His Tamed Wife, The Wild Heiress

Chapter 1

ADRIA

I stood outside the VIP room with trembling hands, clutching the thermos of soup that still burned my palms through the insulated container. The hallway of Eclipse Club reeked of expensive cologne and poor decisions, much like my marriage.

"Sir, your wife is here with the soup for Miss Amber," Adina's voice filtered through the slightly ajar door before I could knock.

My husband's secretary. Always so efficient, always so beautiful in her tailored suits that probably cost more than my entire wardrobe. I'd tried befriending her once, during the first month of our marriage. She'd looked at me the way one might look at a stray dog-with pity and mild disgust.

"Tell her to leave it with you," Damien's voice replied, cold and dismissive. "I don't want her embarrassing me in front of everyone."

I should have left. God knows I should have turned around, gone home, and pretended I hadn't heard that. But my feet remained rooted to the plush carpet, and my heart-that stupid, desperate thing-still held onto the foolish hope that maybe, just maybe, he didn't mean it the way it sounded.

"Come on, Damien," another male voice laughed. "Your wife isn't that bad. She's pretty easy on the eyes, at least."

"Easy on the eyes?" Damien scoffed. "Marcus, the woman has zero personality. She follows me around like a lost puppy, agrees to everything I say, and has absolutely no backbone. Do you know what it's like being married to someone so... bland?"

The thermos nearly slipped from my grip. I pressed myself against the wall, hidden by the decorative column, my breath caught somewhere between my throat and my breaking heart.

"Then why'd you marry her?" This voice belonged to Kieran, Damien's childhood friend. I'd met him twice, both times brief and unmemorable.

"Honestly? I felt sorry for her." Damien's laugh was cruel, sharp enough to cut through whatever remained of my dignity. "She was so pathetic, always showing up wherever I was, looking at me with those desperate eyes. I figured she was an orphan with nothing going for her, and I thought... why not? A wife who worships the ground you walk on and asks for nothing? Seemed like a decent arrangement."

"An arrangement that's about to get complicated now that Amber's back," Adina chimed in, her voice carrying a smugness that made my stomach churn.

Amber. His first love. The woman whose photos I'd found tucked in his study drawer three months into our marriage. The woman who looked eerily similar to me-same dark hair, same petite frame, same wide eyes. I'd convinced myself it was coincidence, that maybe he saw something in me he'd loved in her.

What a fool I'd been.

"Amber and I have unfinished business," Damien said, his voice softening in a way it never had when he spoke to me. "She left for Paris before we could make things official. Now she's back, and-"

"And you're married to her knockoff version," Marcus interrupted