Unlovable Beyond Smoke

Alicia’s wedding once made headlines across all of New Yorke.

The man who put the ring on her finger was Matteo Vitale, the youngest Don of the Vitale family.

She was not a socialite heiress. She was a lawyer who had won countless cases for powerful families.

She was also five years older than her husband.

When Matteo was thirty and at the peak of his career, Alicia was already thirty-five.

Back then, Matteo told her that age would never be a problem between them.

As long as she wanted him, he would never let her go for the rest of his life.

But in the fifth year of their marriage, a young woman burst into her office and dropped a divorce agreement on her desk.

“I heard you’re the best divorce lawyer on New Yorke’s East Side. There isn’t a divorce case you can’t win, right?

“I want to hire you to help my boyfriend get a divorce from his wife.

“My boyfriend says his wife is thirty-five now. She smells old. Every time he touches her, he feels sick.”

She opened the divorce agreement with practiced ease. She looked first at the names, as she always did.

[Husband: Matteo Vitale

[Wife: Alicia Leon]

Her fingers paused for a brief moment.

She was Alicia Leon!

Alicia Leon stayed calm and looked at the young woman in front of her.

She was very young, maybe twenty-two or twenty-three. She was like a flower just starting to bloom. She was bright and full of life. She was definitely the type Matteo Vitale would like.

But if he was having an affair, why did he not come and talk to her himself?

Why let this homewrecker barge into her office?

Alicia gathered the papers in front of her and said calmly, “Divorce is something that needs to be discussed by the people involved.”

Sophia Moretti leaned back in her chair and smirked. “He’s not available right now. Actually, he just doesn’t want to make a scene.”

She lifted her chin and added slowly, “It’s not because he loves her. He said that when he was with his wife, she was only twenty-six. They dated for four years and were married for five. She gave him the best years of her life. Asking for a divorce now would be too cruel.”

“But people have to move on.” Sophia smiled. “Especially when a man has already lost interest in his wife.”

Alicia dug her fingers into her palm without making a sound. “Tell me, did he only just realize that his wife is five years older than him?”

“You can’t really tell when you’re young.

“But once a woman is over thirty-five, her looks, her smell, and the way she feels… it all changes. She just smells old, and it’s unpleasant for him.”

She smelled old.

Alicia took a deep breath. Those three words felt like they were stabbing at her lungs.

She forced herself to continue, “May I ask how you met him?”