"My billionaire husband let his mistress answer my call while I collapsed—then an emergency hospital alert hit his phone."

Beep... beep... beep...

I lay on the narrow hospital bed beneath a soft wool blanket. An IV line ran into my fragile wrist, and a heart monitor tracked my pulse at a slow, fragile sixty beats per minute.

My eyes fluttered open softly, squinting against the dim lamplight.

The first thing I saw was Victor.

The untouchable billionaire who commanded four hundred boardrooms sat crumpled in a plastic chair beside my bed. His tailored suit was disheveled, his tie loosened, his dark hair messy, and tears, hot and unbidden, were tracking down his severe, carved-marble face. He held my small, cold hand between his large, trembling palms, pressing his lips against my knuckles repeatedly.

"Elena..." Victor choked out, his voice breaking into a sound of raw, disbelieving grief as he felt my fingers move. "Elena... my God... you're awake..."

I pulled my hand back slowly, deliberately, escaping his grip.

The physical pain in my chest had subsided into a dull ache, replaced by a cold, weightless clarity that washed through every corner of my soul.

"Don't touch me, Victor," I whispered. My voice was hoarse, dry, but it carried an unyielding, razor-sharp edge that made him freeze.

Victor flinched as if struck flat across the face. "Elena... please. I'm so sorry. I didn't know—"

"You didn't know because you were with her," I said softly, looking straight into the storm-gray eyes that used to be my sanctuary. "At seven-twelve p.m., you texted me that you had a late meeting. And at seven-forty-five, when I was dying on the floor, she answered your phone."

"She's gone, Elena!" Victor rasped out, falling onto his knees beside my bed, his broad shoulders shaking with desperate, pathetic sobs. "I threw her out! I blocked her numbers! The police are arresting her tonight! She poisoned you, Elena! She was slipping cardiotoxins into your organic supplements for four months!"

I didn't scream. I didn't cry.

I looked at the billionaire kneeling on the floor, weeping like a broken child, and felt nothing but a quiet, profound pity.

"Selena Vale didn't give me the toxin because she wanted your money, Victor," I stated deadpan. "She gave it to me because you created a world where she believed I was obsolete. You let her answer your phone. You let her run your life. You killed our marriage long before she touched my food."

Victor lifted his head, his face pale, bloodshot eyes wide with pure, catatonic terror. "Elena... no... please. Don't say that. I love you! I've always loved you!"

"If this is what your love looks like, Victor," I replied, my hazel eyes burning with absolute, sovereign truth, "I would rather be alone for the rest of my life."