BEYOND THE MONTGOMERY ESTATE

CHAPTER 1: THE DEMAND

An hour after I held the finalized decree absolute in my hands, my phone buzzed.

It was my ex-husband, Alistair Montgomery.

“My mother’s 80th birthday gala is next weekend. You need to organize the catering and handle the invitations.”

No greeting. No apology for the ten years of emotional neglect. Just a cold, arrogant command, as if I were still his unpaid household manager.

A decade of suppressed rage boiled over in my chest. Instead of replying, I dialed his number immediately. The moment he picked up, I let out a bitter, cutting laugh before he could even speak.

“Alistair, do you honestly think I still owe your family a single second of my life?” I demanded, my tone dripping with disdain. “If you want a gala organized, ask your twenty-three-year-old mistress. Isn’t she the one who spends all her time currying favor with your mother?”

“Audrey! What on earth is wrong with you?!” Alistair boomed over the line.

“My point is crystal clear,” I said, my voice dropping to an icy calm. “Never contact me about your family again. If you do, I will personally send every single piece of evidence regarding your affair straight to the big screen at your mother’s birthday party.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” he hissed.

“Try me,” I replied, and hung up.

I immediately blocked his phone number, his WhatsApp, and every social media account tied to his name. For the first time in a decade, my world was completely silent.

CHAPTER 2: RECLAIMING AUDREY

My name is Audrey Kensington. Today is the day I was reborn.

Exactly one hour ago, Alistair and I signed the final divorce papers at the Central Family Court in London. Walking out into the pale afternoon sunlight, my eyes stung, but I didn’t shed a single tear.

Ten years of marriage—finally over, like a long, suffocating fever that had finally broken.

For ten years, I had run myself ragged playing the dutiful wife. I managed the Kensington estate, cooked every meal, and catered to his conservative, aristocratic parents as if they were my own.

And what did I get in return? I was treated like an unpaid housekeeper.

Alistair’s mother, Lady Beatrix, had sneered at my background from day one. When I gave birth to my daughter, Charlotte, her disappointment was palpable: “She couldn’t even give the Montgomery family a male heir.”

And Alistair? A spineless coward who hid behind his mother’s apron strings, dumping every domestic burden on me while he pursued his affairs. His latest mistress was Daisy—a twenty-three-year-old university graduate who knew exactly how to flatter Lady Beatrix with sweet words.

Standing outside a shop window on Bond Street, I looked at my reflection. The woman staring back looked pale, exhausted, and drained of all vitality.

What on earth was I clinging to for ten whole years?

Enough.

I walked straight into a telecommunications shop and changed the mobile number I had used for a decade. To cut ties with the past, you have to sever them completely.

Stepping out, I wandered into a luxury boutique. In the window hung an emerald green silk gown that I had admired for years. Every time I had passed it in the past, Alistair would say, “We’re mature adults now, Audrey; stop wasting money on frivolous things.”

Today, I didn’t hesitate. I walked inside, pointed at the dress, and said to the astonished attendant, “I’ll take this in my size, please.”

I paid with my own credit card without my hand shaking once. Next, I walked into a leather goods shop and bought the designer handbag I had only ever dared to browse online. This was money I had earned through my own freelance design work. I owed no one an explanation.

As I walked out carrying my luxury shopping bags, I bumped into a tall man standing outside the neighboring lounge.

Gideon Cavendish—Alistair’s most formidable rival in London’s financial sector.

Dressed in a flawlessly tailored charcoal suit, Gideon possessed an undeniable, quiet authority. His deep eyes met mine, flicking subtly down to my shopping bags with a hint of dark amusement.

I gave him a polite, distant nod and walked past. Yet, as I turned the corner, I could feel his piercing gaze following me down the street.

CHAPTER 3: A NEW BEGINNING

That evening, I took my eight-year-old daughter, Charlotte, to the high-end steakhouse in Mayfair she had dreamed of visiting. Watching her carefully cut her steak with a blissful smile, the remaining shadows in my heart melted away.

“Mummy,” Charlotte said, setting her cutlery down and looking at me intently. “Is it just going to be the two of us from now on?”

My throat tightened slightly. “Yes, darling. Just you and me. Are you scared?”

She shook her head firmly. “Not at all. As long as I’m with you, I’m not scared of anything. Daddy didn’t love us… and that’s his loss.”

Tears pricked my eyes. I mourned my wasted youth, but I felt immensely grateful. Out of that broken marriage, I had gained a brilliant, loving daughter—the greatest gift of my life.

Over the next two weeks, Alistair tried frantically to reach me.

Using alternate landlines and sending courier notes to my temporary apartment, his messages grew increasingly desperate:

【Audrey, pick up! My mother is furious that the party planning has collapsed. Daisy ruined the catering!】 【Audrey, let’s talk. I didn’t realize how much you actually did around the house. Please, come back home.】

I ignored every single attempt, throwing his unopened letters straight into the bin.

CHAPTER 4: THE BIRTHDAY DISASTER

The night of Lady Beatrix’s 80th birthday arrived. Without my meticulous management, the gala at the Mayfair hotel descended into total chaos.

Daisy had hired an inexperienced catering firm that delivered cold food, the florist messed up the arrangement colors, and Lady Beatrix was publicly humiliated in front of London high society.

To make matters worse, an anonymous tipster leaked Alistair’s affair with Daisy to the press that very evening. News of the Montgomery family scandal broke across every tabloid by midnight.

Two days later, Alistair tracked down my new office building, waiting by the entrance in his car. The moment I walked out, he rushed over, looking utterly disheveled.

“Audrey! Why did you change your number?! Do you have any idea what my life has been like these past two weeks?” Alistair pleaded, his voice cracking. “Mother is hospitalized from stress, Daisy fled after taking my credit card, and the board is questioning my leadership! I made a mistake, Audrey. Please… come back. We can start over!”

I stood on the pavement, looking at the man I had once loved, feeling nothing but profound pity and detachment.

“Alistair, the woman who cooked your meals, managed your mother’s temper, and tolerated your disrespect died the day she signed those divorce papers,” I said, my voice steady and cold. “You didn’t lose a wife; you lost a free servant. And I am never coming back.”

Before he could grab my arm, a sleek black Aston Martin pulled up to the curb. The rear door opened, and Gideon Cavendish leaned out, his dark eyes fixing onto Alistair with quiet disdain.

“Is this gentleman bothering you, Audrey?” Gideon asked smoothly.

Alistair stared in absolute shock. “Gideon?! What are you doing here with my ex-wife?!”

“She is no longer your wife, Alistair,” Gideon replied calmly, stepping out of the car to open the door for me. “And frankly, you’ve taken up enough of her valuable time.”

I gave Alistair one last, indifferent look, stepped into Gideon’s car, and closed the door.

CHAPTER 5: THE FINAL VICTORY

As the Aston Martin glided smoothly through the London streets, Gideon turned to me with a faint, genuine smile.

“I hear your independent design firm just secured the contract for the new gallery in South Kensington,” Gideon said softly. “Congratulations, Audrey.”

“Thank you, Gideon,” I replied, looking out at the city lights.

Alistair’s desperate calls and pathetic pleas meant nothing to me anymore. His empire was crumbling under the weight of his own arrogance, while my life was just beginning.

I was no longer the invisible woman hiding in the shadows of the Montgomery family. I was Audrey Kensington—independent, prosperous, and finally, undeniably free.