Sweet revenge

Chapter 1

If someone had walked up to me, anyone in fact, and told me that the reason why I felt this immense pain was because of my husband, I would have slapped the person hard across his face. But at this point, it seemed I needed someone to remind me that Luke was the reason I was this shattered, distraught, and unsettled inside. I gave everything I had just so he could be happy, I gave up my job, and my career just so I could focus solely on loving him but what did I get in return?

I should have known better that they were all lies, lies from the deepest part of the earth. Luke was always sweet-tongued and I couldn't blame myself that I had falling hard for his tactics, I had fallen so hard that my eyes were plunged out onto the ground as a result of the fall and I couldn't see that Luke was soon going to be the end of me.

All I asked for was for him to love time back in return and nothing else, I didn't want him to take me on vacations or special dates, I just wanted him to love me as much as I loved him.

"Ann, today is the second day, I have to submit those papers by the end of this week." Luke's harsh voice brought me back to reality. I wiped the tears from my face and immediately got on my knees.

"Luke, please I'm begging you, do not do this to me." I cried, not caring how desperate I sounded.

"We've talked about this, Ann. I can't continue to be in this marriage with you when I do not love you anymore." He said.

"What is it that you want? I'm ready to do anything for you."

"I do not need anything else from you, just sign the papers so you can leave," Luke said in anger.

I tried to hold on to his leg but he backed away from me. "I love you so much, Luke, please do not do this to me," I begged again, hoping that he was going to change his mind but it looked like his heart was already as hard rock.

"Well I'm sorry that I do not love you anymore, just sign the darn papers, Ann, I need to get back to my lawyer." He said and without waiting to hear my response, he made his way out of the house.

I got up slowly from the floor and sat on the couch as I continued to sob. The moment I heard the sound of the door close, I knew that my marriage had ended for good and there was no need for me to try to work anything out anymore.

I wiped the tears from my face and walked into the bedroom that I had shared with Luke, the room that held so many memories made by Luke and me, in no time, I was going to move out of the house very soon.

How was I going to explain it to my mother most especially since I was now a divorcee after she had warned me so many times not to get married to Luke that it seemed too good to be true, this marriage seemed too good to be true to me but I allowed myself to blinded not by the love Luke had for me but the love I had for him. My parents, most especially my mother had been against my marriage and I wished that I had listened to them earlier and not gotten married to Luke.

"Please come back to me, Luke." I cried once more, clutching my chest tightly, but I knew that that wish was never going to come to pass, he was gone and gone for good, and I was never going to have his love again.

I went straight to the walk-in wardrobe and began packing my things, the air in the room was starting to get taut and it felt as if my airflow was being constricted. I had to get out of there immediately but I still had my things to pack.

I grabbed my box, unzipped it, and started putting my folded clothes inside, I had second thoughts about leaving most of my things here so I could use it as an excuse to come and back and see Luke one more time but I knew that it was me being delusional.

I shook the thought out of my head and continued packing my things into the box. I took one last look around the room before I walked out and about the door gently behind me. I was about to make my way out when I found Luke's mother, my mother in law, standing at the entrance of the door.

"What are you still doing here, you miserable thing." She spat out the words at me.

"Mother, please, I need you to help me plead with my husband for me, I haven't signed the divorce papers so there's still hope for me."

"Don't you dare call me by that word, you filthy human, and you better sign those papers before you leave, where are the papers to start with."

"It's in the room." I stuttered heavily.

"What is it doing in the room and you're about to make your way out."

"I wanted to talk to you first before I sign them, I don't want to lose Luke."

"Well, he's lost you already so you better do the same."

"I can't believe you're the one saying this, Mom, after all I've done for you."

"I thought I told you not to call me by that name again." She bellowed.

I stared at her for a long while before I left my luggage and walked into the room to get the divorce papers Luke had handed to me earlier this week.

I came back out with a paper and a pen before I angrily signed them, trying not to wet the papers with my tears.

I stood outside for what seemed like forever waiting for a taxi to stop by, it seemed it was about to rain and if it was, I didn't want to get wet. Fortunately for me, a taxi beckoned to my outstretched hand and I got in and gave him the address to my parents' house to take me there.

There wasn't much distance from what used to be my home to my parents' house but it was taking forever to get there even at the speed at which we drove.

