Pampered By The Dominant Billionaire After My Divorce Free Preview

“If your wife and your lover fell into the water at the same time, who would you save?”

Cecily thought of what a friend had said to her a few days ago, and the memory squeezed her chest so tight it was hard to breathe.

She stood frozen in the middle of the banquet hall, looking like a drowned cat. Her elegant knee-length blue cocktail dress clung to her, her hair and makeup a mess.

Around her, the Garcia Group employees whispered to each other in contempt and amusement.

She didn’t need to strain to hear—she already knew what they were saying.

They said Cecily was trying to seduce their boss to climb the social ladder…

They said she was vicious enough to push his woman into the water…

They said she always acted aloof and untouchable, but in reality, she was shameless…

Just minutes ago, in the back garden of Lakeview Court, Cecily had been blocked by Adam Garcia’s latest favorite—Cona, a rising idol at the peak of her career.

“Cecily, I know you’re Adam’s wife, but he doesn’t love you, and he won’t even acknowledge you in public. If I were you, I’d be too embarrassed to stay married to him. Watching him with other women every day—what’s the point?”

Scenes like this had been on repeat ever since Cecily married Adam.

Her chest tightened painfully. She was about to speak, but then Cona’s expression shifted—her arrogance melted into a fragile, innocent look.

“Cecily, I know you like Adam too. If he liked you back, I’d never come between you two. But he doesn’t like you, you… ah! Help—”

Before she could finish, Cona yanked Cecily straight into the water.

What followed was the classic “hero saves beauty” scene—except Cecily wasn’t the beauty in question.

Wiping the water and tears from the corner of her eyes, Cecily glanced toward the main doors of the banquet hall.

From her angle, she could only see Adam’s tall, straight back as he carefully, tenderly pulled Cona into his arms and kissed her forehead. She didn’t have to guess to know he was wearing that worried, protective expression.

Did he think she had pushed Cona in?

It was like someone had poured acid into her chest. Cecily pressed her fist against her heart so hard that her knuckles turned pale.

……

When she got home, Mary the housekeeper greeted her with a smile. “Cecily, you’re back.”

“Mm.” Cecily nodded, her eyes drifting toward a pair of black leather shoes by the entryway.

“Your mother-in-law went out to a bridge game with friends. Mr. Garcia just got back. He said to go to his study when you return.”

It was her birthday today.

The look on Mary’s face made Cecily’s throat feel dry.

“Oh! You’re soaking wet—go take a shower first.”

Cecily nodded and headed upstairs. Passing by Adam’s study, she hesitated for a second before closing her eyes and walking past.

She showered quickly, and when it came time to pick an outfit, her hand instinctively reached for a knee-length light-blue dress with a tiny cluster of embroidered jasmine at the waist.

Earlier, Mary had secretly told her that Adam had bought a huge bouquet of blue roses and placed them in his study.

Cecily’s heart started to race.

Before she could knock, the door opened.

Adam stood there, expressionless.

When he wasn’t smiling, his sharp features always carried a certain edge. His long, narrow eyes could have been warm, but there was always a layer of coldness there. He was still in his black suit, which only made him look more commanding, more untouchable.

“You came back—why didn’t you come in right away?”

Cecily blinked, her ears heating. “…I got wet at the banquet, so I went to change…”

Before she could finish, he turned and walked into the study without a word, leaving her staring at his cold back.

She pressed her lips together and silently followed him inside.

The study was exactly Adam’s style—grand, dark, masculine. The whole room was done in deep brown tones, everything meticulously placed—except for the bright bouquet of blue roses on the low table.

Her steps faltered as she looked at them. Then she walked over toward Adam, who was adjusting his tie.

“Adam, I thought you’d forgotten my birthday.”

The bitterness from the banquet eased a little. She reached to take his tie, but he stepped away.

