Billionaire's Ex-Wife's Revenge

1

Layla Patel

~•~

"You know he isn't coming back, should I just refrigerate the food?"

I held back a scornful scoff as I watched the maid walk towards the dining table to pack up the food I had spent my entire day preparing for my husband.

I couldn't even stop her from touching the food because she was right. Lucas wasn't coming back home. I thought he would make an exception since it was our third wedding anniversary.

But I was wrong.

Lucas didn't care about me.

To him, our marriage was just for convenience. He only got married to me because his family forced him. I also had no choice but to marry a man I knew nothing about.

Lucas had made it clear to me that he wasn't in love with me and would never be. But I was delusional enough to think he would change his mind as the years passed by.

It had been three years but nothing had changed.

Even though we shared a room on the nights he saw it fit to sleep at home, it still felt like we were strangers under the same roof.

He only made love to me whenever he felt like it. He always used protection because he didn't want me to have his baby.

My life practically fell apart the minute after we said our wedding vows to each other. He took everything away from me - all my dreams and ambitions in life.

I wanted to have kids. I wanted to start medical school. But no, Lucas turned me into a housewife who barely had any social life.

Most girls out there were dying to be in my position. I mean, who wouldn't want to be with one of the finest men in New York? But they had no idea what I was going through behind closed doors.

We appeared as a perfect couple to the world.

I always accompanied him to all his work events and put on a fake smile. Everyone thought I was lucky to be with him. They thought I had it all. But I knew what I had to go through every day.

My eyes wandered back to the wooden wall clock in the living room. It was only a few minutes before the day was over.

I had been waiting for my husband since 8:00pm and it was almost midnight. The maid had already refrigerated the food and returned to her room.

I was holding on to a little hope that he would come back before midnight. I mean, he was nice enough to have dinner with me the previous years.

But this time around, he had more important places to be than to be with his wife on his anniversary.

I wasn't surprised because I saw it coming a long time ago.

Shit, my best friend even warned me about it.

But I couldn't do anything about it.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I stood up from the couch and walked back to my room. As I lay on the bed, I was tempted to pick up my phone and check the news.

But I let out a scoff and closed my eyes.

I was already hurt and didn't need to make my situation worse. I just decided to sleep and forget about my problems.

Maybe Lucas would have a reasonable explanation for why he didn't come back home for our anniversary dinner in the morning.

A strong stench of alcohol filled the air and my eyes were forced to flutter open. I strained my eyes to adjust to the bright light coming through the window.

I was so exhausted the previous night that it slipped my mind to close the curtains. Letting out a deep breath, I looked at Lucas who was standing in front of the closet.

He turned around and looked at me but he didn't even acknowledge my presence.

I swallowed hard and cleared my throat. One of us had to say something. "You didn't come home yesterday. I made us dinner to celebrate our anniversary."

Lucas scoffed, running his fingers around his scattered brunette hair. "Oh my goodness, Layla." He paused for a second, then he continued. "We haven't had dinner together for the past month, what made you think yesterday would be different?"

My heart sank as I tried to speak. "Emm, our... it's... anniversary." I was too hurt to even come up with a coherent sentence.

"Please, I'm too tired for this. I just want to sleep." He continued as he took off his white shirt. "Can you leave the room? I need to be alone."

It was a normal thing for Lucas to dismiss me whenever he felt like it. Even though we shared the room. Most times, I would sleep in the guest room or an empty room.

I always wondered why he didn't just ask me to leave permanently. Sometimes, I wondered what was going through his mind.

"Lucas, you can't just dismiss me whenever you like. I'm talking about our anniversary here." I sat upright, staring at him. "I made us dinner and you spent the night drinking alcohol with whoever."

"Happy anniversary, Layla!" He responded sarcastically. "Are you happy now? Please leave the room. I'm too tired for this." He reminded me again.

I pushed the sheets away from my body and climbed out of the bed. "The maid helped me refrigerate the food, should I reheat it, so we can have breakfast together?"

Lucas laughed. "What is wrong you you?" He asked, shaking his head. "You know what? I can't do this anymore."

He turned around and walked to the closet. He rummaged through the closet searching for something. I stood in my spot as I waited for him to be done.

I had no idea what he was searching for and was curious to find out.

After a few moments, he turned around with a brown envelope and handed it over to me. "Take." He tossed it on my body when I was hesitant to take it.

My heart was pounding in my chest. "Lucas, what is this?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Why was he giving me a brown envelope? What was inside? I hope it wasn't what I was thinking.

2

Layla Patel

~•~

My breathing became labored as I opened the envelope to see what it contained. "No, no, no," I muttered to myself as I finally saw what it contained.

"Sign it and leave it on the dining table when you're done."

