From Neglected Wife To Empowered Heiress

For six years, my husband, Corbin, used his severe mysophobia as an excuse for why he could never touch me. I believed him, until I saw him tenderly caress another woman-his ex-girlfriend, Annis. When I was later left bleeding on the pavement after saving her life, he walked right past me to comfort her, his eyes filled with a fury I'd never seen.

He didn't ask if I was okay. He didn't call for help. He just looked at me with disgust and said, "My priority is you," to her, before walking away.

The final blow came when Annis smugly revealed the truth: Corbin only married me for my family's connections. He called our marriage a "contract."

I wasn't his wife; I was a business deal.

So, while he was distracted by Annis's "anxiety" in my hospital room, I had him sign a document he thought was a template for a friend. It was our divorce agreement. He's about to find out he's not just single-he's also broke. Because I just gave away every last cent of the fortune he gave me to win me back.

Chapter 1

Kennedy POV:

For six years, I convinced myself that my husband, Corbin Franco, couldn't stand to touch me because of his severe mysophobia and OCD. But that lie shattered today, the moment I saw him gently tuck a stray strand of hair behind another woman's ear.

In New York's elite circles, Corbin and I were a paradox. He was the city's most brilliant and ruthless prosecutor, the "Ice Prince" of the Manhattan DA's office, a man whose cold precision in the courtroom was legendary. I was Kennedy Pitts, a socialite and heiress from a family whose money was so old it was practically fossilized. We were the perfect, glossy power couple on paper.

In reality, our three years of marriage, preceded by three years of dating, had been a landscape of polite distance.

Our home was less a shared space and more two separate, sterile territories. His side of the closet was organized by color, fabric, and season, each hanger precisely one inch apart. My side was... well, it was a closet. We had separate bathrooms, separate studies, and, of course, separate beds in a master suite so large our sleeping quarters were in different zip codes.

Every surface in his domain was wiped down with antiseptic cloths hourly. He wore gloves to handle the mail. He never touched doorknobs with his bare hands. He owned more hand sanitizer than a hospital.

And he never, ever touched me.

Not a casual hand on my back as we entered a gala. Not a simple holding of hands while we walked in Central Park. Our wedding kiss had been a brief, sterile press of his lips to my forehead, a gesture so devoid of passion it felt more like a diagnosis than a declaration of love.

For six years, I had tried. Oh, how I had tried.

In the beginning, I' d playfully try to link my arm with his, only to have him stiffen and pull away as if my skin were poison ivy. "Kennedy, please," he would murmur, his voice tight with a discomfort that I mistook for a symptom of his condition. He would then retreat to his bathroom for a solid ten minutes of furious hand scrubbing.

I tried cooking for him, pouring my love into gourmet meals, only to watch him politely decline, explaining he could only eat food prepared in a kitchen he had personally supervised for sanitation.

I bought him gifts-cashmere sweaters, expensive watches, first-edition books. They would be accepted with a cool, "Thank you, Kennedy," and then disappear into a designated "gift closet," never to be seen, worn, or used.

I accepted it all. I told myself this was the price of loving a genius. I told myself his mind was a finely tuned instrument and his phobias were the unfortunate side effect. I believed that beneath the layers of latex gloves and antiseptic wipes was a man who loved me, in his own unique, untouchable way.

I was a fool.

And I knew it, with the blinding certainty of a lightning strike, on this crisp autumn afternoon.

I was at an outdoor cafe in SoHo, waiting for my friend Madison, when I saw him. Corbin was supposed to be in court, delivering the closing arguments on a high-profile fraud case. But there he was, sitting at a small table not twenty feet away.

And he wasn't alone.

He was with a woman. She was delicate, with large, doe-like eyes and an air of fragility that seemed to command protection. Corbin's entire posture, which was usually ramrod straight and tense, was relaxed. He was leaning forward, his focus entirely on her.

I watched, my coffee growing cold in my hands, as she shivered slightly in the breeze. Corbin immediately shrugged off his tailored suit jacket-a jacket I knew cost more than a small car-and draped it over her shoulders. He did it without a flicker of hesitation.

Then, his hand, the same hand that would flinch if I accidentally brushed against it, came up. He wasn't wearing his customary gloves. His bare fingers, long and elegant, gently brushed a wisp of her dark hair from her cheek. He tucked it behind her ear, his touch so tender, so natural, it made my breath catch in my throat.

