Chapter 3

A slow, deliberate smile spread across my face. It wasn't a happy smile. It was the smile of a predator that had just seen its prey walk directly into a perfectly set trap.

Sarah and David both flinched, taken aback by my reaction. They had expected tears, anger, pleading. They had a script prepared for a broken man. They had no idea how to react to a calm one.

"Okay," I said, my voice even and quiet.

The single word was more disruptive than any shout could have been.

"Okay? What do you mean, 'okay'?" Sarah stammered, her composure cracking for the first time.

"I mean, okay, Sarah. If you want a divorce, you can have a divorce," I said, leaning back against the marble countertop of the kitchen island. I made my expression one of weary resignation.

David narrowed his eyes, suspicious. He looked from me to Sarah, trying to understand the new dynamic. He was the one who was supposed to be in control here. My easy compliance threw him off his game.

"Just like that?" he sneered, stepping forward. "You're just going to give up?"

"Give up what?" I asked, looking him directly in the eye. I held his gaze until he looked away first. "She said she's in love with you. She said she can't live a lie. What am I supposed to do? Chain her to the radiator? I'm not a monster."

Sarah, recovering her footing, immediately seized on my apparent weakness. Her expression shifted from confusion to one of righteous indignation.

"You never fought for me, Mark! Not really," she accused, her voice rising. "You just threw money at me! You thought buying me things was the same as loving me. David understands my soul!"

I had to physically restrain myself from scoffing. David, with his negative twenty-million-dollar soul, understood her checkbook. But I needed them to believe I was the same old Mark. The doormat. The fool.

So I let my shoulders slump. I ran a hand through my hair and looked at the floor, feigning a deep, wounded sorrow.

"You're right," I whispered, my voice thick with fake emotion. "I guess... I guess I didn't know how to love you properly. I thought giving you the world was enough." I looked up, my eyes glassy with unshed tears I had summoned from the memory of my past life's agony. "If he makes you happy, Sarah... then that's all that matters. I'll sign whatever you want."

The performance was flawless. Sarah's entire demeanor softened. Her indignation melted away, replaced by a look of pity and smug satisfaction. She had won. She had broken me, and I was making it easy for her. This was exactly what she wanted.

"Well," she said, preening under David's arm. "I'm glad you're finally being reasonable, for once."

I watched as David, completely convinced of my defeat, let a small, triumphant smile touch his lips. He thought he had just secured his eight-million-dollar bailout. He looked at me with the kind of disdain a wolf has for a sheep.

They were so arrogant. So sure of their victory. They had no idea that by agreeing so readily, I wasn't surrendering. I was accelerating their journey to the guillotine. I was handing them the rope, and I knew, with absolute certainty, they would gleefully hang themselves with it.