Lucas didn't have any empathy in his voice. How long has he had the divorce papers with him? I knew he didn't love me but I had no idea he was thinking about ending the marriage.

"Lucas, please don't do this to me," I begged, my voice cracking slightly. "You can't just come back one morning and serve me divorce papers!"

"I've been wanting to do it for a while now, but I didn't want you to feel bad. You know I don't love you, but you keep on bothering me."

I was aware that he didn't love me but hearing him say it out loud was like a slap in the face. I felt so terrible but I would feel worse if I signed the divorce papers.

Lucas was the only family I had. He couldn't leave me. No, it wasn't possible.

"What don't you like about me? I'll change. We can work this out. We don't have to end our marriage. I'll leave the room if that's what you want." I pleaded, my eyes mirroring my desperation.

Lucas stared at me, his expression unreadable. "I'm sure you know the actual reason why I'm divorcing you. You've seen it on the news but you've been choosing to ignore it. I've been waiting for you to confront me but you've stayed quiet."

I clutched my heart in shock because he was right. I had seen it on the news weeks ago. My best friend had even sent it to me, but I chose to ignore it.

Maybe if I acted like I didn't see it, it would mean it wasn't happening. Ignoring it didn't make any difference, it even made it worse.

"I spent the night with her. I've been spending a lot of nights with her. And I think I'm going to propose to her." A small smile crept to his lips as he talked about Sophia.

It was the first time he had smiled since he walked into the room.

Sophia was his ex-girlfriend. It was as though I was always living in her shadow because ever since we got married, people didn't stop comparing me to his ex-girlfriend.

I had no idea why they broke up, but I knew that he didn't stop loving her. Sophia moved out of New York to pursue her acting career, but now she was back.

I hated the fact that she was back.

The news of her arrival was all over the internet. I didn't want to read the comments or even look at them because I already knew what people were going to say.

Even after three years, most of them didn't stop comparing me to Sophia. Some of them even hated me for ruining a perfect love story.

I allowed their words to get through to me but as time went by, I learned to grow a thick skin when it came to what strangers on the internet had to say about me.

Plus, I still had some people who were on my side. I felt better when some people supported my marriage and claimed I was perfect for Lucas.

But Lucas didn't see me as perfect.

Lucas saw me as the helpless orphan who didn't have any choice but to agree to his family's demands. In another life, I wouldn't have gotten married to someone who didn't love me.

In another life, I wouldn't be abandoned by my birth parents and my foster parents. It only made sense to agree to get married to Lucas when I got the offer.

I didn't have to worry about my financial problems anymore. However, my financial problems were replaced with depression and mental problems.

I had known Lucas and his family for a while because of my foster parents. Shit, I even had a crush on him and imagined us being together.

I was the happiest person when his grandmother asked me to marry him. Even if I knew he didn't love me, I always held on to the hope that he would grow to love me.

But I was wrong.

Lucas was never going to love me. His heart belonged to someone else. I wasn't even sure he liked me as a person. I had always been unhappy in our marriage.

But still, I couldn't let go.

I had nowhere else to go. My foster parents made it clear that they didn't want anything to do with me. I had no idea if my birth parents were alive or dead.

Lucas was the only family I had.

I couldn't sign his divorce papers. I needed to think of something. Anything that would make him change his mind. I just couldn't let him end the marriage.

"Layla!" Lucas's voice interrupted me from my thoughts and I snapped back to reality. "Sign the papers and stop staring at me."

I let out a deep breath and squeezed the papers into a ball. "No." I shook my head. "I'm not signing the papers. I can't sign the papers."

Lucas had a puzzled expression registered on his face. "Did you miss the part where I mentioned that I have been seeing Sophia for a while now?" He asked.

I didn't care if he was seeing his ex-girlfriend. I wasn't ready to leave him. "I heard you. You can continue seeing her while we are still married."

Lucas's eyes grew wide in disbelief and he let out a dry chuckle. "You might be okay with sharing but Sophia isn't okay with sharing me with another woman." His expression became sharp.

My eyes glistened with tears and I trembled in my spot. "Please, Lucas," I begged. "I have no one else. I have nowhere else to go."

Lucas scoffed. "You can move in with your best friend. You can rent a new apartment. I'll give you all the money you need. Just sign the damn papers!" He continued, his voice rising in anger.

I wiped off the tears that were threatening to fall with the back of my hands. My best friend wouldn't mind having me at her house but I didn't want to inconvenience her.

I wasn't ready to give up on my marriage either.

I still wanted to be Lucas's wife.

I was determined to fight for us.

Lucas didn't know what he was doing. Maybe he needed some space and time to think. I wasn't going to sign the papers.

As soon as he picked up the papers I had squeezed, I turned around and left the room. Maybe if I ignored him and refused to sign the papers, he would change his mind.

