The Cold Surgeon's Contract Bride novel Chapter 778

A pathetic, self-deprecating smirk touched Leon's lips. "It's hilariously tragic, really. Even as I turned around and walked out of that suite, a sick part of me was praying for an excuse. I desperately wanted her to chase me down and claim it was a misunderstanding—that she had been blackmailed, or drugged, or forced into it."

"And she did chase me down. She threw herself at me, sobbing wildly, swearing the guy had threatened her and forced her into submission. She begged me to believe she only loved me, that giving herself to another man had never been her choice."

"And I instantly believed her. Even when Julian and the others pointed out the massive, glaring holes in her story, I chose her over logic. Looking back, I realize I was just willingly brainwashing myself. As long as she threw me a bone, I was ready to swallow the delusion just to keep her."

"But the delusion didn't last long. The very next day after she won me back, she made up some excuse to leave the house. Julian snapped a photo of her walking right back into that same luxury hotel."

"This time, I didn't bash the door down. I simply booked the adjacent suite. When room service went in to deliver their meals, I pressed my ear to the adjoining wall and listened."

"She was giggling with him. Bragging about how pathetically stupid I was. She told him it only took a few fake tears to make me swallow her lies, so he shouldn't worry about my feelings. She practically promised him they could keep screwing around behind my back indefinitely."

"She admitted I was nothing but her backup plan—her ultimate safety net. She said I was a lapdog. No matter how horribly she treated me, no matter how humiliated I felt, all she had to do was snap her fingers, and I'd come crawling back, wagging my tail. I was the golden idiot willing to tank my family's legacy just to make her my wife."

"That was the exact second my entire world shattered. I had worshipped her, blindly trusted her with my life, and she saw me as nothing more than an ATM with a pulse. If I hadn't heard those words fall from her own venomous lips, I would have died defending her innocence."

Leon's eyes shone with raw, unshed tears. The disposable cup in his grip crinkled and deformed under his crushing strength. Thank god I had only poured lukewarm water, or he would have blistered his skin. Even so, his knuckles were stark white from the brutal tension.

A deafening explosion ripped through my own chest, reducing my fragile peace to jagged shrapnel.