Chapter 3

Seraphina POV:

The penthouse was a mausoleum of our dead marriage. Every photo, every piece of art we'd chosen together, felt like a mockery. I moved through the rooms like a ghost, a black trash bag in my hand, sweeping his expensive colognes and silk ties into it with a detached fury.

My phone buzzed. A society blog. The headline was a punch to the gut: A MORETTI WELCOME: DANTE MORETTI AND PARTNER SELENA COLE CELEBRATE THE CHRISTENING OF THEIR SON.

The photos were a public declaration of my erasure. There he was, beaming, with Selena on his arm. The caption called her his "lovely partner." As if I didn't exist. As if the child growing inside me was a figment of my imagination.

This wasn't just an affair. It was a campaign.

The rage that filled me was cold and sharp. It burned away the last of my tears. He thought I was disposable. He was about to find out just how essential I had been.

When he came home late that night, he found me standing beside a packed suitcase.

"Are you still on about the christening?" he asked, his tone laced with a patronizing calm.

"I'm not upset, Dante," I said, my voice flat. "I'm finished."

He reached for me, the old, familiar gesture that used to make me melt. I sidestepped him. "Don't be like this, cara. It was a misunderstanding."

"Was paying for her apartment for eight months a misunderstanding?" I countered. "I want a divorce."

Disbelief warred with anger in his eyes. He still thought this was a negotiation.

The doorbell rang. A sharp, intrusive sound. A flicker of panic crossed Dante's face before he opened it.

There she was. Selena, standing in the hallway with her own luggage and the baby in a carrier. She breezed past him into my home, our home, as if she owned the place.

Dante was caught, the architect of his own disaster, standing between his wife and his mistress. He made his choice.

He turned to me, his voice now lethally cold. "If you can't accept this, Sera," he said, gesturing vaguely between Selena and me, "then you're the one who should leave."