First Love or Husband? I Choose Neither Chapter 02

First Love or Husband? I Choose Neither Chapter 02

Adrian looked deeply irritated.

The two people in front of him shared an easy, practiced intimacy. Even the way their eyes met was enough to set his teeth on edge.

No one answered him. I only glanced quietly at the two men, one across from me and one at my side.

“I’m sorry I’m late.”

The voice was pure honey, dripping with a sweetness that didn’t match the intrusion.

It was Sienna.

This time, the two men didn’t just turn their heads. They both stood.

“Sienna, what are you doing here?”

Adrian asked as he walked straight to her, then possessively snaked an arm around her waist without the slightest attempt to hide it.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Declan’s hand curl into a tight fist.

“I was worried about you,” Sienna murmured, molding herself against his side.

“And this is a pivotal moment. I thought I should be here with you.”

Halfway through the sentence, she turned to look at me.

I lowered my head with a faint smile and rotated the ring on my finger as if I hadn’t noticed a thing.

“Who exactly are you putting on this heartfelt little performance for?” I said lightly.

“You clawed your way into another woman’s place. Don’t act like you’ve won some fairy tale. Once Adrian’s gone, who knows who’ll be the one in your bed.”

The second the words hit the air, Adrian’s expression darkened. The mockery died in his eyes.

“Celeste, don’t talk like that.”

He stared at me for a moment, then said, “I know you couldn’t let go of this marriage. That’s why you played these legal games for two years. What, now that we’re finally here, you’re having second thoughts again?”

I let out a short, dry puff of a laugh and looked up at Sienna, who had already slipped back into her role as the wide-eyed victim.

“Not this time,” I said. “Absolutely not.”

Then I turned to Adrian. “You used to obsess over my first love, remember? Kept asking about him like it was some disease you couldn’t cure.”

I tipped my chin toward the man sitting one seat away from me.

“Well. There he is.”

Adrian’s eyes locked on Declan at once. “You’re Celeste’s first love?”

He spoke fast, almost too fast. “The one she dated for four years? The one she nearly destroyed herself over when it ended?”

Something strange crept into his tone. Not just suspicion.

Resentment.

Declan’s back stiffened. He shot me a brief, puzzled look.

I only shrugged and smiled. “I was married to you for five years, and he was still the thorn in your side the whole time.”

I leaned back a little. “But I know how to keep my mouth shut. You spent five years digging and still never found a thing.”

Declan lifted his eyes, his gaze flicking briefly toward Sienna before returning to Adrian.

Then he gave the smallest nod. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Mercer.”

Adrian’s face contorted. His eyes moved between me and Declan, sharp and unreadable.

“Stop staring,” I said. “You’re not going to find any hidden truths by looking harder.”

I reached over, took the paperwork from Declan’s hand, and flipped to the signature pages.

“Just sign it,” I said. “Don’t keep your one true love stuck in the shadows forever.”

The stack was thick, but I signed each page with a flourish that felt like an exorcism.

I had been fighting Adrian for two full years. We had reached settlement talks half a dozen times.

And every single time, right at the end, I was the one who backed out.

It wasn’t because I loved him that much.

I just refused to lose to a woman like Sienna.