Frozen Devotion

Cold drizzle began to fall outside the secluded hillside villa, making it nearly impossible to flag down a ride so far out in the suburbs.

Every other guest had already driven away. Having taken a cab here earlier, Cleo waited alone beneath the eaves, watching the thin mist blur the dark road ahead.

A black Rolls-Royce rolled smoothly through the rain and pulled to a halt right at her feet. The window slid down, revealing Dominic's assistant, Gavin Hayes.

"Mrs. Vance," he offered in a gentle tone, "please get inside."

Cleo stayed right where she was, her gaze fixed on the narrow opening of the rear window, well aware of the man sitting in the back seat.

A heavy silence stretched between them before Dominic's voice cut through the night air. "Drive on. Leave her out here to clear her head."

Awkwardness flashed across Gavin's face. Averting his eyes from Cleo, he pressed the gas and pulled away.

Cleo blinked slowly as the red taillights vanished into the downpour. Wind blew the fine mist beneath the overhang, spattering freezing drops across her cheeks until the cold sank deep into her bones.

Back when he was eighteen, Dominic had counted down the days until he could celebrate his twenty-eighth birthday alongside her. Now that twenty-eight had finally arrived, he looked at her with nothing except pure disgust.

Over the last three years, he had kept a strict distance, never laying a finger on her and barely setting foot in their house.

The wealthy wives in their social circle all treated her like a laughingstock—a pitiful woman locked inside a gilded cage without a single thing to call her own.

To everyone else in that crowd, Cleo was simply the vicious woman who had put Daphne's older sister, Jolene, into a coma and shamelessly stolen Daphne's fiancé. In their minds, she deserved every ounce of suffering that came her way.

Not a single person cared to remember that she had been with Dominic since the age of twelve, staying by his side through his roughest, poorest days until he finally made it to the top.

Rumors claimed the Vance family had only taken her in as a goddaughter out of charity, only for her to turn greedy. People said she had weaponized those seven years of hardship to guilt-trip Dominic and trap him in a lifelong marriage.

Another seven years had slipped past since then, and when she added it all up, she realized fourteen years of her life had been spent revolving around him.

Pulling herself out of her thoughts, she looked down at the ride-share screen on her phone. Not a single driver had picked up the request near the hilltop.

It was two in the morning by the time she finally reached Goldriver Estate. Her soaked skirt clung tightly to her legs, and the biting autumn wind left her lower lip trembling.

The downstairs lights were still burning inside the house. Stepping quietly into the foyer to change out of her wet shoes, she caught sight of Dominic sitting on the living room sofa, absorbed in his work.

His sharp features were striking, almost unreal under the soft indoor lighting. Sitting there in silence, he resembled a distant, snow-covered peak—breathtaking to look at, yet freezing and completely out of reach.

Cleo knew better than to flatter herself into thinking he had stayed up waiting for her. Whatever bond they once shared had been ripped to pieces three years ago.

She used to be full of life and warmth. Lately, whenever she caught her reflection in the glass, she barely recognized the resentful, exhausted stranger staring back.

Slipping off her damp shoes without making a sound, Cleo dropped the ruined, wine-stained scarf straight into the trash bin and walked up the stairs.

The master bedroom was neat and filled entirely with her personal belongings, mostly because Dominic had barely slept here over the past three years. Behind her back, people in their circle often joked that she was practically living like a widow.

Pulling out a small suitcase, she folded and packed only her plain, everyday clothes. She didn't spare a single glance at the entire wall of luxury handbags and glittering jewelry boxes.

Dominic had once remarked that she wasn't worthy of wearing any of those things. Since he viewed her as nothing more than a calculating gold digger, he assumed barring her from touching those luxuries would serve as a daily punishment.

Carrying the small bag back downstairs, Cleo walked over to the coffee table and set the signed divorce agreement down right in front of him. "My signature is on it," she said in a flat voice.

Throughout their three-year marriage, being in the same room had always ended in a screaming match. More accurately, she had been the one yelling in a desperate bid to get any reaction out of him, while he simply sat back, cold and detached, watching her fall apart.

Dominic raised his gaze from the laptop screen and looked at her compact suitcase. Out of nowhere, a bitter, burning tightness rose in his throat and settled heavily in his chest.

"That's everything you're taking? Setting the stage for your next return already?" he mocked, his sharp tone cutting straight through the quiet room.

