TRUE PAIN LOVE COMES WITH

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

Xiao Xiaosu

I went to the City Clerk’s office for a routine copy of my marriage license to finalize a trust fund audit. I expected a simple piece of paper, but the clerk’s pitying look told me my entire life was a lie. "The license was never finalized, Ms. Oliver. In the eyes of the state, you are single." The three-hundred-guest wedding at the Plaza and the Vogue features meant nothing. My husband, Gray Cooley, had intentionally filed the documents with a "procedural defect" so he could discard me without a legal divorce. Moments later, an iCloud invite titled "Our Little Secret" popped up on my screen. It was a photo of my best friend, Brylee, holding a positive pregnancy test at our Hamptons estate. Gray’s text to her was the final blow: "Happy anniversary, babe. This baby is the best gift. Once the trust unlocks today, we’re done with the charade." I soon discovered they were even stealing my career, reassigning my architectural masterpiece to Brylee while preparing my eviction notice. Gray's mother called me a "barren mule" in a leaked recording, mocking the infertility I suffered after saving Gray’s life in a construction accident. I wasn't a wife; I was a three-year placeholder used to secure his inheritance. How could the man I bled for treat me like a disposable prop? How could my best friend carry his child while pretending to comfort me through my darkest moments? The betrayal burned until it turned into a cold, hard stone of fury. I didn't cry. Instead, I walked into the penthouse of the Barretts, the Cooleys' most powerful rivals. I signed a marriage contract with Kane Barrett, the man the tabloids called the "Beast of Wall Street." "I want a wedding," I told his father, my voice steady and lethal. "Bigger than the one I had with Gray." If they wanted me gone, they would have to watch me become the woman who owns their world.

Modern Revenge Divorce

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"He just gets carried away" Derek's mother protested weakly. "He doesn't know what he really needs".

Bobby's brow's rose " He seems to know exactly what he needs" he said in his driest voice. "Big breast, long legs and a wet-lipped simper those were Derek's criteria".

Bobby Packer looked at his aunt with affection and exasperation "not again!"

She bridled "it's not Derek's fault! He just.........".

"An idiot when it comes to women" Bobby supplied more than a little tersely. "He falls violently in lust with the most unsuitable female in sight, showers her with gifts, promises her undying love, then wakes up one morning and realizes he has nothing in common with her. Worse than that, she knows nothing about computers, which means he can't even hold a conversation with her. So he dumps her and she goes off and wails tearfully and lucratively to the media. Temporarily anyway, why are you so concerned this time?".

"Bobby you of all people! Know perfectly well he's just had a well publicized payout on his internet firm more than twenty million dollars" Doris Packer hesitate, before saying in rush "And she's not his usual type. To start off with she's older than he is, and she's not a model or a game show hostess or a beauty contest winner"

Bobby's black brow's met in a frown" So you think she's after the money"

"Derek has a reputation for rather foolish generosity" his mother said unwillingly "What evidence have you got that she's a shark?" .

Not for the first time Doris Packer decided it was positively sinful that as well has being brilliant and inordinately successful, Bobby should look like something out of a fantasy six foot three, shoulders big enough for a couple of women to cry on, and the sort of Lean, potent vitality that stopped any woman's breath.

Most men would have been more than content with that. But Bobby also had perfect features, a mouth to send shivers down ever her spine, and grey eyes that were a stunning contrast to olive skin and sable hair.

Derek was good looking, but not even a doting mother's bias would allow her put him in Bobbys class.

She thrust a photograph at her nephew "look" She watched that sexy , sculpted mouth compress and his eyes narrow into ice chips as he scanned the image.

Finally he looked up " She's definitely a change from Derek's usual inamoratas . Who is she?".

"Miya Claire Martin's".

"Miya?".

"Well, that's what she calls herself" His aunt dismissed the pretentious name with a curled lip. "She's at least five years older than Derek, and you'll notice she isn't hanging onto or gazing worshipfully or seductively into his eyes" Doris pointed out, adding, "And he speaks differently about her". "So what is the problem?" Bobby was fond of the aunt who'd brought him up after his parents died, but he deplored her fierce, overprotective love for her only child.He had no illusions about his cousin; Derek was spoilt.

His open good looks not to mention his assets meant that most women succumbed to his laid back approaches. Because he'd never had to work for a woman's notice he'd probably been intrigued by the cool, touch me not air of the one in the photograph.

A little impatiently he said, "perhaps this time he's found a normal woman, one he can actually have a conversation with".

"Do you consider someone whose father was the town drunk normal?"

"That's hardly her fault".

She grimaced "I know that, but you have to admit she probably has a serious issues".

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