Kim_Li_0078

#DARK ROMANCE 
Lin Yueyao spent five years of her youth married to Shen Xiao, a man whose heart was as cold as steel. She believed that her gentleness would eventually melt his indifference, but the only thing that melted was her own dignity.

Every night, she endured his cruel touch, his words like blades, and his silent disgust. But no matter how much it hurt, Yueyao clung on – for the sake of their son, Xuanxuan, and for the sliver of hope that someday he might see her.

That hope shattered completely when his first love, Bai Zhi, returned from abroad. The very night Bai Zhi came back, Shen Xiao left Yueyao alone to dine with her. His gaze, once cold and dismissive, turned tender only for Bai Zhi.

Then, just as Yueyao discovered she was pregnant again, Shen Xiao handed her divorce papers. Abandoned while carrying his child, betrayed by her husband, and discarded like a stain on his life, Yueyao’s world collapsed.

Even their son, Xuanxuan – the little boy she’d nearly died giving birth to, the one she raised with unwavering devotion – rejected her, clinging instead to Bai Zhi with innocent adoration.

But fate was crueler still.

Kidnapped straight from her hospital bed by men demanding ransom, Yueyao realised no one was coming to save her. Her husband hadn’t even noticed she was missing. As she lay in that abandoned factory, trembling in pain, all illusions crumbled.

She was done waiting for love from a man who treated her like dirt.

This time, she would save herself. And when she returned, it wouldn’t be as the pitiful Mrs. Shen, but as a woman reborn from ashes – with a heart no longer beating for Shen Xiao.

But will he realise her worth only when it’s too late?

Love After Divorce: Her Second Chance

Outside, the mansion halls stretched dim and endless, the faint scent of sandalwood still clinging to his clothes as his heavy footsteps echoed off the cold marble.

His obsidian eyes were dark with silent questions and a cold, rising dread.

'Why… why would she reject her own son…?'

HALLWAY OUTSIDE SHEN XUAN'S ROOM – PAST MIDNIGHT

The door closed softly behind him, sealing away his son's quiet, broken sobs.

Shen Xiao stood in the dim corridor, his broad back rigid as he pressed a hand against the cool mahogany door. For a moment, his long fingers trembled faintly against the polished wood.

The faint golden lamplight casts stark shadows across his chiseled face, hollowing his sharp cheekbones and accentuating the cold lines of his jaw.

He drew in a deep, slow breath, letting it burn down his throat and settle like ice in his chest.

Inside his mind, her voice echoed over and over, shattering the silence he tried so hard to maintain.

"Let me go… please… I don't want anything… I don't want your child… I don't want you…"

Her words sliced through him with a sharpness that burned and froze at once.

That thought festered like rot in his chest, churning with a darkness he couldn't name. The rage was so cold it felt almost peaceful. A grief so raw it sickened him to acknowledge it.

'Why…?' he thought, staring blankly at the swirling patterns on the marble floor beneath his polished shoes.

In all the years he had known her, watched her kneel silently at his feet, smile obediently through her tears, cradle their son with infinite warmth even when he ignored her for weeks, never once had she rejected Shen Xuan. Never once had her gaze been empty when looking at their boy.

But today… Today, her eyes were dead.

Like something inside her had finally been ripped out beyond repair.

He clenched his jaw until pain shot up his temples, his fingers curling into fists so tight his nails bit into his palms.

His chest heaved once as his breath escaped him in a silent snarl.

She could hate him. She could scream, cry, beg, and curse him to hell for eternity. But that gaze, that hollow, indifferent emptiness, he would not tolerate.

Because emptiness meant she no longer feared him.

No longer felt anything for him at all.

And that was something Shen Xiao could never accept.

He straightened slowly, shoulders broad and unyielding beneath his crisp black shirt, obsidian eyes glittering with silent, twisted resolve.

'You can hate me, Yueyao… but you will never be free of me. Even if I have to break you further to bring you back to me… I will.'

Shen Xiao stood in the silent corridor outside Shen Xuan's bedroom. The dim golden lights along the hallway cast his tall frame in long, fractured shadows against the cream marble walls.

For a moment, he stood there motionless.

His gaze remained fixed on the dark polished floor, brows knitted slightly as exhaustion and turmoil churned beneath his cold exterior.

The mansion was silent at this hour, too silent. Even the ticking of the ornate grandfather clock down the hall felt muffled, almost hesitant to intrude upon his thoughts.

Chapter 56; You can hate me