My Ruthless Husband Begs For Mercy Chapter 1

Arthur Kensington, the ruthless patriarch of the Kensington dynasty, owed the Montgomery family a life.

And Mary Montgomery, the woman who had raised me, cashed in that blood debt to force the old man into making his grandson, Cole, marry me.

But for the ten years of our marriage, Cole looked at me with nothing but absolute revulsion. To shake me off, to force my hand, he let a revolving door of women climb into his bed. I became the punchline of our elite circle. Whenever the whispers grew too loud, Cole would just look at me with those glacial, empty eyes and say, "You don't get to play the victim. You asked for this."

Everyone in New York high society thought I would cling to Cole Kensington until my dying breath.

He thought so, too.

Until the person I trusted most in this world pushed the blade into my back.

That was the moment the foundation cracked.

When I finally slid the divorce papers across the mahogany table, a quiet, genuine smile broke across my face.

It's finally over. This beautiful, hollow cage of a marriage is finally over.

* * *

I stepped onto the deck of the mega-yacht just as the party was reaching its chaotic, glittering peak.

In the center of the crowd, Cole leaned back against the plush crescent sofa, his posture a picture of lazy, arrogant grace. But it was the silhouette of the woman on his lap that made my breath catch in my throat.

She was straddling him, her posture dripping with invitation, her manicured fingers lightly tracing the nape of his neck. Men and women in designer resort wear raised their champagne flutes, chanting, "Kiss her! Kiss her!" in a rhythmic, intoxicating blur.

Paige Montgomery’s cheeks were flushed, her eyes heavy with a springtime kind of lust.

Cole’s eyes narrowed slightly as his gaze lazily tracked over the crowd. The corner of his mouth ticked up. He didn't rush. He simply lifted a finger, pointing straight at me.

"Look over there," his voice cut through the noise, low but carrying. "Your best friend is watching us."

The crowd spun around. The pulsing music seemed to fade into a vacuum. The drunken cheers died in their throats, replaced by a collective, suffocating silence, thick with anticipation and cruel amusement.

Someone in the back drunkenly slurred, "Oh, hey, Mrs. Kensington," and a ripple of nervous, mocking laughter followed.

Paige, still seated firmly on my husband’s lap, glanced over her shoulder at me. She didn’t move an inch to get up.

My fingernails bit so deeply into my palms they drew blood. I stared at her, unblinking.

Deep in my chest, my heart was slowly, methodically tearing itself apart.

I never thought Paige would be the one. She was the family I had chosen. She was the one person in this cold, transactional world I relied on, the one I trusted implicitly.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to march over and shake her, to ask her why. But not here. Not now.

Paige let out a soft, breathy laugh. "Isn't this what you've always wanted to see?" She murmured to Cole, though her eyes were locked on mine. "I betrayed her. I chose you. Can you love me now?"

A fresh wave of murmurs rippled through the crowd. They were practically salivating, waiting for the explosion.

My marriage to Cole Kensington was an open secret. He flaunted his indiscretions with a brazen, almost violent kind of freedom, replacing the women on his arm as easily as he replaced his watches.

Only this time, the woman wearing his jacket was my best friend.

I forced my eyes off Paige and locked them onto Cole. My face was a mask of perfectly carved ice. My voice came out dead flat.

"The paparazzi are swarming the marina. They're waiting for the yacht to dock." I paused. "Cole. Let's go."

He tilted his head, drawing out a dramatic, considering hum.

"Hmm... No."

Taking her cue, Paige pressed herself deeper into his chest, burying her face against his neck, shooting me a triumphant, challenging smirk.

As the yacht slowly drifted toward the slip, the long lenses of the paparazzi were already waiting, a firing squad of flashbulbs bursting through the coastal darkness.

I curled my fingers inward, the sting of my own nails grounding me.

They got the shot.

I already knew the Kensington board, and Cole’s venomous parents, would crucify me for this.

Suddenly, Cole’s voice ghosted right by my ear, thick with dark amusement. He had walked over while I was staring at the docks.

"Do you like the show, Mrs. Kensington?" he whispered. "Those old vultures at the estate aren't going to let you survive this one. How about you finally divorce me, and I'll help you pack?"

I ground my teeth together, fighting the knot of pure grief lodged in my throat. I forced the words out. "Do you really want a divorce that badly, Cole?"

In ten years, it was the first time I had ever entertained the word.

The mocking smirk vanished from Cole's face instantly. The dark, stormy depths of his eyes clouded with something unreadable—something dangerously close to panic.

Before he could recover his armor, I looked him dead in the eye and said the words.

"Then let's divorce."

I felt like I had been holding my breath for a decade, and I had finally exhaled.

The moment the words left my lips, a profound, weightless peace washed over me. What isn't mine will never be mine. The agonizing pressure that had sat on my chest for ten years finally found a fracture, and the pain began to bleed out into the night air.

"Hedy, are you serious?" Paige's voice pitched up, entirely unable to hide her elation.

But Cole's arm, which was still loosely hooked around her waist, clamped down like a steel vise.

Paige gasped, flinching. "Ow! Cole, you're hurting me."

Cole didn’t even look at her. His eyes were burning holes into mine. In a jarring, violent motion, he dropped his arm, stepping completely away from Paige. He closed the distance between us until he was towering over me.

"Let's go. We're going home," he ordered. Then, he added with a sneer, "Mrs. Kensington."

I saw the malicious glint in his eyes.

He had orchestrated this whole thing. He knew exactly what Paige meant to me. He knew that calling the paparazzi to capture this exact humiliation would ruin me, that I would be the one dragged through the mud by his family.

He had choreographed the ultimate betrayal, just to finally break my will.