Chapter 5

Alex POV

I woke up to the acrid sting of bleach and the rhythmic, soulless beeping of a machine.

My head throbbed, and my body felt hollow, as if I had been scraped clean from the inside out.

"Alex?"

Maria was sitting by the bed, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen. She was holding my hand so tight my fingers were numb.

"Where is he?" I croaked, my throat feeling like it was lined with sandpaper.

"He's not here," Maria said, her voice brittle with suppressed rage. "He hasn't been here. Not once."

Of course.

"The baby?" I asked, though the silence in my womb already told me the answer.

Maria squeezed my hand harder, a silent plea for forgiveness. "I'm so sorry, Alex. You lost it. The fall..."

I stared at the sterile white tiles of the ceiling.

I didn't feel sad.

I felt light.

Unbearably, terrifyingly light.

The last tether binding me to him was cut.

"Good," I whispered.

Maria looked shocked, recoiling slightly. "Alex?"

"I want everything gone, Maria," I said, turning to look at her, my eyes burning but dry. "I want the divorce papers ready. I want my name off everything. I want to be a ghost to him."

"I have the papers," Maria said, pulling a thick folder from her bag. "I drafted them while you were in surgery. Cruelty, infidelity... we can take him for half his fortune. We can destroy him."

"No," I said, my voice gaining steel. "I don't want a prolonged battle. I just want it over. Give him whatever he wants. Just get me out."

Two days later, I walked into the conference room at Dunlap Corp.

I was still bruised.

I had a bandage on my forehead, stark white against my pale skin.

But I was standing straight, fueled by a cocktail of painkillers and pure, unadulterated hate.

Gavin was there, sitting at the head of the table like a king on his throne.

Eliana was next to him, looking bored, checking her manicure.

"You look terrible," Gavin said, not as an apology, but as a cold observation.

"Sign the papers, Gavin," I said, sliding the file across the polished mahogany.

He flipped through them, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"No alimony? No claim on the estate?" He looked suspicious. "What's the catch?"

"The catch is that if you don't sign them right now," I said, my voice steady and lethal, "I go to the press. I tell them about the affair. I tell them about the twins. And I tell them how your son pushed his stepmother down the stairs while you walked away and let her miscarry your child."

Gavin paled, the blood draining from his face.

Eliana sat up straighter, her boredom vanishing instantly. "You wouldn't."

"Try me," I said. "I have nothing left to lose. You stripped me bare. I am dangerous now, Gavin. Because I don't care what happens to me anymore."

Gavin looked into my eyes.

He saw the emptiness there.

He saw the death of the woman who used to adore him.

Slowly, his hand trembling slightly, he picked up the pen.

"Fine," he said. "But you leave town. I don't want to see you."

"Don't worry," I said. "You won't."

He signed.

The scratching of the pen sounded like a prison door unlocking.

He pushed the papers back.

"Done."

I took them.

I didn't say goodbye.

I turned to leave.

"You think you won?" Eliana called out, her voice venomous. "You're walking away with nothing. No husband. No money. No kids. You're barren and alone."

I stopped at the door, my hand hovering over the handle.

I turned back slowly.

"I'm walking away with my life," I said. "And trust me, Eliana... you can keep him. You deserve each other."

I walked out of the office, past the glass walls, past the transparent lies.

I got into the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby.

As the numbers ticked down, I felt a strange sensation in my chest.

It wasn't happiness.

It wasn't relief.

It was the cold, hard resolve of a survivor.

I touched my flat stomach.

Goodbye, little one, I thought. I'm sorry you never saw the sun. But at least you never had to see your father.

The doors opened.

I stepped out into the world.

Alone.

Broken.

But free.