He was smiling. Not his usual tight, polite smile for the cameras, but a genuine, soft smile that reached his ice-blue eyes and warmed them in a way I had never seen.

The world tilted on its axis.

His mysophobia. His OCD. The impenetrable fortress of rules and rituals that had defined our entire relationship... it was a lie. Or, at the very least, it was a selective affliction. A weapon he used exclusively against me.

My hand trembled as I raised my phone, the screen shaking so badly I could barely focus. I zoomed in, the image pixelated but undeniable. Corbin, my husband, caressing another woman's face with an easy intimacy he had denied me for 2,190 days.

Click.

The shutter sound was like a gunshot in the quiet ruin of my heart.

"Kennedy? Earth to Kennedy!" Madison's voice snapped me back to reality as she slid into the chair opposite me. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

I couldn't speak. I just swiveled my phone and showed her the picture.

Madison's perfectly sculpted eyebrows shot up. "Whoa. Is that... Corbin? Who's the girl? I've never seen her before."

The question hung in the air. Who was she? Who was the woman who could melt the Ice Prince?

My voice was a raw whisper. "I don't know."

Madison leaned in, her expression turning serious. She squinted at the photo. "Wait a second... she looks familiar. Hold on." She pulled out her own phone, her thumbs flying across the screen. After a moment, she let out a low whistle. "Oh, honey. You're not going to like this."

She turned her phone towards me. It was a university alumni page. A younger Corbin stood with his arm around the same woman, both of them beaming. The caption read: Law School Prom King and Queen, Corbin Franco and Annis Holder.

"Annis Holder?" The name was unfamiliar, a blank space in the six years of history I thought I shared with him.

"Corbin's college girlfriend," Madison said, her voice gentle. "They were... intense. The 'it' couple of Columbia Law. Everyone thought they'd get married."

"What happened?" I asked, my voice hollow.

Madison hesitated. "It's ancient history, Kenny. He never told you?"

I shook my head, a new wave of cold washing over me. He had never mentioned her. Not once.

"She has some kind of rare bleeding disorder," Madison explained softly. "Hemophilia, I think. It was a big deal back then. Corbin was crazily protective of her. There was this one time, during a mock trial competition, she got a paper cut. Just a tiny little thing. Corbin stopped the entire proceeding, carried her out of the room, and drove her to the emergency room himself, blowing off the final round. He lost the competition, a scholarship was on the line. He didn't care. All he cared about was her."

My mind went blank. A paper cut. He had thrown away a scholarship for her over a paper cut.

Meanwhile, I had been in a car accident two years ago. I' d broken my arm. I called him from the ER, my voice shaking with pain and fear. He' d been in the middle of a deposition. "Kennedy, I'm busy," he had said, his tone clipped and impatient. "The hospital will take care of you. Send the bill to my assistant." He hadn't even come.

"They broke up right after graduation," Madison continued, oblivious to the storm raging inside me. "I think her family moved away. No one ever knew the real reason. It was a huge shock. Everyone said he was never the same after she left."

He was never the same after she left.

The words echoed in the cavern of my chest. I remembered the first time I saw him, a year after their breakup. It was at a charity ball. He stood alone by the French doors, a drink in his hand, exuding an aura of such profound loneliness and cold melancholy that I was instantly drawn to him. He was the most beautiful, tragic man I had ever seen.

I fell for the tragedy. I fell for the Ice Prince.

I pursued him for a year. I, Kennedy Pitts, who never had to pursue anyone, chased him relentlessly. I sent him flowers, which he refused. I left notes on his car, which he ignored. I once waited for him outside his office in a downpour, just to offer him a ride. He walked right past me, got into his own car, and as he drove away, the splash from his tires soaked my designer dress.

I thought it was his grief, his broken heart that made him so distant. I thought my love, my persistence, could eventually heal him.

The day he finally agreed to have dinner with me, I was ecstatic. He had just won a major case, and I' d thrown a celebratory party for him, inviting all his colleagues. He showed up, but he stood in the corner, looking uncomfortable. When I went to talk to him, a drunken guest stumbled and spilled red wine all over my white dress. Everyone gasped. I was mortified.

