From Ruin to Radiance

On the night of their third wedding anniversary, Nora Payne and Ethan Stanley ended up in a police station due to a physical fight.

He had been partying with women at a club until after midnight, and Nora had caught him red-handed.

Inside the precinct, Nora's lips trembled. "Ethan, do you even care about me?"

Ethan lounged back, the skin of his neck smeared with lipstick prints. "After all these years, you still don't know who I am?"

Nora's eyes reddened. Of course she knew.

In the city, he was the most notorious playboy, drifting from woman to woman, day and night. No respectable family wanted their daughter married to a man so dissolute.

Yet the Ethan she had once known had not been like this. She had personally witnessed the depth of his love for another woman.

Even after that woman died, and Nora became his wife, he treated her with courtesy, granting her every dignity due the Mrs. Stanley.

Then, in the second year of marriage, Ethan suddenly began to indulge every appetite, turning cold toward Nora. She pleaded, argued, raged, but nothing altered his course.

The memory of earlier tenderness kept a small hope alive inside her that he might change.

One day he abandoned the fleet of luxury cars in his garage and began riding the city bus to work.

Before she could rejoice, she received photographs of Ethan and the female bus driver entwined on the back seat.

When she looked closely, the woman shocked her. She bore a striking resemblance to his first love, a woman dead for years yet still living in his heart. Rosalyn Harper.

"Ethan, get off that bus!" Nora stood in front of the windshield, the stinging sunlight nothing beside the pain of seeing him pressed against another woman. "Come down or I'll report you for misusing public property!"

The door hissed open and a disheveled Ethan stepped down, his usual careless smile gone, mouth set in a hard line.

His almond eyes narrowed, anger barely leashed. "Nora! If you want to die, don't do it in front of me! I bought this bus. You have no authority here."

Nora tried to look inside, but he seized her collar and pulled her away.

Impatience flared in his gaze.

"Keep this up and I'll have you arrested."

The vehicle was empty except for the driver, who now adjusted her uniform and descended.

For the first time Nora saw the woman's face clearly.

Panic flickered through her, but she forced it down. "Ethan, snap out of it. She isn't Rosalyn!"

The driver, Lilah Harper, eyes wide, pointed at Nora. "Ethan, is that Miss Payne? I remember my sister met her the day she jumped."

At those words, Ethan's eyes turned bloodshot. He stared at Nora like a maddened beast.

"So it was you!"

Shock washed through Nora, all her fury collapsing into bitter hurt. For years Rosalyn's name had been forbidden, yet he condemned her on the strength of a single sentence.

Her voice cracked. "Because she looks like Rosalyn, you believe her? Rosalyn has been dead ten years!"

The slap rang out like a gunshot.

Ethan's palm sent her sprawling, her skull striking the metal door with a hollow clang. The blow shattered every scrap of pride she still wore.

He had never raised a hand to her, no matter how fierce their fights.

Today he did, on nothing more than a wild accusation.

Nora curled on the ground, agony leeching her strength, consciousness slipping.

She heard sirens, and in the haze she remembered the past.

She and Ethan had grown up together.

He was the heir groomed by the Stanley family, brilliant and dazzling, while she, raised by a stepmother, had been spoiled and naive.

Back then she found him cold and dull.

A kidnapping changed everything.

When the kidnappers threatened them, Nora wept in terror, yet Ethan stayed calm, even comforting her. "Don't be afraid. I'll get us out."

Later he carried her on his back through the freezing night, shielding her from the wind.

That was when Nora had a crush on him.

On her eighteenth birthday she overcame her shyness, presented a homemade cake, and handed him a love letter.

For an instant he looked startled, then replied with distant politeness. "I'm sorry, I already have a girlfriend."

The words stabbed her pride.

She had never seen another girl beside him; she believed the smile he gave her was unique.

Tears blurred her vision, the cake toppled to the floor. "Ethan, I won't pester you. Don't invent excuses to push me away."

She fled, sobbing.

After weeks of inquiry she finally saw the girl he spoke of.

Even through jealousy she had to admit that when Rosalyn Harper smiled, starlight seemed to pool in her eyes.

Ethan gazed at her with a tenderness Nora had never received.

Nora's throat burned; she turned and stumbled away.

Just as she prepared to bury her love, Rosalyn jumped from the university rooftop.

Some said depression, some said family ruin.

From that day Ethan looked hollow, a living ghost.

For ten years Nora stayed with him, silent, caring.

When the Stanley family proposed marriage, she believed her devotion had moved him and accepted at once.

After the wedding he remained restrained, yet granted her every privilege of his name.

She told herself he was simply built that way, and if she could stay beside him, it would be enough.

Overnight everything changed. He turned ice cold, not holding back, and cycled through mistresses.

The ache of loving without being loved gnawed at her until she doubted the worth of her persistence.

Now, as paramedics lifted her onto a stretcher, Nora lifted her aching head.

Ethan stood cradling the white dressed woman, never once glancing her way.

Pain flooded every vein, and darkness finally claimed her.

Nora woke in a hospital bed.

Her head was wrapped in layers of gauze that bit into her skin like needles.

The ward was empty. She parted her cracked lips to ask a nurse for water, but her throat burned and she coughed violently.

