Choosing The Assistant Over The Ruthless CEO

I signed my own divorce papers thinking they were an investment in our future.

Craig handed me the stack of documents with a smile, telling me it was to secure assets for our unborn children. I trusted him more than gravity, so I didn't read the fine print.

Hours later, at his promotion party, I watched him announce his engagement to Chanel, the company heiress.

I rushed to check the folder I had signed. It wasn't a trust fund. It was a complete dissolution of our marriage.

I received no alimony. He kept the house and the stocks. And the box for "no child visitation" was already checked.

The cruelest twist came the next morning. I stared at a pregnancy test with two pink lines.

I was pregnant with the child of a man who had just tricked me into a divorce and called me "dead weight" in a text to his mistress.

When I tried to disappear and rebuild my life, Craig didn't let me go. His ego couldn't handle my silence.

He kidnapped me, locking me in a warehouse to "fix" our marriage, delusional enough to believe we could be a happy family after he caused me to lose the baby.

I thought I would die in that cold, dark room.

Then, a truck rammed through the wall, engulfed in flames.

Felix, the quiet assistant I had barely noticed for five years, walked through the fire to get me.

As he carried me out of the burning wreckage, leaving Craig behind, I realized he wasn't just an employee.

He had been waiting to save me all along.

Chapter 1

Dessie POV

I signed my own divorce papers thinking they were an investment in our future.

The champagne bubbles in my glass rose in a steady stream-tiny, effervescent hopes that vanished the moment they hit the surface. I stood anchored in the center of the corporate ballroom, watching my husband, Craig, bask in the applause. He looked every inch the king. I felt like the queen who had pawned her crown to buy him the throne.

The applause washed over us, a wet, rhythmic thunder echoing off the marble floors.

"To Craig Hunt!" a voice boomed above the din. "The new Regional Director!"

Craig beamed. It was the smile that had disarmed me five years ago-wide and dazzling-but tonight, the warmth didn't quite reach his eyes when they flickered toward me.

I touched the diamond solitaire at my throat. It felt cold against my skin. I remembered the sacrifices. I remembered turning down the Chimera Project, the biggest software architecture opportunity of my life, just so I could support his transfer to headquarters.

"You're the best wife a man could ask for, Dessie," Craig had whispered only an hour ago, his breath warm against my ear.

He had pressed a heavy stack of documents into my hands then. "Investment papers," he'd called them. Essential for securing our assets before the promotion went public. For our future children.

I signed