After a couple hours of driving, he finally arrived at my destination, I got down immediately and he helped take my luggage from the boot, I paid him before I made my way to my parents' house. I stood there for a moment wondering how my parents would take the news that after I had ignored all their warnings and got married to Luke, he had divorced me in the end.

I felt so stupid because I had used all my entire savings to get that bastard a job and the only thing he had left me with was nothing. I breathed in deeply and summoned courage, I walked up to the porch and knocked thrice on the door, but I didn't get any response. I knocked again and the door was opened up by a little girl that I didn't recognize.

"Hello!" She said in a shrill and small voice.

"Uhm, hi, and who are you?" I asked her.

"No, who are you?" She answered me, surprising me with her smartness at the same time.

"My name is Ann and I'm here to see my parents," I said to the girl and she looked at me from my head to toe as if studying me under a microscope.

"Are they in?" I asked her.

"I don't know who your parents are," was her response. I rolled my eyes into the back of my head, I hadn't got all the time in the world and it was going to rain any moment from now.

"Can you move away from the door so I can get in?" I asked her and she shook her head in defiance.

"No, I won't let you!" She said.

"Mom, Dad! Are any of you in?" I shouted into the house and it was the little girl's turn to look at me with surprise.

"What are you doing?!" She exclaimed in surprise.

But before I could respond, my mother was already standing by the door, ready to receive me.

"Ann?"

"What are you doing here?" She asked, her eyes darting to my luggage as my hand held firmly onto the handle.

"I'm moving back in." I hesitated before I spoke.

"Moving back in?" "What do you mean you're moving back in?"

"I'm going to tell you all about it later." I tried to hide the pain in my voice as I spoke. I shoved the girl aside lightly before I dragged my luggage into the house.

"Tell me about what, did you and your husband have another argument again?"

"It's worse than that, Mom," I said and went straight to the couch and sank into it.

"What do you mean, why don't you just go straight to the point by answering my questions and stop cutting through corners?"

"Alright, I'm going to tell you!" I took a deep breath, trying to avoid my mother's gaze as I was about to break the news to her.

"Well tell me already." She responded impatiently.

"Can she excuse for a minute?" I said, pointing to the little girl whose ears were all flared up ready to receive whatever information I had to say.

"No, she can't, anything you can't say to her, you can't say to me either." My mother responded and I raised my brows in surprise.

"Are you being serious right now?" I asked her. "She's just a maid, you can't expect her to be here while I tell you things that are confidential."

"She's not a maid." My mother said and reached out to take her hand, the girl hurriedly grabbed my mother's hand.

"Then who is she?" I asked.

"That's news for later, right now, you're going to tell me why you suddenly decided to move out of your husband's house."

"Oh really now, you're not going to tell me who she is."

"She's my daughter, Ann." My mother blurted out.

"Your daughter?" I said, my tone mirroring my surprise. "When did you...."

My mother placed a finger across her lips signaling me to be quiet. "We'll talk about that later, right now I want you to tell me why you're back here with your luggage."

"Luke has divorced me," I said without hesitation.

"What, that bastard did what?!" She shouted almost at the top of her lungs.

"He dares not."

"Well he did and he already has," I said, folding my hands against my chest and tapping my feet incessantly on the ground. "I gave everything I had to him!"

"I warned you about him, Ann."

"I gave him everything that I had, myself, my money... Every damn thing!"

"I warned you about him but you refused to listen to me. I warned you to end the relationship with that good for nothing man, but you refused."

"What do I do now, Mom?"

"What do you do now?" She asked me sarcastically. "You pick up the pieces of your life and carry on."

"What pieces do I even pick, Luke has shattered me completely."

"Well that's left for you to decide, I warned you not to get married to him in the first place but you thought that you knew better than your mother did and you went ahead to get married to him!"

"I'm so sorry mom!" I buried my head into my and began to sob again.

"Sorry isn't going to make up for anything." She said and led the child inside her room leaving me there in the living room to weep my heart out.

I woke up the next morning feeling like a log, I couldn't get up from the bed. I felt empty inside coupled with immense sadness.

"Was I ever going to get past this heartbreak?" I asked myself. I wasn't sure I ever would, Luke was the only man I had ever loved as my life depended on it, I didn't think I could ever get over him but just like my mother had said, I had to get to, and pick up the pieces of my life.

