After all, once they were divorced, it would be far easier for her to fight him, if she ever needed to.
That's why Ethan Yu wouldn't agree to a divorce now—no matter how hard she pushed.
And it wasn't just him. The Hai family would never allow her to get divorced either.
Everyone already knew how she ended up married to Ethan. The gossip had spread like wildfire in elite circles. They said she schemed her way into his bed and used that to force him into marrying her.
If she divorced him now, those same people would feast on the scandal. They would laugh at her—call her shameless for seducing a man only to have the marriage fall apart in less than a year.
Her disgrace would become the Hai family's disgrace.
It wouldn't just be her reputation crumbling—her entire family's honor would be dragged through the mud.
So really, no one in the world wanted her to get divorced.
Not Ethan Yu.
Not the Hai family.
Not society.
No one but her.
Even though both families had never been optimistic about this marriage in the first place.
Hailey Tang let out a soft, bitter laugh.
She'd fought so hard to marry him. Now, she had to fight just as hard to leave him.
Wasn't that the biggest irony of all?
No wonder tradition always taught girls to be reserved.
Because when you chased after something that was never truly yours, the outcome would almost always end in heartbreak.
Love had to be mutual. If only one person gave everything, it would become a slow and painful self-destruction—for both sides.
But regrets were useless now.
All she could do was wait.
Wait for the right moment to leave Ethan Yu for good.
That night, Ethan didn't come home.
Hailey lay alone in the massive bed, tossing and turning. Her dreams were filled with scenes from her past life—bitter fragments of her downfall.
She woke in a cold sweat.
For a moment, she panicked, thinking she had somehow returned to that hellish timeline.
But when she looked around and saw the familiar furnishings of her current life, she breathed a deep sigh of relief.
No.
Never again.
She would never go back to that nightmare.
This time around, no matter how hard it was, she was going to live—on her own terms. Freely. Proudly.
After enjoying a delicious breakfast made by Auntie Zhang, their long-time housekeeper, she went upstairs to change.
Today, she was going home.
To see her grandfather.
In her past life, she had been so obsessed with Ethan that she barely visited the only person who truly loved her—her grandfather, the one who had always doted on her.
Even when she was arrested, sentenced to death, and left to rot in prison, he had been the only one who tried to save her. And when he failed, grief consumed him, and he passed away not long after.
Her father had died when she was very young, and her grandfather had been her only true family.
When he was gone, no one else cared about her. No one fought for her sentence to be reduced. No one visited. She was left to rot, forgotten.
That was when she realized—he had been the most important person in her life.
He had been her pillar, her shelter, her greatest blessing.
Without him, she had been nothing.
That was the biggest mistake of her life—forgetting who truly loved her.
But not this time.
This time, she still had the chance to make things right.
She would never again do anything to make her grandfather sad.
The Hai family had deep roots in both the military and political spheres.
Her grandfather, Hai Zhiyuan, once held a high military rank. Most people still respectfully called him "General Hai" even though he had retired years ago.
But his prestige remained untouchable.
With a vast and influential family, the Hai clan had connections across both politics and business. Hailey Tang was, by every definition, a high-society heiress.
Ethan Yu's family was powerful as well, though his strength lay in the business world.
Today, Ethan stood as the undisputed king of commerce in City C.
And Hailey knew—this was only the beginning.
He had the intelligence, the ambition, and the drive to take his empire global.
Someday, he would become not just City C's pride—but one of the most powerful, desirable men in all of China.
Right now, perhaps she could still barely stand beside him.
But in the near future?
She wouldn't even come close.
Only a princess might be worthy of him then.