Chapter 1: Divorce, Walking Away with Nothing
June burned like a furnace. The sun was brutal, so bright it hurt to keep your eyes open.
Clara Vance stepped out of the H.Y building covered in blood.
She stared at the contract in her hand, and a bitter smile slowly tugged at her delicate, pale face.
To get this deal signed, she had taken a bullet.
Consider it the last thing she would ever do for Ethan Mercer.
He had chased her for three years. They had been married for one year. Then out of nowhere, he said he was tired of her.
At first, she had made a scene. She had argued, cried, begged. What she got in return was only his cold mockery.
"Clara Vance, the way you look right now makes me sick. Let’s get divorced."
Later, she found out the truth. Ethan Mercer wasn’t tired of her.
He had just met the woman he actually wanted.
Ever since he brought up divorce, he hadn’t come home in two months.
Dragging this out any longer was pointless.
Clara changed her clothes, stopped a cab by the roadside, and headed straight for Mercer Group Tower.
When she got there, she went straight up to the president’s office on the top floor.
The moment she reached the door, she heard a woman’s sugary voice from inside.
"Ethan, you’re so bad. My lips are swollen now."
Clara’s heart clenched hard.
But if she wanted to kill every last bit of hope inside herself, then she had to see it with her own eyes.
So she pushed open the half-closed door and walked in.
Inside the lavish office,
Alice Vance sat on Ethan’s lap, her face flushed red. It was obvious what had just happened between them. The marks on her lips said enough.
The second she saw Clara come in, panic flashed across Alice’s face. She hurried off Ethan’s lap.
"Sis, I…"
After all, Clara and Ethan were still legally married. No matter how shamelessly Alice had rushed into this role, being the other woman was still ugly.
Clara and Alice were the switched-at-birth heiresses. To begin with, this marriage had originally been meant for Alice.
Clara didn’t bother listening. She walked over and placed the contract and a divorce agreement on the desk.
Only then did she look at the man across from her.
Ethan Mercer. Kyoto’s richest man.
He wore a black shirt and black dress pants, all lazy elegance and untouchable class, refined and handsome to an almost unfair degree.
Under his dark hair was a face so striking it looked unreal. Sharp brows, cold eyes, perfect features.
And right now, that face was looking at her with naked disgust.
It stabbed straight into her chest.
"The partnership with H.Y is done," Clara said. "The divorce papers are below. I already signed them. It’s two in the afternoon now. Let’s go get the divorce certificate."
Her voice was calm, like this marriage meant nothing to her at all.
Only her face was ghostly pale, drained of all color, and her thin body looked so fragile it seemed she might collapse at any second.
A flicker of surprise crossed Ethan’s eyes, but it vanished fast, replaced by his usual coldness.
"Director Vance, not bad," he said coolly. "A deal so many companies couldn’t land, and you got it signed. I’m curious. How exactly did you pull that off?"
His low voice was flat and dismissive, as if he had already decided she must have used some dirty trick.
Clara’s hands tightened bit by bit. She lowered her eyes, hiding the pain flooding them.
Then she gave a faint, indifferent smile.
"Since all President Mercer cares about is the result, does the process really matter? So, the divorce. Are you going or not?"
Alice looked at Ethan nervously.
"Ethan, you promised you’d marry me. It was my place to marry you in the first place. She only took it because she replaced me. Now that I’m back, you have to keep your word."
Ethan lifted his hand and gently brushed his fingers over Alice’s soft, innocent-looking face. Then he glanced at Clara, his expression dark and unreadable.
"Marry you? Of course I will. I’ll go divorce this woman right now."
The look in his eyes when he turned back to Alice was unbelievably gentle.
That softness pierced Clara so badly her eyes stung.
Only then did she realize something almost ridiculous—
it seemed Ethan had never looked at her that way. Not once.
"Ethan, I knew you were the best to me." Alice leaned into his arms with a sweet, satisfied smile, then shot Clara a smug look.
Clara lowered her gaze and forced herself not to look at the scene that shattered her heart.
At this point, she honestly couldn’t tell anymore whether the wound hurt more, or her heart did.
Ethan picked up the divorce agreement. Then his eyes stopped on one revised clause, and his pupils suddenly shrank.
His voice dropped.
"You’re leaving with nothing?"
Clara used every bit of strength she had left to answer. Her voice came out rough and hoarse.
"If we’re divorcing, then let’s make it clean. I’ll leave with nothing."
If she was going to cut ties, then she would cut them completely.
Once she made a decision, she never changed it.
Four years.
And now her four-year promise had ended.
She really was supposed to leave.
Something shifted in Ethan’s handsome face. A storm rose and fell in the depths of his eyes, but the sarcasm on his face was obvious.
"That sounds like you, Clara Vance. Always this ruthless, no matter what you do. Let’s go. Civil Affairs Bureau."