“Your birthday?” Adam’s gaze flicked over her dress before shifting to the bouquet. Then he turned back to her with a faint, mocking smile. “You didn’t think those flowers were for you… did you?”

Cecily’s body went rigid, humiliation written all over her face.

When Mary had told her earlier, she really had felt a flicker of hope.

But why was she still stupid enough to set herself up for disappointment every single time—when she knew it was impossible?

“What… what do you need from me?” Her voice was dry.

“I thought you’d rein yourself in. Didn’t expect you to go even further this time. Cona’s letting it go today, but I don’t want there to be a next time.”

Adam walked to his desk and pulled open a drawer, his tone as cold as his expression.

From the mirror on the wall, Cecily could see his clean, neat side profile—completely expressionless, the same look of indifference he always gave her.

On the low table, a huge bouquet of blue roses stood quietly in full bloom, beautiful and mocking all at once.

The walls she had been holding up inside finally cracked.

“It wasn’t me.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Adam took out a red velvet, heart-shaped box. He was already dressed, tall and sharp in his suit.

He glanced at his watch, then looked back up at her, his face carrying not just impatience but a layer of ice.

“Cecily, don’t use dirty tricks on my woman. You wanted a marriage—I gave you that. What more do you want?”

“If you want my body, sorry, I’m not giving you that. If you want my heart—”

“I told you, I didn’t push Cona into the water!”

Before he could say something even crueler, Cecily shut her eyes and cut him off, gritting her teeth.

Her lips were pale, and she was trembling like she might collapse any second.

Adam’s face darkened even more.

“So you’re saying she lied?”

He let out a short, cold laugh and turned away, disgust flickering in his eyes.

“Do you realize she can’t even swim? If she hadn’t been pulled out in time, she could’ve died. Do you think you’d still be standing here if that happened?”

“Adam, is that really how little you think of me?” Days of pain and humiliation boiled over, and Cecily looked at him with bitter eyes. “I didn’t push her. She fell in on her own. She came to humiliate me, to tell me to leave you. I never wanted to hurt her!”

Her cheeks were hollow, making her eyes seem even larger—and right now, those eyes were filled with hurt.

Adam stared at her for a moment, thrown off by the storm in her gaze. But the next second, his face hardened further. Thinking of Cona trembling in his arms, begging him not to be angry at Cecily, a wave of irritation rose up in him. Without thinking, he shoved the woman in front of him aside.

“Never seen a woman as vicious as you.”

There was a loud thud as Cecily stumbled several steps, nearly falling to the floor. Her face turned deathly pale.

Adam just shot her a cold glance, picked up the bouquet from his desk, and headed for the door.

She didn’t know where the sudden courage came from, but ignoring the pain in her arm, Cecily ran forward and blocked his way. “It’s this late—where are you going?”

His eyes were as cold as ice. “Move.”

A mist of tears blurred her vision. Her gaze dropped to the ring on her finger.

Just a plain silver band, bought from a street vendor. Back when things between them weren’t this bad, he had picked it up for her casually, but she’d treasured it. Later, when they married, he already despised her so much he didn’t even bother to get her a proper diamond ring—so she had quietly taken out this one to wear.

“Adam Garcia, you’re married. Do you even know what you’re doing right now?” Cecily couldn’t hold back her raised voice anymore.

For the past two years, she hadn’t had a single happy day. Every morning when she opened her eyes, there were new gossip photos of him with other women.

His hand shoved her arm away again, hard. His icy voice came through just before the door slammed shut.

“From the first day you married into the Garcia Family, you should’ve known exactly what kind of life you’d be living.”

Cecily’s whole body trembled. She stood frozen on the spot.

Only when she heard the front door close downstairs did Mary step into the study with pity in her eyes. “Mrs. Garcia, are you alright?”

Cecily slowly straightened up. Her fingers brushed her cheeks and found them dry. In a daze, she shook her head, left the study, and returned to her own bedroom.

When Cecily woke up the next morning, the emptiness of the room left her momentarily dazed.