3

Lucas Brown

~•~

Layla knew exactly what she was getting into when she agreed to be my wife. Throughout our three years together, I never led her on or even gave her any hope that I might fall in love with her.

She knew that my heart belonged to Sophia. Sophia was my first love. She was the only woman I had fallen in love with throughout my twenty-six years on earth.

But my family didn't approve of Sophia.

By my family, I meant my grandmother. She always made it clear that she wouldn't be in support of my relationship if I ever considered starting a family with Sophia.

My grandmother wanted me to settle down with a good and quiet girl. She didn't like Sophia's line of work because she felt she was too exposed to the world.

She had no idea that Sophia's exposure was exactly what I needed to make the family business thrive. I needed all the publicity I could get.

I loved my grandmother and she knew I would always listen to her. So I had no option but to marry Layla when she chose her to be my wife.

I saw Layla as a naive girl because she also agreed to get married to me even though she knew I didn't love her. I needed a powerful woman by my side. Not someone like Layla.

When Sophia left for France to continue her acting career, it made it easier for me to accept my grandmother's request.

I had seen Layla around a few times because my grandmother was friends with her foster parents. "You know I'm getting old, I want you to have kids before I die." Those were the exact words that my grandmother used to blackmail me into marrying Layla.

Even when I tried to convince her that I would find another woman, she refused, saying I would love Layla as I got to know her.

I knew it wasn't possible because I was already in love with someone else. I just decided to be with her to make my grandmother happy.

But I couldn't have kids with Layla. I was careful enough to use protection whenever we had sex. I didn't want her to be the mother of my children. I even made sure she took birth control pills.

I always hoped that Sophia would come back into my life. I always dreamt of our future together. I always imagined us starting our own family.

I knew my grandmother didn't want her in my life. But I had a detailed speech on how to convince her to accept Sophia whenever she returned to New York.

Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away about six months ago. It was unexpected because I wasn't expecting her to pass away.

She didn't have any illness or anything. She died in an unexpected car accident. It was one of the worst days of my life. I still hadn't gotten over her death.

But it was one of the reasons why I could even bring myself to divorce Layla. Initially, I felt bad because it seemed like I was betraying my grandmother.

With time, I realized that it wasn't fair on Layla. I needed to let her free. I wasn't treating her right and she deserved better.

Layla was a pretty girl and even if I tried to hide it, I had a soft spot for her. But I would choose Sophia over her.

Over the years, I tried my best not to develop any feelings for her even if she was an attractive lady.

I didn't want anything that would get in the way of me and my first love. Maybe in another life, Layla would have a chance with me.

I felt bad watching her beg me with desperation in her eyes. But I didn't let her see that I cared. Sophia was back in my life and I needed to get rid of Layla. Even if it meant hurting her feelings.

It wasn't a big surprise to see that she refused to sign the papers. I expected something like that, so I made sure that I had several copies of the divorce papers.

After she left, I tossed the first one she had squeezed into the trash can. Then I retrieved a new one from the closet and signed it.

I had made up my mind and she needed to get over her feelings and sign the papers. I didn't want her under my roof anymore. Sophia wasn't okay with it and it was causing a strain in our relationship.

After I signed the papers, I kept them on top of the side drawer before lying on the bed. I had spent the night partying with Sophia and some of our other friends.

I needed to rest before heading for work later in the day.

I had no idea how long I had slept for but the annoying sound of my ringing phone interrupted my sleep. Letting out a loud yawn, I opened my eyes and reached out to my phone.

My lips curled into a small smile when I saw the caller's name flashing across the screen. I sat upright on the bed and answered the call.

"Hey, baby. How are you doing?"

Sophia's groggy voice echoed from the other end of the line. "I'm fine, did I wake you up?" Her voice sounded angelic as she asked.

"Yes, but that's okay." I brushed off her concerns with a dismissive wave. "Are you good?"

"Sure, I just wanted to let you know that I'll meet you at your office today. We need to talk." Her voice was calm but steady.

I already knew what she wanted to talk to me about.

Running my hands through my hair, I sighed heavily. "Sure, you can come during lunch." We talked for a while before ending the call.

It was almost time for me to leave the house, so I just stood up and prepared for work. When I was done, I grabbed my keys and headed downstairs.

"I already signed my part, I need you to sign yours and leave the house before I return from work later in the day," I told Layla as I saw her in the living room.

Layla had an astonished expression on her face. "Are you serious? You actually want to throw three years down the drain?" She asked, staring at me in disbelief.

I was stunned because she was still in denial. She didn't want to believe that I was actually going to divorce her. Was she that desperate? I mean, why did she want a man who didn't love her?

I rolled my eyes. "Don't make me ask the securities to help you out. I don't want to see you here when I return." With that, I walked out of the house.