Chapter 1
In 2025, the annual “Most Desired Professor to Spend a Night With” list dropped-and once again, Lucian
Sullivan took the top spot.
When the press cornered him for comment, he gave a helpless laugh and held up his left hand, revealing the wedding band on his ring finger.
“Great. Looks like I’ll be sleeping on the couch again.”
But as graduation approached, a scandal started brewing-and it involved a scholarship student.
Lucian spent days on end trying to make it up to me, coaxing me with soft words and holding me through the nights. In the end, he said I could do whatever I wanted.
So I took the student’s research portfolio and used my contacts to help her get into Harperfield University
Oversea.
She tearfully accepted my sponsorship, thanked me profusely-and left the country. Yet the very next day, the news broke-she’d been attacked in a back alley, brutalized beyond recognition.
And somehow, I became the villain. The internet tore me to shreds. Called me jealous, cruel, a monster.
Even Lucian-who once claimed to love me more than life itself-gave me one look of disgust and took the earliest international flight out.
When he came back, the ring on his finger was gone.
I looked him in the eye and said, “Let’s get divorced.”
Lucian froze in the entryway. His face looked worn, but the moment he saw me, irritation surfaced.
“Margot Blake, what now?”
Behind him, that student-Laney Walsh stood there with tears spilling down her cheeks.
“Please don’t misunderstand, ma’am,” she sniffled.
“I just got back from abroad. I don’t have anywhere else to go. I’m begging you-just let me stay one night.”
And then she dropped to her knees.
It was the middle of summer, but she was wrapped in a thick down coat. Even soaked in sweat, she didn’t
dare reveal an inch of skin. As if terrified someone might glimpse what lay beneath.
My heart clenched hard. I instinctively reached out to help her up.
“Laney, of course you can stay. For as long as you need.”
Lucian smacked my hand away. “Save the fake sympathy.”
He brushed past me, dragging his suitcase along, then turned to Laney with the gentleness.
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“Don’t bother with her. You’re sweating. Go take a shower.”
“The hot water works like this. Your injuries haven’t fully healed-use the cashmere towels.”
The bathroom door didn’t close all the way. From inside, her meek voice drifted out, “But Professor… I’m
scared to shower alone.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be right outside. Just call if you need anything.”
I watched him smile warmly as he shut the door. But when his eyes met mine again, they turned cold.
I opened my mouth. There were a thousand things I wanted to say.
But in the end, all I managed was, “Lucian, I’m serious about the divorce.”
He let out a scoff, like I’d just told the world’s funniest joke.
“You think you can just walk away from this mess? After what you did?”
“If you hadn’t painted such a perfect picture of studying abroad, Laney never would’ve run off to a strange country, clueless and alone.”
“By the time I got to her, she was half-dead.”
“How are you going to fix that?”
A final, scornful scoff-sharp as a slap-left my ears ringing, and any words of defense died on my tongue.
Silence fell between us, heavy and suffocating. Then the water stopped running. And Laney’s voice came again, soft and trembling.
“Professor… I’m done. But I can’t reach my back…”
“Could you maybe… help me?”