Leaning slightly forward, he lowered his voice to a cruel whisper. "Cleo, did you forget how you got your foot in this door? Right in the middle of my engagement party with Daphne, you spiked my drink, arranged for everyone to catch us in bed together, and backed me into marrying you."

"That was my fault," Cleo answered quietly, her fingers tightening around the plastic handle of her suitcase. With her pale cheeks and damp skirt hanging heavily around her knees, she looked seconds away from giving out on the spot.

A long, heavy silence settled over the living room before she spoke again, her voice raspy. "Dominic, can you at least tell me why your love for me just vanished overnight?"

That single question had eaten away at her for three whole years. Back when the two of them were crowded into a tiny, run-down rental room, he had sworn he would love her for the rest of his life.

After the Vance family brought him back to the family fold, plenty of outsiders had warned her to take a payout and walk away, insisting a prominent family like his would never allow someone from her background to become his wife.

She had refused to listen to any of them, holding tight to his old promises and trusting he would come back for her—only to hear the news of his engagement to Daphne.

He had sworn to love her forever, she thought bitterly, wondering how feelings that ran so deep could simply vanish without a trace.

"Because you don't deserve it," Dominic replied, every word cold and merciless.

The answer struck Cleo hard enough to make her head spin. A hollow ache spread through her chest, as if the last bit of warmth had been drained right out of her body, leaving nothing behind but a dead emptiness.

Back when he cherished her, he used to say she was the greatest gift life had ever given him. Now that his feelings were gone, she was suddenly unworthy of even looking his way.

For the longest time, she had convinced herself that his engagement to Daphne had been forced upon him by his family, believing that even a girl with nothing to her name could fight to protect their love. To the privileged elites in his world, however, her desperate struggle had been nothing more than a pathetic circus act.

Three years had dragged by, and it was finally time to wake up from the delusion.

Gripping the handle of her suitcase, Cleo turned toward the front entrance without looking back at him. "Put your name on the papers, then. I'll meet you outside the courthouse tomorrow at twelve."

Slipping her feet back into her damp shoes by the entryway, she tucked a stray lock of wet hair behind her ear and offered the empty air a faint smile. "I'm sorry for all the trouble I've put you through over the years, Dominic."

Dominic reached for the documents on the table, his fingers trembling slightly before clenching tight around the paper and then going slack again. "Good," he muttered under his breath. "I'm finally free of this."

That quiet remark stung far worse than she had braced herself for. She tried to let out a dry laugh to brush it off, yet her throat produced no sound at all, leaving her no choice but to pull the door open and walk out.

Gavin was standing on the porch outside. Spotting the suitcase in her hand, he stepped forward and spoke with clear hesitation. "Mrs. Vance, Mr. Vance didn't intentionally leave you out of tonight's birthday dinner. He just—"

Cleo walked right past him without a word, dragging her suitcase down the steps into the pouring rain as if staying under that roof for one more second would suffocate her.

After taking only a few steps down the wet driveway, she came to a halt. Turning her head slightly toward Gavin, who was still standing under the lit doorway, she asked in a quiet voice, "Will you tell me who he's been hiding away at Oakridge Villa?"

Gavin's posture went rigid, and he quickly dropped his gaze to the ground, clearly caught off guard that she knew the property existed.

Taking in his reaction, Cleo drew a shallow breath of cold air. "Someone has been living there on his dime since three years ago, right?"

"I apologize, Mrs. Vance. I really don't know anything about that," Gavin answered stiffly.

There was no way he didn't know, Cleo thought to herself, considering he was Dominic's most trusted right-hand man. Heavy rain blurred her sight and soaked straight through her thin jacket.

Brushing the cold water off her cheeks with the back of her hand, she spoke barely above a whisper. "Never mind. If you're not allowed to say, just pretend I never asked."

Shifting his weight uncomfortably on the porch steps, Gavin called out softly, "Mrs. Vance..."

Cleo was already walking away, her small figure disappearing into the dark curtain of rain.

On the night she turned eighteen and gave herself completely to Dominic, she had spent hours picturing the bright future they would build together. Never once had she imagined that by twenty-six, everything between them would end in such complete ruin.

Walking away from him felt like carving half of her own heart out of her chest, yet she knew she couldn't stay behind a moment longer.