Twenty Years of Marriage Reduced to One and Two Chapter 04

Twenty Years of Marriage Reduced to One and Two Chapter 04

The next day, I was on my way home from Hawthorne & Pierce Law Firm when my parents called.

Their tone was harsher than I’d ever heard.

“Maris, tell us the truth. Did you do something to betray Alaric?”

I froze.

For a moment, I didn’t even know how to explain that he cheated and I wanted a divorce.

After a few seconds, I deflected.

“No. Nothing like that…”

My mother’s voice came through, breathless and shaking.

“Some woman named Corinne Hale splashed red paint all over our house. She said you’ve been seducing her husband every night!”

“What is going on? The neighbors are all talking. They’re saying you couldn’t stay faithful, that while Alaric was working late, you were out sleeping around…”

My father snatched the phone.

His voice exploded through the speaker.

“Are you that shameless? That desperate? Because of you, we’re being humiliated. Your mother has fainted multiple times. If you don’t fix this, we’re done with you!”

The call ended with a slam.

Almost at the same time, a soft laugh came from the bedroom.

The door opened.

Corinne Hale stood inside.

She looked even younger than in her photo. Her skin was flawless, her eyes bright.

In her hand was a torn pregnancy report.

“Did you like the gift I sent your parents?”

She smiled sweetly.

It sent a chill down my spine.

I pulled out my phone to call the police and demanded, “How did you get in here?”

She slapped the phone out of my hand.

“Seriously? Think,” she said with a scoff. “Your husband gave me access.”

I stood there, shaking with anger.

She tilted her head, smiling at me.

“Already falling apart?”

“What if I told you I don’t just have the keys to your house? I’ve got his project credits and his salary accounts too. What would you do then?”

I took a breath, forcing myself to stay calm.

“You saw it. I’m pregnant with his child. I’m his legal wife. He won’t destroy his career for you.”

She paused for a second.

Then she laughed.

“Really?”

She stood up and walked toward me slowly.

Her gaze dropped to my still-flat stomach.

Her lips curled as her voice dragged out, slow and cruel.

“You think a baby can keep him? Just like you thought twenty years could buy you forever?”

“Pathetic. Seriously pathetic.”

She threw her head back and laughed.

Sharp. Grating.

Then I saw her hands slide over her own stomach.

Her clothes were thin.

Thin enough that the swell of her belly was impossible to miss.

She looked at my stunned face, unable to hide her pride.

“A hundred days,” she said. “Alaric told me once he wraps up his current project, he’s filing for divorce. He’s already reported it to the institute.”

“If I were you, I’d move on and find another man.”

A hundred days.

A hundred days ago, she already had a key to my home.

My bed. My couch. Even the shower.

In our house, the one we built together—he had taken her over and over again.

The clinking glassware in the lab echoed in my head again.

Something snapped.

The thin layer of control I held shattered under the surge of rage.

I grabbed the ashtray from the table and hurled it at her.

She screamed.

She didn’t dodge in time. It smashed into her, blood spilling from her forehead.

Everything I’d been holding in—the humiliation, the anger from my parents being threatened—rose like a tidal wave.

I didn’t stop.

I lunged at her like I’d lost my mind.

Straddled her, grabbed her hair, and slammed her head into the coffee table.

Once.

Twice.

Again.

Her screams tore through the silence.

The blood only drove me further.

I clawed at her scalp, ripping at her, shouting curses.

“You disgusting bitch! Trash! Homewrecker! You killed his parents!”

“Why aren’t you dead? I’ll kill you myself!”

I lost all control.

There was nothing left but rage.

Her face was covered in blood. Forehead, nose, mouth—red everywhere.

Her voice went hoarse from screaming.

I didn’t stop.

I scratched her face, bit her ear, kicked her stomach.

She shrieked. Blood spread between her legs.

I stared at it for a second.

Just a second.

And in that second, a kick slammed into my abdomen.

Pain exploded through me.

My body flew backward.

Something pierced through me with a sickening sound.

The tip of an umbrella stand by the entryway drove straight into my body.

“No!”

I heard Alaric scream.