But Corbin walked over, took off his jacket, and wrapped it around me. "Are you alright?" he asked, his voice low. It was the first time he had shown me a sliver of concern.

Looking back now, I see it. He wasn't concerned for me. He was shielding me from the public humiliation, a calculated move to preserve the decorum of the event. Just like he was now shielding Annis from a slight breeze.

I had mistaken his calculated propriety for a flicker of warmth. I thought I had finally broken through.

We started dating. Then we got married. The distance never closed. The chill never thawed. He would explain his aversion to touch was a clinical diagnosis. "It's not you, Kennedy. It's me. My mind... it doesn't work like other people's."

And I believed him. I told myself that a man who was pathologically afraid of germs couldn't possibly be faking it. His condition was real. I had seen the endless cleaning, the gloved hands, the stark, empty spaces he created around himself.

I just never realized I was the germ he was most afraid of.

The entire six-year relationship, my unwavering devotion, my patient waiting, my endless excuses for him-it was all a joke. A long, pathetic joke.

And I was the punchline.

My gaze drifted back to the couple across the street. He was saying something that made her laugh, a light, tinkling sound that carried on the wind. It was a sound of pure joy. A sound I had never once drawn from him.

A cold, hard resolve settled in my heart.

This had to end.

I stood up abruptly, my chair scraping against the pavement. "Madison, I have to go."

"Kenny, wait!"

But I was already moving, my mind a maelstrom of pain and fury. I walked blindly, bumping into people, not caring. I needed to get away. I needed to breathe.

As I rounded the corner onto a side street, a loud crash and a chorus of shouts erupted from above. I looked up to see scaffolding on a nearby building wobbling precariously. Debris began to rain down.

I stumbled back, my heart pounding, when someone collided with me from behind.

"Watch out!" a familiar, fragile voice cried.

It was Annis Holder.

The scaffolding gave a final, groaning shudder and a large metal pole broke free, plummeting directly towards us.

Without a second thought, my body reacted. I grabbed Annis by the arm and shoved her hard, sending her stumbling out of the path of the falling pole.

There was no time for me to move. A searing pain exploded in my leg as the pole crashed down, pinning me to the concrete. My vision swam.

Through a haze of agony, I heard frantic footsteps. A figure knelt, not beside me, but beside Annis, who had fallen to the ground a few feet away.

It was Corbin.

"Annis! Are you hurt? Talk to me!" His voice was ragged with a terror I had never heard before. He frantically checked her over, his hands, his bare hands, skimming over her arms and face.

"I'm... I'm okay," Annis stammered, pointing a trembling finger at me. "She pushed me... Kennedy, she's hurt!"

Corbin's head snapped towards me. The raw terror in his eyes was instantly replaced by a glacial fury. He strode over, looming above me where I lay pinned and bleeding.

He didn't ask if I was okay. He didn't move to help me.

His voice was colder than a winter morgue. "Why did you push her? Do you have any idea who she is?"

He wasn't asking about her identity. He was asking if I understood her fragility. Her preciousness.

He looked at me, his wife, bleeding on the pavement after saving the life of his true love, and all he saw was a threat. A careless object that had endangered his treasure.

A laugh, brittle and broken, escaped my lips. It was the sound of a heart finally cracking into a million irreparable pieces. "Corbin," I gasped, the pain a white-hot fire in my leg. "She has hemophilia."

Annis, now on her feet, rushed to his side. "Corbin, it's not her fault! She saved me! We have to help her! Call an ambulance!"

Corbin didn't even look at me. He kept his eyes on Annis, his voice dropping to a soothing murmur. "I know, I know. But we can't risk you getting hurt." He glanced down at me, his expression one of pure disgust, as if I were a piece of trash on the sidewalk. "Someone will call 911. My priority is you."

My priority is you.

The words were a death sentence to the last vestiges of my love.

My leg was on fire, a pool of my own blood spreading on the dirty concrete. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the void that opened up inside me.

I watched as he gently guided Annis away from the scene, away from me. He paused, pulling out his phone. He wasn't calling 911 for me. He was ordering his car.

The world started to fade to black. The sounds of the city, the shouts of concerned onlookers, they all receded into a dull roar.

The last thing I saw before the darkness consumed me was Corbin Franco's back as he walked away, leaving me for dead to save the only woman he had ever truly loved.