I tried sitting up in bed but that too was a struggle for me, I looked around for my purse where I had kept my phone but I couldn't find it anywhere close.

"Ugh!" I grunted and fell back onto the bed I was frustrated when suddenly, I heard a soft knock on the door.

I raised my head, wondering what my mom was doing in my room by this time of the day. My mother was an early bird but she left my mornings to me and I wondered if that had changed.

"Mom, is that you?" I asked, throwing the sheets away from my body. I didn't get any response and I hoped that she wasn't expecting me to come get the door for her.

"Mom, the door is unlocked, can you please come in, "I shouted at the door, but still, I didn't get any response. The door knob began to turn in an unusual way as if she was struggling to open the door.

"The door is unlocked!" I said again. I opened my mouth to say something else but before I got the chance to say it, the door opened and the little girl walked in casually into the room.

My eyes bulged as I sat up straight to look at her, what the hell was she doing in my room?

"Good morning." The girl greeted me with the same small voice.

"Uhm, can I help you?" I had no intentions to ask that but I couldn't help it.

"Good morning." She greeted again as she made her way toward the bed. "Mummy says that you're my sister." She said and tried getting into the bed but the king's side bed was too high for her to climb in.

I just stared at her in disbelief, I was too stunned to say anything.

"Can you please help?" She said, stretching her hands toward me.

"Sure," I said and carried her into the bed. "...your sister?" I asked her, voicing out my surprise.

"Yes, mummy says that you're my sister," she said again but this time with a smile and tried scooting toward me.

"I need to speak to Mother about this," I said more to myself than to her.

"Speak to mother about what?" She asked me innocently.

"No dear, I wasn't talking to you," I said, trying to make her feel comfortable even though I wasn't.

"So my mother told you that I'm your sister?" I asked and she nodded her head.

I ran my eyes all over her body, trying to guess her age. She looked somewhat around the age of six but she had the mentality of a twelve year old.

"How old are you?" I finally voiced out my thoughts.

"I'm eight." She answered, holding up her fingers.

"Eight? You reason much older for a girl your age!" I pointed out.

"Wow!" She exclaimed.

"What's that?" I asked.

"You sound so much like a mummy, she always says that I reason much older for a girl my age."

"Well, she isn't far from the truth," I commented.

"My name is Diana, what's yours?"

"Mother didn't tell you my name?" I asked with a tinge of sarcasm in my tone.

"She did, I just wanted us to get to know ourselves better and to apologize for the way I treated you yesterday by not letting you into the house even when I saw that it was about to rain."

I raised my brow and nodded my head curtly, mirroring how impressed I was.

"That's okay, your apology is accepted," I said to her simply, hoping that she would take that as a cue to leave but boy was I wrong.

"I wondered why mummy never told me that I had a sister."

"Well I guess she had her reasons," I said, shrugging my shoulders. I didn't feel like I wanted to have a conversation but somehow, I felt relieved talking to her, there was an inexplicable feeling of comfort that she brought to me with her voice.

"I guess so too." She said and averted her gaze as if thinking of what to say next. "You left your purse in the living room."

"Did I?" I said, realizing that I'd been looking for it since I woke up this morning.

"Should I go get it for you?" She asked me.

"Oh yes, I'd really appreciate that," I replied and she hurriedly stood and ran out of the door.

"Oh wow!" I said and got up from the bed, I didn't know where I got the energy from but I just suddenly did.

She came back the next minute like she had never left with my purse in her hand. "Here's your purse." She said and handed the purse over to me.

"Oh my, thank you so much," I said and took the purse. I immediately unzipped it and took my phone out, there were so many text messages and missed calls but none of them was from Luke and I felt my heart sink into my stomach.

"What's the matter, you don't look happy," Diana asked and I could hear the genuine sadness in her voice.

"Oh it's nothing," I lied and tried to avoid her intense gaze.

"Really?"

"Yes," I replied subconsciously and started to pace the room.

"But you don't look okay." She said.

"Can I please be left alone sweetie, I need to put some of my things in place," I said, trying to force a smile on my face so she wouldn't feel bad.

"Can I at least help you with some of it?" No dear, it's going to be a lot of work for you.

"Oh okay." She said in a disappointed tone and walked out of the room, dragging her feet across the floor.