Yesterday had been her twenty-fourth birthday. Adam Garcia had probably forgotten—or maybe he’d never remembered in the first place. He’d spent the night holding roses and another woman, leaving her nothing but a cold, retreating back.

After getting dressed, she went downstairs, where Susan greeted her warmly.

“Cecily, breakfast is ready. Come and eat.”

Susan was probably the only glimmer of hope Cecily had in this house. She didn’t want to let her mother-in-law see her bad mood, so she just nodded and sat down at the dining table.

“Cecily, I know Adam upset you again last night. Don’t be sad. I’m always on your side. One day, he’ll understand who the woman he’s supposed to be with really is.”

Her gentle voice was comforting.

Cecily’s eyes burned, but she didn’t respond.

Susan sighed, pushed a fork into her hand. “Eat. Adam said he had something this morning and left early. I’ll have the driver take you later.”

Just then, Mary walked in with a newspaper.

“Mrs. Susan Garcia, here’s your paper.”

Mary had barely set it down before Susan’s expression froze.

She moved to snatch it back—but it was too late.

Cecily’s gaze had already landed on the front-page headline.

There, in full color, was a photo of Adam —kissing a popular actress, snapped outside a hotel.

Clearly, Adam hadn’t come home at all last night.

“Cecily—”

“Mom, I’m full. I’m going to the office.”

Expressionless, Cecily stood, grabbed her bag, and walked toward the front door.

Susan reacted too slowly to stop her, and could only watch from the doorway as Cecily drove away.

Mary shuffled over nervously. “Mrs. Susan Garcia, it’s my fault.”

“It’s not your fault.” Susan’s sigh turned into a sharper tone as she glanced back, her eyes hard. “Call Adam later. Tell him he’d better come home tonight—unless he wants to stop calling me ‘Mom.’”

Mary quickly nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

……

Back when she’d married Adam, various circumstances had kept their wedding quiet. Hardly anyone knew that the Harrison family’s daughter had married the heir of the Garcia Family.

Even at Garcia Group, people only knew she was the team lead for Design Team A—few had any idea of her true identity.

“Cecily, sorry, I’ve got a lunch meeting with the boss today, so I won’t be able to eat with you for a while.”

Chloe’s tone sounded apologetic, but her face radiated smugness. She’d spent nearly an hour before the end of the workday hiding in the restroom, and when she came out, the bright red lipstick nearly hurt Cecily’s eyes.

With a sway of her hips, she grabbed her bag and headed for the executive elevator reserved for senior management.

“What’s she showing off for? Afraid the whole company won’t find out exactly how a Design Team B leader landed that position?” another woman muttered under her breath.

Cecily’s face paled. She quietly picked up her bag and headed to the elevator without a word.

……

After lunch, it was still break time, so people were gathered in little clusters chatting.

“Cecily, come look—Vince Boucheron’s back in the country. He’s officially taking over the Boucheron Group!”

Laura, the new intern in the design department, plopped a gossip magazine down in front of her. Ever since that mess at yesterday’s celebration banquet, Laura was the only one who still treated her the same.

“Oh my God, Vince Boucheron—he’s like a legend in the business world! Got his dual PhDs in management and economics from Harvard at twenty-two, founded his own empire—the QY—at twenty-six, and now no one in the country can match him. And now he’s coming back to take over the family business! The best part? He’s ridiculously good-looking, never had a single scandal, and he’s almost thirty-five—still single!”

Laura clasped her hands together like she was praying to her idol.

Seeing the sparkle in her eyes, Cecily felt her heavy mood lighten just a little.

“You planning to go after him?”

One sentence was enough to make Laura deflate, rubbing her ear awkwardly. “No way. Guys like him are only for admiring from afar, not actually being with.”

“Then what’s the point of getting so worked up?”

Cecily glanced at the glossy cover of the magazine.

