From His Invisible Wife to the World's Icon novel Chapter 152

A flicker of shock crossed Lydia's face. Her gaze slowly shifted from Joanna's frantic expression, drifting down the hallway to where Frederick and Sierra were tangled together.

Sierra had her arms thrown around Frederick's neck, shamelessly rubbing herself against him.

Frederick gripped her wrists to hold her back and ordered Sebastian, “Get a doctor over here.”

Sebastian stepped aside to make the call.

It seemed Sierra was the one who had been drugged, not Frederick.

She remembered walking past his study a couple of months ago and overhearing Frederick and Caleb Grant discussing The Foster Group's three-year strategic plan to expand into innovative pharmaceuticals.

So he hadn't fallen out of love with her. He hadn't fallen for Sierra and started neglecting Lydia's feelings because of another woman.

Instead, he had simply watched her suffer, watching her endure endless humiliation, and actively chosen to ignore it.

In his eyes, profit mattered more than she did.

More than even himself.

The Foster Group was notorious for breaking into new industries by acquiring smaller companies and slowly monopolizing the market.

And he was famous for his ruthless, cold-blooded tactics.

Corporate warfare was full of underhanded tricks, and she had never minded that.

But to use himself as bait for Sierra just to swallow up The Sutton Group...

She felt nothing but pity for Frederick.

And she felt even more pathetic for falling in love with a man who treated emotions as disposable tools.

Lydia's eyes met Frederick's impassive backward glance.

Thinking about it now, she finally understood—he never loved her.

Their marriage had begun as a business arrangement; she was the fiancée Charles Foster had picked out for him.

The early intimacy of their marriage was just hormones.

The cold distance that followed was the real him.

And Sierra was just the catalyst for their crumbling marriage.

If it wasn't Sierra, it would have been someone else.

Whenever necessary, she could be sacrificed. She was always going to be the collateral damage.

In that moment, absolute clarity washed over her.

It was her relentless love that had enabled his chilling indifference.

Now that she didn't love him, he was nothing!

“I'm done lying to myself.”

Aside from their honeymoon phase, they had never been to the movies together. Excluding holidays, they had never gone out for dinner just the two of them, and she had never received a single rose.

He was always busy, always flying off on business trips, while she was left staring at his back in an endless cycle of waiting.

The love she once had was drained dry by his neglect, and whatever gratitude she held was exhausted by the countless times he had thrown her to the wolves.

There was absolutely nothing left between them.

Lydia's eyes were calm as she murmured, “This relationship was one-sided from the very start.”

“I started it, and now I'm ending it.”

“He and I don't have a future.”

The doors pinged open. She led Joanna out, only to notice her friend looking completely hollowed out.

“Why were you so worked up over Sierra's pathetic screeching?”

Lydia's beautiful eyes scanned Joanna, suddenly pausing. “Wait, those marks on your skin don't look like they're from a fight.”

“Don't tell me you and Sebastian...?”

Her face lit up with the thrill of discovering juicy gossip. “You said you'd tell me when you picked a date for the engagement. Is it Sebastian?”