Shattered Vows: Call Me Auntie Now novel Chapter 1

Riverton, the Hayes villa at Belvedere Gardens.

The afternoon sun spilled into the bedroom as Quinn Yates gazed at her sleeping son's sweet face.

The countdown to the end of her marriage with Dante Hayes had reached its final ten days.

Looking back, the day she had finally decided to divorce Dante had been utterly absurd.

Three years ago, she had rushed her sick dog to the vet clinic.

When the vet extracted that long, transparent, sticky, rubbery...

Condom.

The atmosphere in the entire clinic seemed to freeze.

Quinn recognized at a glance that it wasn't the brand she and Dante used.

She immediately looked at Dante, silently interrogating him with her eyes.

Half an hour before this, Toffee had walked out of Dante's study and quickly started acting strange.

So the only place Toffee could have eaten this condom was inside Dante's study.

Their eyes met. Dante frowned, his tone freezing cold as he delivered three indifferent sentences.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Ours is just a marriage of convenience."

"Don't forget your place, Quinn."

Quinn stood frozen in place.

Her childhood crush, the deep gratitude she felt when he rescued her from the misery of the Yates family, and all her hopes for this marriage shattered in an instant.

A few years earlier, Dante had approached her with a three-year marriage contract.

He had sounded so earnest and affectionate. "Quinn, my mother doesn't like you right now. To keep her from giving you trouble, sign this three-year agreement, and we will live a good life together."

"Don't worry, this contract is just for my mother to see. I will treat you well for the rest of my life."

Contrasting that memory with his sudden hostility today was a bitter pill to swallow.

It was nothing but a mocking, cruel joke.

Snapping back to reality, she lunged toward the operating room.

But Dante grabbed her arm with cold indifference, his tone dripping with unconcealed arrogance. "If you like dogs so much, I can buy you a better one. Pick whatever breed or price you want."

"The dog is dead. Besides, it's covered in bacteria. What good will going in there do?"

Quinn slowly turned her head and glared at him with glacial hatred.

A suffocating wave of despair washed over her as she clenched her fists. "You and your whore killed Toffee. I hope you both rot in hell..."

"Enough! I won't let you talk about Vivienne like that!"

Dante barked, cutting her off before she could finish.

Vivienne?

A sharp ache pierced Quinn's chest. So, Dante's secret lover was his childhood sweetheart, his first love!

Tears streamed down her face. "Fine. Fine, Dante. Remember what you said today."

She buried Toffee, and along with her loyal friend, she buried her love for Dante deep in the cold earth.