The Ultimate Cure: A New Husband

To settle a debt of gratitude, Adriana Adler left her first love and married Chris Slater—a man who, by all appearances, was paralyzed from the waist down.

For five years of marriage, he had been her husband. Before that, he'd been the protector she'd known since they were kids. She played her part as his devoted wife—the quiet shadow behind his wheelchair.

Chris was certain that no matter how openly he doted on his ex-fiancée—who had just returned from overseas with a child—Adriana would never leave him. What he didn't know was that in Adriana's heart, only obligation remained. The love had died years ago.

The day the truth came out, she set the divorce papers calmly in front of him.

He panicked. His eyes burned as he grabbed for her, desperate, clinging like she was the only thing keeping him grounded.

Adriana looked down at his legs—standing firm and strong—and felt a deep, icy quiet fill her chest.

Five years of lies. Five years stolen from the man she truly loved. There would be no forgiveness.

The once-untouchable Chris dropped to one knee, his eyes red-rimmed and raw. "Adriana… you're all I have left."

Her expression didn't waver. Not a flicker of softness crossed her face. She stepped back toward the man she'd never stopped loving, her voice steady.

"But you're not all I have, Chris."

He was the power player all of high society scrambled to please—the one who'd lit up her younger years. He'd always assumed she would love him forever; it never crossed his mind she might walk away.

But the poised, mixed-heritage gentleman who'd loved her all along said nothing. He simply slid a priceless diamond ring onto her finger.

This was the day he had waited five years for. This was the happiness Adriana should have had all along.

"If you want to reconcile with her and start over, I can step aside and make it happen."

Adriana Adler clenched her fists tightly, long lashes lowered as she looked at the man in the wheelchair.

At her words, the gloom in Chris Slater's eyes instantly froze over, a thin layer of ice forming—cold enough to chill the air.

"Do you regret marrying me?" he asked.

She answered without hesitation. "No. Grandma Rosie raised me. I owed her my life."

"So you married me out of gratitude? Out of pity?"

Chris lifted his gaze, sharp and piercing, his handsome face dark with suppressed anger. Though he was seated in a wheelchair, the pressure radiating from him was overwhelming.

Under his stare, Adriana's heart fluttered uneasily. She bit her lip and lowered her head.

Five years ago, a car accident had left Chris paralyzed in both legs. At the time, he had a fiancée. She had a boyfriend of her own.

After Chris's fiancée annulled the engagement, Grandma Rosie—terminally ill—knelt before Adriana and begged her to marry him.

Adriana had no choice. When she was eight, both her parents died. It was Grandma Rosie—her parents' mentor—who