Love and Devotion No Longer His to Claim by Dream Fish

Chapter 1

It was actually very obvious whether a man loved a woman or not. Angela Graham knew it very well.

For example, Dexter Bamford could spend a fortune buying out all the billboards in the central business district to celebrate the birthday of his first love, Elena Carrey. He did so that the whole city would be able to tell his sincerity toward her.

But for Angela's birthday, all she got was just a small, six-inch cake. In fact, it was the very same cake the nanny had gotten on her birthday.

Angela chuckled when she saw the cake. It made sense, after all. Although she was Dexter's legally wedded wife, the actual Mrs. Bamford, her job scope wasn't much different from the nanny's anyway.

The only extra task she had was sleeping with Dexter.

Angela felt tears well in her eyes when she thought about this. The loneliness in her eyes stood out like a sore thumb amid the noisy surroundings of the party.

Dexter had been late to the party as always. Actually, he had planned on staying at the banquet hall for a while longer, but he had received a message just then.

He opened up the message, not bothering to hide anything from Angela. It was as if her feelings weren't even worth considering at any point.

"It kinda hurts... Can you come over?"

Along with the message was a photo of a woman's bare back, decorated all over with red hickeys and love bites, as if she had just finished rolling in the sheets with her lover a few minutes ago. It was very suggestive.

Angela couldn't even describe what she was feeling anymore. She just felt the discomfort in her stomach start to intensify.

She knew the person who had sent Dexter the messages. It was his secretary, Erica Carrey, Elena's younger sister. She had just never imagined that Erica was also one of Dexter's sex partners.

Angela stared at Dexter's phone for a long time. It wasn't until Dexter addressed her that she finally snapped back to her senses.

"Done staring?"

her gaze meeting Dexter's dark

the dim light. He exuded a cold and aloof air as he threw Angela another glance and nonchalantly slipped the phone

all, and he certainly wasn't remorseful that his wife had found out about his affair.

head like a guilty child who had just done something

the last time, her father, Bill Graham, had remarried, and Angela didn't have any support from her maternal family. They

used to own a company called Jetson Co., but Bill had completely taken over the company. He had also long forgotten his promise to Marie and

Bamford. She was just Dexter's trophy wife. She knew that she had no right to question Dexter, the head of the household who provided for her. It didn't matter that she used to

corner of his shirt and said, "Dexter, can you come home earlier today? I've got something

chuckled in her ear and said, "What, tonight? Someone's eager today. I'm taking this

had never gone easy on

joked that Dexter and Angela kept behaving like newlyweds in

a show. Dexter had

item that he owned. He had been forced to marry her, so she was a liability to him. He also thought this was all part of her devious plan to suck up

to answer, Dexter nodded at the rest of the guests and left

even later than usual. Angela glanced at the

as she waited for him. When she

thought it vaguely smelled like peaches. Obviously, this scent didn't belong to her. She held the

"Dexter-"

she was immediately interrupted.

He said it nonchalantly, as if reminding Angela about her position in

tomfoolery, serve him food, and satisfy him in bed whenever he wanted. She was not to bother about anything else that didn't concern

until I've showered," Dexter said,

a head of messy hair. His bathrobe hung

hurriedly stood up from the couch and didn't dare to look up at him. It had been so many years, and Dexter still managed

he had smiled at her

up a huge debt from his gambling addiction. Apparently,

nothing to do with them! How could they have done such a