Chapter 5 The Divorce Bomb

The folder sat heavy in Katherine's hands as she entered his office.

Alessio didn't glance up from his tablet when she walked in, as if she were merely one of his assistants delivering another contract to sign.

"You're early," he muttered, scrolling through business reports.

"This won't take long."

She set the folder directly on top of his tablet.

He paused, finally lifting his eyes. The moment his gaze landed on the bold black letters across the top of the first page, his jaw stiffened.

DIVORCE AGREEMENT

For a beat, neither of them spoke.

The silence pulsed between them like a bomb waiting to detonate.

"What the hell is this?" Alessio finally growled.

"Exactly what it says."

"No." He shook his head, voice dangerously calm. "You're not serious."

"I've never been more serious." Katherine's voice was smooth. Controlled. Deadly calm.

He stood up suddenly, the chair screeching behind him.

"Is this because of Bianca?" His eyes narrowed, cold fury rising.

"You tell me." Katherine raised a brow. "Did you think I wouldn't find out? That I wouldn't walk into your office and watch you fucking her?"

The vein in his jaw ticked as his hands slammed flat against the desk.

"You were spying on me?"

"I am married to you." Her voice sharpened, cutting through his rage like glass.

"I deserved to know what kind of man I was sharing my bed with."

"I never made promises, Katherine." His voice dropped into a low growl.

"You knew exactly what this marriage was from the start."

"Yes," she whispered, voice steady. "And I was stupid enough to hope you'd become something more."

Alessio's cold arrogance flickered with something darker - frustration, confusion, pride cracking under pressure.

"You're not leaving me," he snapped.

"You think you still have a choice?" she asked, stepping closer, her soft voice wrapping around him like silk laced with poison.

He exhaled sharply, jaw clenched. His control was slipping, and for the first time - she could see it.

"You walk away now," Alessio hissed, "you walk away with nothing."

Katherine smiled softly. A dangerous, bitter smile.

"Keep your money. Your name. Your empire."

"Then what the fuck do you want?" he demanded, voice rising.

"My freedom."

The words echoed like a gunshot.

She calmly placed her wedding ring on top of the papers, turned on her heels, and walked out.

She didn't look back.

The Spiral

The door slammed behind her, but Alessio stood frozen in place, chest heaving.

His hands clenched into fists. Anger burned behind his eyes - not because she left, but because she dared.

No one walked away from him.

No one.

Especially not his wife.

That night, Alessio didn't go home. He didn't even return to the office.

Instead, he slipped into one of Castellane's private clubs - the kind reserved for men like him.

Private rooms. High-priced escorts. No cameras. No consequences.

The woman they brought to him was young, blonde, and barely clothed.

She draped herself over his lap, her perfume sweet and suffocating.

"Mr. Romano," she purred. "Tell me how you want me."

"Shut up," he snapped, gripping her throat as he forced her hips down onto him.

The girl gasped, moaning as he drove into her roughly, hard, desperate.

Not for pleasure.

For control. For dominance. For something to quiet the storm Katherine left behind.

"Fuck-" he grunted, slamming her down harder.

"Take it. Take all of it."

But no matter how deep he buried himself into another woman's body, she wouldn't leave his mind.

Katherine.

Her calm voice. Her eyes when she handed him those papers.

Her fucking indifference.

He finished with a growl, releasing into the woman whose name he didn't even know.

But even as he came, he saw only Katherine's face behind his closed eyes - the cold satisfaction when she walked away from him.