Chapter 1

Married to Caleb Sterling for three years, I guarded a loveless marriage while enduring three years of his hatred.

He was convinced that I had cut the brake lines of Chloe Sterling's race car, crippling her for life.

To avenge the woman he loved, he married me, yet he never once touched me.

For three years, we tormented each other, fighting to the bitter end.

Until, for Chloe's sake, he left me battered and bleeding.

Finally, my heart turned to ash, and I took the initiative to ask for a divorce.

This time, I was done loving him.

Yvonne POV

I had been married to Caleb Sterling for three years, and he had never once touched me.

He married me because he believed I had tampered with Chloe Sterling's race car, leaving that woman bedridden for three years.

This marriage was his execution ground, and I was the prisoner in his hands.

We had waged war for three years.

Once, I smeared chili oil over his racing seat and got caught red-handed.

"Yvonne, what is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with you? Who told you to swap my coffee with salt water yesterday?"

Without a word, Caleb threw my entire case of skincare products straight out the second-floor window, smashing every bottle and jar to pieces.

"Caleb Sterling! I had someone bring those back from abroad!"

"I'll pay you back. Tenfold." He didn't even look back.

Crouched in the corner fixing tires, the mechanics didn't even lift their heads. A drama like this played out three times a week.

On the day of the season launch event, sponsors, media, and team shareholders packed the hall.

Caleb stood on stage in a custom-tailored suit, presenting the new season's goals. I walked up from the back row and snatched the microphone right out of his hand.

"When Caleb Sterling was seventeen, in order to seize the team's succession rights, he intentionally rammed his teammate off the track on the final lap of the points race."

"That teammate fractured his cervical spine and was forced into permanent retirement. Caleb paid him off and kept a lid on it until today."

Dead silence fell over the room. Flashes erupted frantically as reporters surged forward.

The moment the press conference ended, he shoved me into the passenger seat of his race car and locked the doors tight.

"Caleb Sterling, what are you doing! Let me go!"

"Shut up."

The engine roared to life. The car surged onto the test track, the speedometer needle soaring past two hundred kilometers per hour.

He yanked the steering wheel violently. The tires let out an ear-splitting screech, and my head slammed hard against the window, turning my vision a bloody red.

"Are you crazy?! You're going to kill us both!"

"Kill you?" He sneered. "You're not worth it."

A sudden brake sent me flying forward, the seatbelt biting deep into my collarbone.

The car whipped sideways. My shoulder slammed into the door repeatedly, my forehead cracked against the dashboard, and blood trickled down past my eyebrows.

Mid-drift, his phone rang.

The urgent voice of a nurse crackled over the Bluetooth speaker: "Mr. Sterling, Ms. Sterling's vitals are suddenly destabilizing. Her heart rate has dropped below forty. Please come immediately!"

Caleb slammed his foot on the brake.

White smoke poured from the tires as the car screeched to a halt in the middle of the track. The momentum slammed my forehead against the dashboard once again.

He unbuckled his seatbelt, pushed the door open, and stepped out, not sparing me a single glance from beginning to end.

"Get her to the clinic."

Tossing those words to the mechanic running toward him, he spun around and sprinted toward the parking lot.

Leaning against the passenger seat, I felt blood seep into my eye.

Three years, and he couldn't even spare me a single glance.

I thought back to many years ago.

Back then, I was just a high school girl with a ponytail, saving up six months of allowance to buy a grandstand ticket to watch him race for the first time.

He drove a beat-up, second-hand car, taking corners with a reckless abandon. The entire grandstand was chanting his name, and I cheered along with them.

From that day on, I followed him wherever he went, traveling a hundred thousand kilometers.

I thought that one day he would finally see me, but the only person he ever saw was Chloe Sterling—the sponsor's daughter who would hand him a bottle of water whenever he crossed the finish line.

During a test race three years ago, Chloe drove a car Caleb had personally tuned and crashed off the track, losing all sensation below her neck.

In her pit station, Caleb found a severed brake line. Right next to it sat my toolbox.

He never gave me a chance to explain.

Three months later, he married me. At the wedding, he whispered in my ear, "What you owe Chloe, you will spend a lifetime paying back."

I had wanted to explain. I parted my lips, but the hatred in his eyes forced the words back down my throat.

Over the past three years, I had lost count of how many times I tried to explain, but he never listened to a single word.

When I woke up in the team clinic, I had seven stitches in my forehead.

I waited for the nurse to leave, pulled out the IV needle, threw on my coat, and walked out of the compound. I hailed a cab straight to the hospital where Chloe was staying.

The VIP ward door was left ajar. Peering through the crack, I saw Caleb sitting by the bedside, one hand holding Chloe's and the other gently brushing the stray hairs from her forehead.

The expression on his face was one I had never seen in all my three years with him.

It was tenderness.

The kind of emotion that only spills from a man's eyes when he is looking at the woman he loves.

Standing outside the door, my hand lifted, only to fall back down.

I didn't push the door open. Instead, I turned and walked out of the hospital entrance.

Outside, the sky was overcast and the wind blew hard, making the wound on my forehead throb with pain.

I reached into my pocket, touching the medical report from a secret checkup I had taken the previous week.

My fingers lingered on the envelope for a long time, but in the end, I didn't pull it out.

Standing at the hospital entrance as the wind whipped my hair into a tangled mess, I pulled my coat tighter around myself.