap soap opera play out on the street. The wind blew a bit of ash from the tip of her cigarette onto the stone tiles. Down below, Chastity seemed to sense someone watching. Still holding Aloys around the waist, she tilted her head and glanced toward the upper floors of the building. Far above, behind the glass doors of the terrace, a faint silhouette seemed to move in the dim light. From where Chastity stood, she couldn't make out the person's features, but her gaze lingered on the figure for a moment. Aloys noticed the shift in her posture and followed her line of sight. He looked up toward the terrace, but the distance and darkness made it impossible to tell whether anyone was standing behind the glass. Before he could look any closer, the faint silhouette disappeared from view. Candice had already turned away and walked back into the living room, pulling the glass door shut behind her. Down on the street, Aloys's face darkened. He pushed Chastity back by her shoulders, his voice hard. "The driver will take you back to your hotel. Stop making a scene." Chastity bit her lower lip, tears instantly pooling in her eyes as she whispered, "Aloys, am I being too much trouble for you?" Aloys did not answer. He yanked roughly at his necktie to loosen it, turned his back on her, and strode into the apartment building. Upstairs in the living room, Candice crushed the half-smoked cigarette into a crystal ashtray and sat back down on the leather sofa. One minute later, the private elevator chimed. Heavy, steady footsteps crossed the foyer floor. Aloys walked into the living room carrying the chill of the late autumn night and the faint scent of cedarwood cologne. His gray eyes locked instantly onto the woman sitting on the sofa. After five years apart, Candice sat with her spine straight in her tailored coat, her amber eyes completely devoid of warmth. Aloys's breath caught slightly in his throat. His fingers curled at his sides as a tight, restless heat twisted inside his chest. He walked over to the opposite side of the coffee table and looked down at her, his voice low and raspy. "I'm back." Candice did not look up at his face. Keeping her gaze on the marble tabletop, she reached out with two fingers and slid the packet of papers across the smooth surface until it stopped right in front of his knees. Aloys's eyes followed the movement of her hand. The moment he read the bold black letters of the Uncontested Divorce Agreement on the cover, his pupils shrank. The air in the living room turned suffocatingly heavy. He snapped his head up, staring hard at Candice's calm face as his jaw clenched tight. "What is the meaning of this?" he ground out between his teeth. Candice finally lifted her eyes to meet his dark gaze, her voice completely flat. "Exactly what it says. Sign it, Aloys."

Aloys stared down at the divorce agreement on the marble table, his gray eyes turning frigid. He let out a short, harsh laugh. Bending down, he snatched the packet off the table, his long fingers crushing the edges of the crisp paper out of shape. "Five years apart, and this is your welcome gift for me?" He slammed the document back onto the coffee table with a loud thud. Candice did not even blink, keeping her tone strictly businesslike. "My firm already audited the asset division clauses. You aren't taking a loss." Her calm response set off the anger Aloys had kept bottled up for five years. He jerked his necktie loose with one hand and paced two steps across the rug before stopping right in front of her, his tall frame casting a heavy shadow over the sofa. "Do you think I care about this bit of money?" he demanded. Candice tilted her chin up, her gaze sharp and unyielding. "Aside from money, is there anything else left between us to settle?" Aloys's breathing grew heavy. He stared down at her indifferent face for three seconds, as if searching for some trace of the woman who had once looked at him with affection. He found nothing but the same cool resolve. Then he turned on his heel and strode down the hallway toward the master bedroom at the far end. Candice's brows pulled together. She watched his back and called out coldly, "Where are you going? You haven't signed the papers." Aloys pushed open the master bedroom door without looking back. "I'm not signing. And I'm sleeping here tonight." To him, signing those papers would mean accepting that five years of silence had been enough to erase their marriage，and that Candice had already made her decision without giving him a chance to answer for the past. He wasn't prepared to accept either. Candice stood up from the sofa and walked quickly down the hallway, her heels rapping sharply against the hardwood floor. When she reached the doorway of the master bedroom, Aloys had already shrugged off his dark gray overcoat and tossed it onto the king-sized bed. He was unbuttoning his shirt cuffs, the tight muscles of his forearms shifting beneath the rolled-up fabric. Candice stopped at the threshold, her voice tight. "This is my private space. The guest room is at the other end of the hall." Aloys paused with his fingers on a silver cufflink and turned to face her. A dangerous light flickered in his deep-set eyes. "This is also my legal marital home." He walked toward the doorway, his leather shoes making no sound on the thick carpet as he closed the distance between them. Candice instinctively took half a step back until her shoulder blades hit the cold wooden doorframe, leaving her nowhere to retreat. Aloys stopped inches away from her. He was so close that the scent of cedarwood mixed with tobacco wrapped completely around her. Tilting his head down, his gaze swept over her tightly pressed red lips, his voice dropping to a low rasp. "What's wrong? Five years apart, and you're afraid to be in the same room with me?" Candice fought the urge to shove his chest and met his stare squarely. "I just don't like touching things that other people have used. It's dirty." Her words hit a raw nerve. Anger flared in Aloys's eyes, and he slammed his palm flat against the doorframe right beside her ear. Leaning down, his warm breath brushed against her cheek. "I will say this one more time. I only see Chastity as a younger sister." Candice turned her face away from his breath, a mocking curve forming at the corner of her mouth. "Your 'younger sister' was holding onto you awfully tight downstairs just now." Aloys's jaw went rigid. He opened his mouth to snap back, but his gaze shifted past her shoulder and landed on the nightstand beside the bed. Sitting on the dark wood surface was a brightly colored squishy unicorn toy, looking completely out of place in the minimalist bedroom. Aloys froze for a second, then narrowed his eyes, looking back and forth between the rubber toy and Candice. A slow, mocking smirk appeared on his face. "I didn't know the ruthless Attorney Keller had a taste for children's toys in private." His gaze lingered on the toy for a beat longer. It was unmistakably meant for a child, and its presence in the master bedroom struck him as odd. But before he could ask where it had come from, Candice's expression changed. Candice followed his gaze, and her heart skipped a beat. Her five-year-old daughter, Maya, had slipped that unicorn into her handbag yesterday afternoon. After getting home, Candice had taken it out and set it on the nightstand, intending to put it away later. She had simply forgotten. She couldn't let Aloys ask questions—not when one careless answer might expose the secret she had spent five years protecting. Hiding the sudden panic in her eyes, Candice stepped past him, walked briskly to the nightstand, and snatched the unicorn toy into her hand. Watching her hurried movement, Aloys's smirk deepened, and he mistook her obvious embarrassment for proof that the toy was some private indulgence she didn't want him to discover. Candice spun around. Looking at the smug mockery on his face, a wave of nausea rose in her stomach. Without hesitation, she threw the rubber unicorn straight at his chest. "Get out!" The toy bounced off Aloys's solid chest and dropped to the carpet. The smile vanished from his face, replaced by a dark, suffocating scowl.