“So the only option is marriage. They’re well-off anyway. And she’s their only child—once you marry her, their assets will eventually come with it.”
At that time, he had just begun taking over the company. He was exhausted, ambitious, focused only on expansion and deals. The future meant nothing to him beyond numbers and contracts.
So he had agreed—because it was convenient.
The wedding was fast. Efficient. Clean. A business arrangement disguised as a marriage. Contracts were signed. Partnerships formed. Future profits secured.
Mia’s parents had signed business agreements alongside the marriage documents.
After the marriage was done, he remembered Mia standing quietly beside him, fingers nervously intertwined, while he signed documents without even glancing at her.
‘James… when will we go on our honeymoon?’she had asked softly the day after their wedding.
He remembered answering absently, eyes still on the paperwork.
“Soon.”
But he had never even planned to go on a honeymoon.
Days passed.
Then weeks.
The promise of a honeymoon remained nothing more than empty words he had spoken without thought. And soon after, he left on a business trip.
After he returned and began settling into his own routine, she started sleeping in another room.
In the months following their marriage, she asked him many times about the honeymoon.
Each time, he brushed it off. Ignored it. Changed the subject.
And every time he did, something dimmed in her gaze.
He could see it in her eyes—the hurt, the quiet disappointment—yet he still chose not to respond.
Eventually… she stopped asking.
Slowly, without even realizing it, he stopped involving himself in anything related to her.
Whenever she called him, he told her to handle things on her own. His focus remained fixed on his business, his growth, his life.
In his mind, she had married him for money anyway.
It was a business marriage. A transaction.
So it made sense to him—perfect sense—to keep everything separate. To protect his assets. To protect his company. To protect himself from her and her family.
And the easiest way to do that…
Was to ignore Mia completely.
That belief—that cold, arrogant belief—now ripped through him like a blade.
James suddenly broke.
Tears spilled from his eyes as his body began to shake violently. He bent forward, his hand clutching his forehead as memory after memory crashed into him.
His breath came apart in sobs.
