Chapter 1

On the way back from the hospital, I was still sitting in the back seat.

A faint trace of perfume drifted over from the passenger seat, where a new sign made from Perler beads had been stuck.

"Reserved for Extraordinary Sam. No Bastards Allowed!"

Mandy caught me staring at it and offered a guilty explanation. "Sam can be childish sometimes. Don't take it personally."

My voice went cold. "He's 28, and he still gets to act like a kid? Does being childish give him the right to call me a bastard?"

Samuel Carter was Mandy's childhood best friend. He was 28, two months older than me.

From the day I met Mandy, the two of them had been inseparable. Even our dates had always been a three-person affair.

I'd naively believed that once we got married, they'd learn to respect boundaries, and Mandy's attention would slowly shift to me.

But I was wrong. After the wedding, they didn't rein it in at all. They only got worse.

Mandy's expression darkened. "Don't make everything about you. Sam was just talking about whoever sits in the passenger seat. As long as you don't sit there, what's the problem?"

"I bought this car," I shot back. "Every inch of it belongs to me. Why shouldn't I be able to sit up front? What gives him the right to slap a sign on it and call it his reserved seat?"

Mandy frowned. "It's just a sign. Do you really have to make a big deal out of something so small?"

I laughed in disbelief. "It might be small to you, but it isn't to me."

I ripped the sign off and threw it out the window.

Mandy slammed on the brakes and snapped at me. "Sam spent four hours making that by hand! How can you just throw away someone else's stuff?"

My expression stayed calm, but anger surged inside me.

"If it's his, tell him to keep it himself. I don't allow anyone else's stuff in my car."

Mandy shoved the door open and got out. "You're being completely unreasonable. Fine, take your car. If you're so capable, drive it home yourself!"

She walked into the middle of the road, picked up Samuel's Perler-bead sign, flagged down a taxi, and left.

As I watched the taxi disappear from my sight, I couldn't hold back my tears anymore.

She knew perfectly well that I'd been in a car accident and was too traumatized to get behind the wheel again. Yet she still left me and the car stranded on the side of the road.

With trembling hands, I called my best friend, Frank Quinn.

"Frank, help me draw up a divorce agreement."

Frank heard the crack in my voice and knew something was wrong. "What happened?"

Choking back tears, I told him what had just happened.

When I finished, he immediately tried to comfort me.

"Liam, don't cry. Call a driver and come to my place first. We'll talk through the divorce and figure out how to protect your interests as much as possible."

With Frank's reassurance, I slowly calmed down and called a driver to take over.