The divorce papers hit my bleeding face with a wet slap, right as the thunder cracked above us.
Chloe ordered Kaelen to sign the documents while her voice remained as cold as the downpouring rain.
Chloe stated that she was finished with her pretend relationship with someone she considered a useless stray dog.
I knelt in the mud outside the towering Sterling Manor, clutching my ribs. I had suffered a steel pipe injury to my chest in defense of her against a random street mugger. My blood was currently soaking through my cheap, white button-down shirt.
She showed no interest in what happened.
Chloe stood beneath a gigantic black umbrella, which her bodyguard, with his great height, held. Chloe wore a white designer dress and painted her lips with a venomous shade of red. She looked down at me like I was a cockroach that had crawled onto her expensive Italian shoes.
I told Ashley about our anniversary date, which falls on the three-year mark of our relationship. My metallic blood hit the wet asphalt when I spat it onto the ground.
Chloe reacted with contempt, mocking me while she laughed. You were brought in from the streets by my grandfather, who believed you were deserving of charity. Your life has no value because you lack both financial resources, family connections, and personal aspirations.
I looked up at the woman I was supposed to protect.
She didn't know. She had absolutely no idea.
Three years ago, her grandfather begged me to protect the Sterling family from the shadows. I accepted his life debt repayment condition because he required me to hide my combat training and medical skills from the world for three years while I lived as a useless son-in-law.
I was Kaelen Vance. The underground world knew me as the Dragon King—the supreme God of War whose very name made international warlords tremble.
Chloe viewed me as worthless trash. I endured her daily insults and her family's mockery and the city's scorn to keep my vow.
Chloe claimed to have found a real man while she walked closer to me with her high heels coming too close to my crushed fingers. Liam Thorne is the Thorne Medical Group heir, with whom we are getting engaged tomorrow night. He can give me the world. What can you give me, Kaelen? Another stain on my carpet?
My chest experienced a bizarre feeling that did not represent heartbreak but instead provided me with relief.
The three-year vow established a connection between our marriage. The debt was fully paid when she violated the vow. The invisible chains that bound my heart and my power had begun to show weak points.
I told her, through a dangerous low rumble which I hadn't used in years, that she was making a mistake. The Sterlings only survived these past three years because I was here.
She rolled her eyes at me while she maintained her belief that she was right. The papers must be signed. I will make the phone call if you refuse to sign the papers.
My hands clenched into tight fists. My knuckles turned white. The phone call you mentioned, what does it entail?
A wicked, triumphant smile spread across her face. I stopped paying the hospital bills for that pathetic dying sister of yours.
The world seemed to stop spinning. The rain changed into a deafening silence.
Lily, who was my sixteen-year-old sister, represented the last innocent person to exist in my life.
What did you do? I whispered while my body shook. My body was not shaking from cold but from a terrifying rage that had awakened in my blood.
Chloe announced they would end her sister's life support system after she threw a gold-plated pen. You must sign these papers and leave my city for good, or you will face immediate death.
She forced me to leave through her use of my dying sister's final moments.
I didn't yell. I didn't beg. I picked up the pen from the mud.
Crack. The first layer of the three-year seal was shattered, which broke deep inside my core.
I signed the soaked papers with rapid, sharp strokes and threw them at her designer heels.
I said that we had reached the end of our relationship.
Chloe smirked while her bodyguard collected the papers from their location. Good boy. Now crawl back to whatever alley you came from.
She entered the back of her sleek Rolls-Royce. The heavy tires splashed dirty puddle water directly into my face as the car sped away into the stormy night, leaving me alone in the dark.
I slowly stood up.
My ribs snapped back into place with a sickening crunch, healing instantly. The heavy rain that was pounding against my shoulders suddenly stopped hitting my skin. My body radiated such heat that it caused rain droplets to evaporate before they reached my skin. My shoulders released steam in thick waves.
The marriage was terminated. The debt was paid.
The God of War was awake.
Before I could take a single step toward the hospital, the roar of massive engines shook the street.
The street was completely blocked by ten matte-black armored SUVs, which had reached their stopping point. The doors of the vehicles opened at the same time. Thirty men dressed in elite tactical gear, which included terrifying half-dragon masks, entered the storm.
The soldiers chose not to use their firearms. The thirty highly-trained killers dropped to one knee in the deep mud, bowing their heads toward me.
The lead commander shouted over the thunder My King. The Dragon Vanguard has awaited your return for three years. Give us the order, and we will burn the Sterling family to ashes tonight.
I opened my mouth to speak, but the cracked screen of my cheap phone lit up in my pocket.
The City Hospital was calling me.
I swiped the screen. "Hello?"
Through the receiver, the nurse cried out Mr. Vance! while panic and chaos filled the background.
"It's Lily! The Sterling family's men just stormed the ICU! They aren't just unplugging her machines—they're taking her away!"