"When you finish the dishes, come to the living room. I need to speak with you."
Celeste Shaw's voice came from the living room, carrying a coldness that felt almost out of place in a house full of warm lights, dinner smells, and ordinary domestic noise.
"All right."
Ethan Cole answered without stopping his hands. He kept washing the porcelain plate in front of him with practiced ease.
Water rushed over his fingers.
Under the kitchen light, he lost focus for a moment. He could not help wondering what important thing his beautiful billionaire CEO wife wanted to tell him tonight.
In Northbridge, the name Celeste Shaw meant wealth and beauty.
And Ethan Cole?
Everyone knew him as the man living off her.
Their ridiculous marriage had started three years ago.
Back then, Ethan had just lost his job. He was broke, cornered, and close to the lowest point of his life.
Because he looked clean, handsome, and harmless enough, Celeste had chosen him by chance.
After that, Ethan received an agreement that changed the next three years of his life.
The terms were simple.
Ethan would marry Celeste Shaw under a private contract for three years.
For every year he completed quietly, Celeste would pay him one million dollars.
When the three years ended, she would pay another two million as final compensation.
In other words, she had bought three years of Ethan's life for five million dollars.
To Ethan at that time, five million was a number large enough to feel unreal.
For three years, he fulfilled every obligation. He revolved around groceries, laundry, meals, appointments, and the thousand tiny preferences Celeste never needed to explain twice.
He did it so thoroughly not only because of the money.
Celeste had once said, with that calm voice of hers, that if Ethan performed well enough during these three years, if he truly moved her, they could turn the contract into a real marriage.
After three years under the same roof, Ethan had already fallen for her without realizing when it happened.
He had been willing to give.
Suddenly, as if remembering something, Ethan dried his hands and unlocked his phone.
The date appeared on the screen.
March eighth.
Exactly the final day of their three-year agreement.
"Could it be?"
Ethan's heartbeat sped up. Even his breathing became unsteady.
He could not stop himself from imagining it.
Maybe Celeste had called him to the living room tonight because she wanted to tell him that he had passed the test.
Maybe from tomorrow onward, he would no longer be a hired husband.
Maybe he would become Celeste Shaw's real husband, openly and properly, the man who would stay by her side for the rest of her life.
Thinking of that, Ethan washed faster without noticing it, then cleaned the kitchen until there was not a single stain left.
When everything was done, he stood at the kitchen doorway, took a deep breath, and adjusted his shirt.
Then, carrying a nervousness he had never felt before, he walked quickly toward the living room.
In the living room, Celeste sat on the black leather sofa with a laptop resting across her thighs. Her long fingers moved quickly over the keyboard as she handled work.
Even at home, she wore a fitted white blouse and a charcoal pencil skirt. The professional outfit outlined her figure with a sharp, dangerous elegance.
Ethan sat down beside Celeste carefully, carrying a trace of expectation.
"Celeste, what did you want to talk to me about?" Ethan asked, his tone cautious.
Celeste did not even raise her head. Her eyes remained locked on the screen as she said flatly, "Sleep early tonight. Tomorrow morning, come with me to the courthouse. We're filing the divorce."
"Go to the courthouse to..."
Ethan instinctively followed the sentence halfway.
But when the word divorce truly entered his ears, his entire body stiffened as if struck by lightning. The rest of his words died in his throat.
"Celeste, you... you're joking with me, right?"
Ethan sat frozen on the sofa. His hands gripped his knees tightly.
His voice trembled, still carrying one last ridiculous bit of hope.
"..."
Celeste finally stopped typing.
She slowly closed the laptop.
Then she turned her head.
That exquisite face of hers was calm to the point of cruelty, like still water with no emotion beneath it.
Her silence was the answer.
Ethan met those eyes, eyes with no warmth at all, and pulled the corner of his mouth into a smile uglier than crying.
"These three years, I worked without complaint. Every meal, every shirt, every little habit of yours, I remembered all of it. Even a stone should warm up after being held for three years, shouldn't it? But in the end, I still couldn't warm your heart?"
Celeste stood up.
She looked down at him from above, her tone still calm.
"It's late. Sleep early. After we finish the filing tomorrow, I still have an important board meeting."
After saying that, she turned sideways and walked toward the upstairs bedroom without looking back.
"Wife..."
Ethan stopped himself.
"Ms. Shaw!"
He suddenly raised his voice and changed the way he addressed her. He no longer called her his wife. He used the cold, businesslike title that belonged to the world she preferred.
"..."
Celeste's expression shifted slightly. She stopped walking.
"During these three years, was there even one moment when you cared about me?"
Ethan stared hard at her back.
This was his final shred of dignity.
It was also the answer he wanted most.
Celeste's expression did not change.
She left only one sentence behind.
"You and I were never meant to be from the same world."
Bang.
The bedroom door upstairs shut, cutting off the last small flame in Ethan's heart.
Ethan stood in the empty living room, both hands clenched into fists.
"Not from the same world..."
He murmured those words, his eyes full of bleakness. His smile was bitter enough to taste.
The next day.
Outside the county courthouse.
With the divorce documents in hand, this absurd three-year marriage officially came to an end.
"Pack your things and move out as soon as possible. I'll have the door codes changed before this afternoon."
Celeste put on her sunglasses, hiding every trace of expression. After leaving that cold instruction behind, she turned and got into her expensive sports car.
The engine roared.
The car pulled away, leaving Ethan no chance for even a final goodbye.
Ethan stood on the steps, looking at the divorce folder in his hand. His expression was complicated.
"Not from the same world, huh? Right. You're the billionaire CEO standing above everyone else. I'm just an ordinary man with nothing."
He stood in the wind and laughed at himself. His eyes carried the exhaustion of someone who had seen through the world too late.
But just as Ethan had no idea where his future should go, a cold mechanical voice without the slightest emotion suddenly rang out deep in his mind.
[Congratulations, host. Three-year secret check-in period completed. The system has fully unlocked.]
[All accumulated rewards are now being issued at once.]
[Congratulations, host. You have obtained Divine Vision. See through illusion, appraise treasures, diagnose illness, and observe the origin of all things.]
[Congratulations, host. You have obtained Divine Medicine. Reverse fatal conditions, repair damaged bodies, and challenge death itself.]
[Congratulations, host. You have obtained Grandmaster Combat. Take the enemy commander in the middle of an army as easily as reaching into a pocket.]
[Congratulations, host. You have obtained Apex Research Authority. Five hundred years ahead of current human civilization. The peak of the world will be defined by you.]
...
Author's Note:
This story will continue updating here.
If you want to read the full story without waiting, you can unlock it here:
/c/TYMercer
Thank you for reading.