After Love Vanished, He Regretted It

“One hundred million dollars. Leave my son and never show your face in front of him again.”

My husband Ryan Hayes’s mother looked down at me from above as she spoke.

If it had been in the past, I would have told her that I loved Ryan and could never leave him.

But now, I simply smiled faintly and nodded.

“Fine, as you wish. I’ll leave in a week and never come back.”

I took the check and returned to the Beverly Hills mansion, where a banquet was already in full swing, the house in complete disarray.

Today was our fifth wedding anniversary, yet Ryan had brought home his young secretary again—under the excuse that she was here to “learn from me how to seduce men.”

In truth, from the day we got married, I had lost count of how many women there had already been.

Everyone was waiting to see me humiliated, and once again, I did not disappoint them—I announced that I wanted a divorce from Ryan.

Ryan burst out laughing, his voice laced with disdain and mockery.

“Evelyn Lane, how many times have you said you want a divorce? I’m tired of hearing it. Even more tired than listening to you moan in bed!”

I ignored him and turned to pack my suitcase.

The butler tried to stop me, but Ryan sneered coldly.

“Let her make a scene. In less than three days, she’ll come crawling back, tail between her legs.”

The crowd erupted in laughter once again, their words all mocking me for being manipulative and shameless.

Right in front of me, they placed a bet—ten million dollars—that I wouldn’t even make it through the night before coming back to Ryan, begging like a dog to be let in.

But what they didn’t know was that this was the hundredth time I had spoken of divorce—and it would be the last.

Because this time, I truly meant it. Someone was already arranged to pick me up seven days later.

——

Dragging my packed suitcase, I hadn’t even stepped out of the Beverly Hills mansion when my wrist was suddenly seized, the grip so tight it felt like my bones might shatter.

I was forced to look up, meeting Ryan Hayes’s drunken eyes.

“Evelyn Lane, trying to leave?” He yanked me toward the living room. The pain from my elbow slamming against the carved doorframe was nothing compared to the icy cruelty in his voice. “That dress you’re wearing—I bought it last month. The necklace on your neck—that was a gift from my mother. Everything you’ve eaten and worn these years came from the Hayes family. If you want to leave, leave it all behind.”

The living room instantly erupted in laughter.

His old buddy Jason Miller whistled with an arm around his date. “Ryan’s right! Some people really don’t know their place. Living off the Hayes family and still daring to throw a tantrum?”

His secretary Sophia Reed, teetering on ten-centimeter heels, sauntered up, her finger deliberately brushing my skirt as she spoke in a saccharine tone. “Don’t be upset, Evelyn. Your brother’s still in the hospital waiting for a bone marrow transplant. Without Ryan, where would you get the money to save him? If you really walk away, your brother will…”

Her words pierced me like needles, striking right at my softest spot.

Clenching my fists, I still managed to wrench free of Ryan’s grip. “Ryan, have you forgotten what we had back then?”

He sneered. “Forgot what? That when I lost my memory, you took advantage of the situation and latched onto me? Or that you used my money to support your sickly brother?”

Three years ago, on a stormy night, I found Ryan under a bridge in Queens. He was covered in blood, too weak to even open his eyes, muttering again and again, “Don’t take me to the hospital.”

He’d been shot. I risked my life against mafia pursuit to save him.

I took him back to my cheap apartment in Queens, New York, cleaned his wounds with iodine I bought, cooked instant noodles and always gave him the only egg, spent three months’ worth of wages to buy his medicine and nutrition, even sold the only painting my father had left behind just to keep him alive.

He held my frozen hands and whispered, “Evelyn, when I get better, I’ll make sure you live in a big house.”

It was in that dark apartment that we became lovers. On my birthday, Ryan even twisted a soda can tab into a crooked ring and said, “This is our wedding ring. One day, I’ll replace it with a real one.”

I gave a bitter laugh now. People claimed everything I wore and ate came from the Hayes family, but the soda-tab ring still sat on my finger, never replaced by a real one, not even a proper wedding band.

Now, his gaze on me was as cold as if I were a stranger. “That was my foolishness. Evelyn, did you really think I’d spend my life with a woman from some rundown apartment under a bridge? If it weren’t for the fact that you once took care of me, you’d never have stepped foot into the Hayes family.”

Sophia jumped in quickly, her tone syrupy. “Ryan’s just too soft-hearted. Some people get a taste of wealth and never want to let go. They really think they deserve to be Mrs. Hayes?” She tugged at my neckline and smirked. “Look at this dress. Such a shame it’s wasted on you—it should be worn by someone worthy of it.”

“Exactly,” Jason leaned closer, his gaze lewd as it roved over me. “If you really want to leave, strip off everything Ryan gave you. Walk out naked—that’s the only way you won’t owe him a thing.”

The whole hall burst into louder laughter, the sound slapping against my face like burning palms.

I looked at Ryan. He didn’t stop them. Instead, he lit a cigarette and said lightly, “They’re right. If you’ve got dignity, strip. Don’t make me think you were only with me for the perks. The Hayes family doesn’t keep gold diggers.”

“Gold digger?” I laughed bitterly. “When you were dying under that bridge, who dragged you back to an apartment? Who stayed up all night nursing your fevers? You said even if your memory returned, you’d still love me, that no status or wealth could keep us apart. Was that all a lie?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he looked away, blowing out a smoke ring. “I was foolish then. Now I’m the heir of the Hayes family. We were never from the same world. I’ve already stopped paying your brother’s medical bills. Dare to leave me now?”

The words struck me like ice water.

I feared Aaron’s medicine being cut off, but more than that, I feared a life like this.

My love was treated like trash. My dignity trampled at will.

I said nothing more. I reached for the zipper of my dress. The cold metal against my skin, mixed with all their watching eyes, felt like needles piercing my flesh.

“Well, she’s really stripping?” Jason mocked. Sophia whispered into Ryan’s ear, “She’s bluffing. Just wait, she’ll beg in a moment.”

The zipper slid to my waist, and the silk dress fell around my legs, exposing the old scar there—the one I got when I crashed my bike rushing to buy him fever medicine back when he’d lost his memory.

Ryan’s gaze dropped to the scar, and the cigarette trembled slightly between his fingers.

I unbuttoned the top of my blouse. My collarbone, once kissed countless times by him, was revealed. His friends’ breathing grew heavier. I was down to my last piece of clothing when Ryan suddenly rushed forward, yanking a cashmere coat off the sofa and wrapping it tightly around me. His voice shook with anger. “Enough! Evelyn, stop it! You’re shaming me!”

“Shaming you?” I shoved him back, the coat slipping off one shoulder. “Back when you said you loved me, wasn’t that shameful too?”

His lips parted, but no words came.