The Boucheron Family was one of the most powerful families in New York, and as a daughter of the Harrison family, Cecily naturally knew all about them. Vince Boucheron was the fourth child in the family—he had one older sister and two older brothers. His sister was married, and the brothers had gone into the military and politics, leaving Vince, who loved the business world, as the only one in that arena. He was Gavin Boucheron’s most cherished grandson.

Rumor had it that in his younger years, Vince had been rebellious and had no interest in inheriting the family business. No one knew what had changed, but he had suddenly returned to take over the Boucheron Group.

As the heir to the Boucherons, he also had a striking face, a tall, muscular build, and—combined with his wealth and status—he was exactly the type of man young women liked to daydream about.

And those eyes… something about them felt familiar.

—It was probably that coldness that reminded her of Adam Garcia.

Thinking of Adam brought Chloe’s lovestruck face to mind, and Cecily’s chest tightened. She forced herself to push the feeling away.

“Heh, well, at least a good-looking guy can cheer you up. Life’s already tough enough—might as well find more reasons to smile.”

Cecily gave a small laugh, gathered the documents she’d just been reading, and handed them to Laura. “Come on. Let’s go to your idol’s company—give your hard life a little more excitement.”

Laura blinked, then broke into a grin.

“Wait—Cecily, you mean that Windsor Place luxury apartment project Boucheron Group’s working on? Weren’t you waiting for Chloe to go with you?”

“Can’t wait for her anymore. You’re going instead.”

Cecily figured Chloe was probably with Adam right now anyway—no wonder she wasn’t interested in going to Boucheron Group.

“Yes, ma’am! I’ll make sure to do my best!”

……

When they pulled into the underground parking garage at Boucheron Group, Cecily had barely eased her white BMW into a space when two Bentleys swept past her bumper on their way out.

The first one—a Bentley Mulsanne—was impossible to miss. If she remembered correctly, it had been the showpiece at last year’s London Bentley launch, the only one of its kind in the world, bought by a mysterious businessman.

As their cars passed each other, Cecily caught a fleeting glimpse through the tinted window of the Mulsanne: a man in the back seat, a dark silhouette in the dim light—cool and commanding.

Almost as if sensing her gaze, the man’s eyes snapped open—

But her car had already rolled past his.

It took her a while to find a regular guest parking spot, and by the time she and Laura walked into the elevator, the doors were nearly closed when a hand suddenly appeared, stopping them.

“Sorry—mind if we squeeze in?”

A group of men in perfectly tailored suits stepped in from the hallway, all with sharp, professional expressions. The one who’d spoken to her had a pleasant enough face and immediately stepped back, clearly just an assistant.

Laura gasped behind Cecily, jabbing her in the back with a finger.

Cecily looked up—and locked eyes with a pair of deep, unreadable ones.

They belonged to the most striking man in the group—tall, easily six-foot-three, looking about thirty-four or thirty-five, his black bespoke suit fitting perfectly over his muscular frame.

He carried himself with a quiet authority, the kind that didn’t need to be announced. The crisp white shirt underneath made him look even cleaner, sharper, impossible to look away from.

It was none other than Vince Boucheron, the new CEO of Boucheron Group.

Sensing her gaze, Vince let his eyes sweep over her—cool, detached—before stepping into the elevator.

That chill in the air made Cecily click her tongue softly to herself.

“Vince… Vince… Vince—ow!”

Before Laura could completely lose her composure, Cecily nudged her with her elbow. A muffled grunt later, she tugged Laura two steps to the side.

One by one, the group filed into the elevator.

“Cecily, that’s Vince Boucheron!” Laura whispered excitedly in what she thought was a quiet voice, leaning close to Cecily’s ear.

Cecily felt her cheeks warm—especially when the assistant gave a discreet cough.

She stole a glance at the man standing inside, still expressionless. From her angle, she could only see the clean, chiseled lines of his profile—sharp as a blade—and that unapproachable air of his.

