Divorce Failed! My Wife's Secret Identities Shock the World novel Chapter 265

After they'd walked a short distance, Andres still felt the need to explain. "About what just happened, don't take it to heart."

Maeve yawned lightly. "You're overthinking it. It's not that deep."

To her, it had been nothing more than a cheap little show.

A show during which she'd also done a few tiny things of her own.

Some pieces, when they offer themselves up so eagerly, are meant to be used.

Maeve's cool indifference cut deeper, leaving a raw, hollow ache in his chest.

Other than what they did in bed, she never interfered with his private life. She wasn't curious about his friends, his world—anything.

They were legally married. They slept in the same bed every night, wrapped around each other like it was normal.

Even if there had been no feelings at first… after all this time, shouldn't something have grown?

"Maeve. I think we need to talk."

Maeve kept strolling, taking in the scenery of the old estate, answering him with lazy ease. "About what? Say it."

Andres caught her wrist. "After all this time together… have you ever liked me? Even a little?"

Maeve stopped looking at the view and met his eyes.

"In the adult world," she said calmly, "there's no such thing as like or dislike. It's cooperation for mutual benefit."

The words lodged in his chest like a stone. "If it weren't for The Binding, would you have avoided ever crossing paths with me?"

Maeve shot it back. "Wouldn't you?"

Thinking back to how they'd begun, Andres couldn't deny he hadn't exactly earned her goodwill.

"Are you still resentful about what happened before?"

Maeve shrugged. "No point. Obsessing over the past is a waste of time."

"You saw what just happened. Miss Sullivan and I are strangers. Completely unrelated."

"Yet because of you, we're forced into clawing at each other."

He'd been so focused on distancing himself from irrelevant women that he'd ignored what their existence did to Maeve—how much trouble it created for her.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I didn't think it through."

Maeve didn't seem to care. "They're irrelevant. It doesn't matter."

The more she acted like it meant nothing, the worse it felt in his chest.

So this was what it was—while he was sinking deeper and deeper, unable to escape, Maeve was still standing outside the net, watching him struggle like it was entertainment.

They always said the one who falls first loses.

Andres didn't regret it anyway.

"The future's a long road," he said, voice steady despite the ache. "Who knows what will happen between us in a few years?"

In that moment, he was fiercely grateful—grateful his father had chosen Maeve as his wife without his knowledge.

And, improbably, grateful to Maeve's adoptive father as well—for scheming, for setting The Binding in place, for tying them together in the first place.