Chapter 3

Aurelia POV:

I returned to my small apartment, the silence a stark contrast to the cacophony of Jacob' s rage. The air still thrummed with the echoing crash of glass. Yet, despite the violence, my heart felt strangely light, a heavy weight finally lifted. I had spoken my truth, made my stand.

The following morning, a package arrived. My heart, usually a steady drum, lurched unpleasantly. It was a thick envelope, official-looking. Inside, I found the divorce papers I had signed, now ripped into tiny, indistinguishable fragments. My signature, once a mark of closure, was now just another piece of shredded paper, mocking my resolve. Jacob's retaliation.

A cold wave of nausea washed over me, stronger than any morning sickness I'd experienced. My body began to shake, not from fear, but from a profound disgust that settled deep in my bones. This was his answer. He wouldn' t let me go. He wouldn' t let us go.

Just as I crumpled the ripped papers in my hand, my phone buzzed with an unfamiliar number. A text message. My heart pounded, a frantic bird trapped in my chest. I hesitated, then opened it.

`He's heartbroken. Really. It's almost sweet how lost he is without you. But don't worry, I'm here now.`

The message was from Kaleigh. I hadn't heard from her in weeks, not since I discovered her name on that postnup. Her return, after all this time, was a cruel twist of the knife. I remembered her casual texts from years ago, always phrased to seem innocent, yet subtly hinting at her presence in Jacob's life. "Jacob just dropped by my gallery, so sweet!" or "He helped me move this huge sculpture, so strong!" Always just a little too much, a little too intimate.

Over the past few months, as my pregnancy progressed, her social media posts had become more frequent, more ostentatious. Pictures of lavish dinners, private jet trips, exclusive events-all with Jacob subtly in the background, or his hand conspicuously placed on her arm. She was flaunting their connection, rubbing it in my face, secure in her position as his idealized love. Each post was a deliberate jab, a reminder of what I was losing, or rather, what I never truly had.

Then, another message from Kaleigh. This time, a voice note. My finger trembled as I pressed play.

Kaleigh' s voice, saccharine and soft, filled the small room. "Oh, Jacob, darling. Don't be so upset about Aurelia. She was never really you. Just a... a convenient placeholder, isn't that what you called her? Nobody understands you like I do."

A male voice, Jacob's, deep and weary, mumbled something incoherent in response.

Kaleigh giggled, a sound that grated on my nerves. "See? He knows it's true. He always comes back to me, Aurelia. Always."

My stomach churned. I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing I could unhear it. But it wasn't over.

Another text. This time, a photo. It was a selfie of Kaleigh, her head resting on Jacob' s shoulder. He was asleep, his face looking peaceful, unguarded. In the frame, his bare left hand was visible, stretched out on the plush sheets. No wedding ring. The picture was taken in a bed that looked suspiciously like mine, in our bedroom.

Beneath the photo, a caption: `Some things are just meant to be. He finally took off the ring. Took him long enough. Baby steps, right?`

The world swam. A wave of profound nausea, cold and acidic, rose from my stomach. I stumbled to the bathroom, clutching my mouth, and wretched violently into the toilet. The bile burned my throat, but it was nothing compared to the burning shame and fury that consumed me. The physical pain was a welcome distraction from the searing emotional agony.

I gazed at my reflection, my face pale, eyes bloodshot, hair disheveled. I was a ghost, a hollowed-out version of the woman I used to be. The woman who had loved Jacob Dickerson, the man who had so coldly and systematically dismantled her life.

It was all a lie. From the very beginning. His "gratitude," his "loyalty," his fabricated love – it was all a smokescreen. He hadn't married me because he loved me. He married me because I resembled Kaleigh, because I was strong enough to help him rebuild his empire, because I was fertile enough to give Kaleigh the child she couldn't have. I was a convenient echo, a living shadow, a desperate substitute.

The tears came then, hot and stinging, burning paths down my ravaged cheeks. Not for Jacob, not for the shattered dream of our marriage, but for myself. For the fool I had been, for the decade I had sacrificed, for the innocent life I now carried, a life conceived under such a grotesque deception. I sunk to the floor, my breath ragged, hugging my knees, trying to hold myself together.

When the storm of tears subsided, a cold, clear resolve settled in its place. My hand, still trembling, typed a response to Kaleigh.

`Enjoy your victory party, Kaleigh. You can have Jacob. But you will never, ever have my child.` Send.

Almost instantly, my phone rang. Jacob. I stared at the screen, the name a toxic brand. I let it ring, then, with a decisive swipe, I blocked his number. Then Kaleigh' s. No more. No more poison. The silence that followed was a balm, a fragile peace I desperately needed. I took a deep, shaky breath, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart.

The next call I made was to a moving company. "I need to move my belongings," I told them, my voice firm despite the underlying tremor. "Immediately."

I walked through the apartment, picking up the few things that truly mattered. My architecture books, worn at the edges from years of study and practice. A small, framed photo of my mother, her kind eyes smiling at me. My sketchbooks, filled with designs that were uniquely mine, untainted by Jacob's influence. I packed only the essentials, the things that defined Aurelia Flynn, not Aurelia Dickerson.

The expensive gowns, the designer handbags, the diamond jewelry Jacob had given me-they lay untouched. They were tokens of a life that was never truly mine, relics of a false identity. I didn't want them. They felt heavy, suffocating.

On my dressing table, glinting under the pale morning light, sat my wedding ring. A thick platinum band, studded with diamonds. It had felt so heavy on my finger for ten years, a constant reminder of a promise that was never kept. Now, it felt like a shackle. I picked it up, cold and inert in my palm, and deliberately placed it on the marble countertop. It was a final, symbolic farewell to a love that had never existed.

The movers arrived a few hours later. They efficiently packed the boxes I had prepared. As the last box left the apartment, I took one final look around the space. It had been Jacob's idea to move into this grand apartment after our wedding, a penthouse with panoramic city views. I had tried to make it a home, but it had always felt like a showroom, cold and impersonal. Now, it was just an empty shell, a gilded cage I was finally escaping.

A profound sense of liberation washed over me, a breath of fresh air after years of suffocation. The weight of Jacob' s presence, his expectations, his lies, lifted from my shoulders. I was free. Free to breathe, free to be.

My new apartment was smaller, cozier, on the outskirts of the city. It had a tiny balcony overlooking a charming park. It wasn't opulent, but it was mine. It felt safe, a cocoon where I could finally heal and prepare for the arrival of my child.

I settled into a quiet routine, finding solace in the mundane. Long walks in the park, designing small, freelance projects from my laptop, reading books to my growing belly. The world outside Jacob's influence felt calmer, simpler, more real.

Then, a week later, another text message from an unregistered number. My heart pounded again, a familiar fear.

`Aurelia, you MUST answer my calls. Kaleigh is devastated. She loves that child. You can't just run away. That baby is ours. Don't you dare do anything foolish.`

Jacob. His words, delivered through the impersonal screen, were still laced with control, with an unsettling possessiveness over a child he saw as an extension of Kaleigh, not me. He was still seeing me as a vessel, a tool. The bitterness was a familiar taste in my mouth.

I deleted the message without a second thought. Then I blocked the number. The silence, this time, was absolute. A fragile shield, but a shield nonetheless. I would protect my child. And I would protect myself. I was done being a pawn in their twisted game.