If she remembered right, a man like Vince would have his own private elevator. What was he doing in a public one?

Clunk. The elevator gave a small jolt.

Cecily wasn’t ready for it, and her body tipped sideways—straight toward the man beside her.

She gasped, too late to grab the handrail. The crisp collar of his white shirt brushed her forehead, and now that she was close, she could catch the scent on him—cool, clean, with just the faintest trace of tobacco.

“Cecily!”

Laura, having steadied herself, saw what happened and rushed to pull her upright.

Just as she fell, Cecily had felt a hand slip around her waist—long fingers, strong at the wrist—catching her with practiced ease.

“You okay, Cecily?”

Laura’s concern was genuine.

Thanks to the Vince’s quick reflexes, Cecily hadn’t actually fallen. Still, she’d never had such close physical contact with any man other than Adam Garcia. Straightening up, she gave Laura a small shake of the head, then glanced at the man.

Vince Boucheron’s face showed no trace of emotion. But—

His hand was still at her waist.

The heat from his palm was scorching through the fabric, making her go stiff.

“Mr. Boucheron…”

Her voice carried a touch of awkwardness.

Bumps and jostles in an elevator were natural enough—nothing to make a fuss about. But that hand…

Vince, who had been staring straight ahead, finally turned his head. His eyes flicked over her face, and as if just noticing, he drew his hand back with a smooth, unhurried motion, his expression still as cool as ever.

No one else in the elevator seemed to notice, and Cecily wasn’t about to say more.

When they stepped out, Laura cast one last, reluctant glance at the elevator doors before patting her chest. “Yeah… idols are best admired from afar. If I had to stand next to that ice wall every day, I’d have frozen to death a long time ago.”

Cecily smiled, but in her mind, she caught a flash of that brief moment when Vince’s gaze had met hers—clear and bright as a sky after rain. Shaking her head, she led Laura toward Boucheron Group’s project department.

Meanwhile, the elevator continued upward. When the group reached their floor, they filed out in a hurry.

Miles, who was waiting to go up, pressed the button and turned—only to stop short.

Following his gaze, Vince looked down at his own white shirt. Right there on the chest was a faint lipstick mark, shaped like a delicate rose in bloom.

“Boss…”

Miles sounded uneasy. Vince had a reputation for being a clean freak—most women weren’t allowed within a meter of him, let alone falling right into his arms.

“Find out why those two came to Boucheron Group,” Vince said, his voice as flat as ever.

“And… your shirt?”

Vince’s fingers brushed over the lipstick stain, his face unreadable. Without answering, he stepped out of the elevator.

Miles stared at him, noting the almost lingering way his boss’s fingers had traced the mark. Thinking back to how Vince had personally told him to hold the elevator earlier… a chill ran down his spine. He had a bad feeling he’d just figured something out.

Those two women… what’s their story?

--

Since it was Cecily’s first time bringing a draft proposal to Boucheron Group, she hadn’t expected to win over their competitors right away. After a polite chat with Manager Wilson from the project department, she and Laura headed back to Garcia Group.

But as soon as her BMW turned into the parking lot, a familiar black Lamborghini swept past from the side.

At close range, Cecily saw the woman in the passenger seat—dressed in something tight and provocatively low-cut—lean over and press a hard kiss to the driver’s face.

The woman wasn’t Cona this time. It was Chloe. Maybe both women were still within Adam’s “best before” date—he just chose not to touch his own wife.

The screech of her brakes made Laura jump. “Cecily! You okay?”

Cecily’s face was pale, her expression unreadable.

She had thought about ending this marriage before. But after years of effort and chasing after him, after so long being used to loving one man, she couldn’t bring herself to let go. Susan kept telling her that Adam would come to his senses one day, realize her worth.

Right now, she felt like a drowning person clinging to the only piece of driftwood in sight.

“I’m fine. Let’s head upstairs.”