I stared at my cancer diagnosis and called my husband.

He hit decline on the third ring.

Because just steps away, he was shielding his pregnant ex from the hospital crowd.

For eight years, I was his perfect, invisible wife. I swallowed his coldness while he saved all his tenderness for his first love.

No more.  I went home, threw my wedding ring into a roaring fire, left signed divorce papers on his desk, and walked away to face the surgeon alone.

Weeks later, Desmond finds my crumpled pathology report.  He checks the date.  And realizes exactly what that rejected phone call meant.

Now, the ruthless billionaire has surrendered his empire. He begs to work as a nameless assistant in my studio just for a second glance.

He thinks his sacrifice will buy him back in.  But this time, he’ll be the one burning in the ashes.

Titles in the Ashes of a Marriage include:  The Wife’s Call for Help He Ignored ~ The Neglected Wife He Fixed Too Late ~ The Arranged Wife He Neglected ~

This is a no-spice romance, perhaps with closed-door or fade-to-black scenes. Tension and kisses might be involved.

Title:  The Wife’s Call for Help He Ignored
Series:  Ashes of a Marriage #1
Author:  Nora Halston
Published:  October 7, 2026
My Rating:  4 stars

The Wife’s Call for Help He Ignored is the first title in the Ashes of a Marriage series.  Isabelle and Desmond had an arranged marriage; to Desmond’s eyes, it worked perfectly fine.  His every need was met, every event perfect, and his household ran smoothly.  He never saw that his wife loved him, or that she was slowly drowning in a marriage that suited him… not her.  The one time she’d desperately needed her husband, one event opened Isabelle’s eyes, and she never looked back; while Desmond was clueless about what he’d done, it was the final straw for his wife.

I enjoyed Desmond and Isabelle’s story.  It was engaging and emotional, and it laid bare the troubles that so often seem unimportant to one partner but can literally destroy the other.  There was a plot twist that, although I felt it coming, was extremely satisfying when it happened.  If that sounds like your kind of Marriage in Crisis Romance, then you’d enjoy this one.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the author or the author’s team via Booksprout, and I sincerely thank them for their trust. I chose to leave a review with my personal opinion of this book.*

This title is available on Amazon