Adeline whispered, “Temporary support sounds like falling with permission instead of dignity,” while Nick did not even lift his eyes from the glowing screen in his hand.

Nick finally spoke without looking at her, saying, “Sign it now because Sienna Rowley is waiting for me downstairs and I do not want delays in my schedule.”

The name struck Adeline like something sharp and personal, because Sienna Rowley was the international model who had appeared in magazines beside yachts and luxury events that replaced Adeline in public memory.

For months Adeline had endured humiliation in silence while hiding her pregnancy beneath loose coats, trying to protect her unborn children from a world already eager to destroy her.

Inside her chest something finally stopped resisting, because she understood that fighting Nick Drayke felt like standing in front of a moving train and expecting mercy.

Her shaking hand moved across the paper while tears blurred every line, and she signed away the apartment, the accounts, the vehicles, and everything that once represented her life.

Nick stood up immediately after the final signature, placing his phone into his jacket pocket as if concluding a routine meeting rather than dismantling a family.

As he walked past her, he said calmly, “A deposit has been made for you, so do not claim I left you with nothing at all.”

The door closed behind him without hesitation, leaving Adeline alone inside a silence that felt heavier than any argument she had ever survived.

Continued on the next page