She doubled over, tears slipping out from the strain.

A pair of leather shoes entered her vision. She looked up and found Ethan staring down, his face cold.

The usual lazy mockery was gone, replaced by tight-lipped tension.

For once his eyes met hers, but they carried only suspicion.

"What did you do to her that day?" he demanded, voice icy.

Nora blinked, then understood he meant Rosalyn.

The stab in her chest made her smile twist. "Ethan, you'd rather trust a stranger than me?"

His fingers twitched at the sight of that forced smile, yet his tone stayed flat. "She's Rosalyn's younger sister. Of course I believe her."

"You're insane," Nora choked, then flared. "You actually found Rosalyn's sister to be her stand-in!"

She clutched his sleeve, eyes red. "Can't you... forget Rosalyn?"

He was silent a moment, then lifted eyes dark with obsession and pain. "I will never forget her in this life."

Nora bit her lip so hard her shoulders shook.

Then she heard his next words, cold and final. "I want a divorce."

Her body went rigid. Tears shimmered, yet she lifted her chin. "Fine! Think I care? Your nightly filth sickens me. If not for the marriage alliance, I'd never have married you!"

Ethan's face turned livid, chest heaving. "I'm sick of your tantrums. Spoiled and sharp-tongued-every second with you is agony!"

He spun away and strode out.

Nora watched until he vanished, then burst into sobs.

She hated him for throwing divorce at her over groundless doubt.

...

That afternoon Ethan dragged her to the courthouse.

She sat frozen, refusing to sign.

He scowled. "Sign, or I cut every cent to the Payne Group."

They had reached this door before and always turned back.

Now she saw only resolve in his eyes, no warmth.

The chill stabbed her and she blurted, "I'll sign!"

Her hand shook so badly the name sprawled crooked.

Standing outside the courthouse, Nora knew that the divorce would be final in thirty days.

Once the process ended, she and Ethan would no longer be husband and wife.

She turned away so he would not see her tears drip onto the tiles.

Ethan stared at the small wet spots, something flickering across his face.

The woman before him, bandaged and trembling, looked nothing like the spitfire he knew.

He pressed his lips tight, said nothing, and left.

Nora drifted back to hospital.

A nurse shrieked, "Miss Payne, your head is bleeding!"

She touched her scalp and found her hand crimson. "Oh, I fell," she mumbled.

The nurse hurried her to a doctor who scolded while rebandaging the wound.

When Nora returned to her room she saw her wedding ring lying on the blanket, the ring she had worn three years.

Tears spilled as she snatched it and ran.

She had to tell Ethan she had changed her mind, she did not want the divorce.

She burst through the front door and saw Ethan seated on the sofa, Lilah's hand in his.

Ethan's father, Jake Stanley, muttered, "You can keep her somewhere else. Why bring her home? Nora will raise hell."

Ethan's mother, Madison Stanley, whispered, "Hide her better, I don't want another police visit."

Then she spotted Nora at the threshold. "Nora, what happened to your head?"

Nora ignored her, strode to Ethan, eyes bright with pleading.

Before she could speak he tossed out a sentence like a knife. "She's carrying my child."

The words poured over her like ice water, dashing every last hope.

"Besides, Nora and I are already divorced." Ethan dropped another bomb on Jake and Madison.

"Divorced!" they gasped. "You split with Nora?"

Ethan glanced at her, his face cold, and tightened his grip on Lilah. "I never loved her. So what?"

Nora found her voice. "You honestly felt nothing for me?"

He let out a short laugh. "Not a shred. You don't deserve it."

The words stabbed her like an ice pick.

The ring slipped from her fingers and clinked on the tiles.

Ethan led Lilah upstairs without a backward glance.

Nora stood hollow, unseeing.

Madison dropped all courtesy. "Good riddance. Three years and no child, nothing but noise. We were cursed with you."

Jake scowled. "Enough sulking. Fix your temper or your next husband's family will despise you."

Their sudden scorn chilled her.

She clenched her fists. "He cheated and got that woman pregnant, yet you blame me? Where's your shame?"

The older pair flushed, having no grounds for an argument.

"I've done nothing wrong," Nora snapped, and strode to her room.

Behind the closed door she slid to the floor, arms wrapped around herself.

Her father, Rodrick Payne, rang. "You always stopped short of divorce. Why not endure this time? The Stanleys just funded my project. Charm him back."

Nora gripped the phone. "You call only to tell me to swallow it?"

Rodrick barked, "You can't keep your man in check. What else can you do but swallow your pride? Your mother raised a rebel."

The mention of her mother burned. "Don't speak of her. Your affairs drove her to her grave!"

She cut the call and sobbed into the quilt.

Three years ago, her mother's heart failed after Rodrick's infidelity came out.

Nora cried until she fainted several times, but her father remained indifferent.

It was Ethan who accompanied her through the darkness. Ethan held Nora then. "I'll stay with you for the rest of my life," he whispered.

That promise had felt like forever.

Now it lay in shards.

He didn't love her, and she didn't want anything from him anymore.

She opened the e-mail from a university in Flison, clicked every box, and sent her acceptance.

It was a dream she had set aside for fear of parting with Ethan.

When the divorce process was done, she would leave everything behind.