Part 2The Ultimate Insult

My world tilted. My eyes were glued to the sonogram, a blade twisting in my chest. The strength drained from my body, and I collapsed onto the floor.

Soon after, a text from Seraphina arrived. “Something came up at the office, meeting a partner. Won’t be home tonight. I owe you for your birthday, I’ll make it up to you with a gift at the business event tomorrow.”

She added one last line. “Don’t be angry. Get some sleep.”

I stared at the two messages, a bitter, hollow laugh escaping my lips.

Seraphina and I met in college. It was love at first sight for me; she couldn't have been less interested. She was raised by a single mother who was later diagnosed with a severe brain tumor. They were desperate for money to cover the treatment.

I couldn't bear to see her suffer. I paid for everything, anonymously, and arranged for the nation's top neurosurgeon to perform the operation. The surgery was a success. To protect her pride, I told her the money came from a charity fund.

She was at her lowest point, but her pride was unyielding. "Eddy Cole," she had demanded, "what do you want from me?"

I laid my heart bare. "I love you."

She was silent for a long moment. "You want to be my boyfriend," she said, her brow furrowed, "but my career is just starting. We'd have to keep it a secret. Wouldn't that hurt you? Eddy, you're a good man, but I have nothing to give you…"

The love of a young man is pure and fearless. "I'll endure anything, as long as I can be with you," I promised her. "Seraphina, I will help you achieve your dreams, and I will wait for you to love me back. Please, just give me a chance."

The sun was setting that day, painting the sky in shades of rose. The young woman stood on her toes and pressed a soft kiss to the young man's cheek. "Okay."

And so we began. To open the doors of the business world for her, I used my family's influence behind her back, smoothing her path. She became an overnight sensation, a rising star lauded for a brilliant investment.

In the beginning, even if our love wasn't deep, she treated me with respect, understanding, and care. As she fought her way up, I was always by her side. I took drinks for her at networking events until I was vomiting in the streets, once so violently I ended up in the hospital with a bleeding stomach.

She held my hand then, her voice full of pain. "Eddy, let's get married. I will make something of myself. And even if I can never truly love you, I swear I will never, ever hurt you."

Twelve years had passed. We saw each other less and less. Now, when she looked at me, all I saw was irritation. Her endless stream of cruel words had become a thousand tiny cuts.

The sonogram was the final, fatal blow, plunging straight through my scarred and broken heart.

Tears streamed down my face as I smiled. I typed back a single message.

"Seraphina, let's get a divorce."

The next morning, there was still no reply. I suspected she hadn't even bothered to read my message.

But Leo Archer's Instagram had been updated. A new post showed him with perfectly styled hair revealing the elegant line of his neck. He wore a custom-tailored black suit, and on his wrist, an emerald watch caught the light with a cold, green fire.

I knew that watch. It was my mother's only legacy, my most precious treasure.

My heart plummeted. I rushed to the safe. The watch was gone.

An icy dread washed over me. Besides me, only one other person knew the combination. Seraphina.

I grabbed my keys and sped to the location of that night's business gala.

When I arrived, Seraphina was in her element, laughing with a group of industry titans. She didn't even notice me.

But Leo did.

He sauntered over, deliberately flashing the watch. "Well, well, Eddy. You really came dressed like that? A bit pathetic, don't you think?"

His voice dripped with contempt. "The only reason you married her is because you met her a few years before I did. Dumb luck. But look at you now. Just an old man, wasting away. You don't belong in a place like this. You should leave before you embarrass yourself further."

Rage, white-hot and uncontrollable, surged through me. Seeing him treat my mother's memory so flippantly, I snapped. I swung my hand, slapping him hard across the face. "Give. Me. My. Watch."

"Ah!" Leo cried out, clutching his face and stumbling theatrically to the ground.

Seraphina cut through the crowd, her eyes wide. Seeing Leo on the floor, she rushed to his side, shielding him with her body. Her glare was glacial. "Eddy, are you insane?!"

"Who gave you permission to touch him?" she hissed.

"He provoked me," I said, my voice dangerously low. "He had it coming. Seraphina, why is my mother's watch on his wrist?"

Leo feigned innocence. "It's all my fault. I couldn't find the right accessory for this suit. I heard Eddy had an emerald watch, and Sera said it would look perfect on me, so she let me borrow it…"

I stared at Seraphina, the pain so intense I could barely breathe. "You gave him my mother's legacy to curry his favor?"

Even after learning of her affair, of their child, I never thought she could be this cruel. I had once confided in her, against my grandmother’s advice not to reveal my family background, that my mother had died protecting me, and that this watch was the only thing I had left of her. How could she give it away so carelessly?

Seraphina shielded Leo, her voice trembling with fury. "Is this watch that valuable? Once it's in our house, it's our property. I can give it to whomever I please. Do I need your permission?"

"Eddy, the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the roof over your head—I gave you all of it! How dare you question me?"

Before she could finish, I raised my hand again. This time, the slap was for her.

She didn't flinch, taking the full force of the blow.

Leo shrieked, rushing to her side. "Are you crazy? You hit her over a watch? She's a giant of the industry! Do you have any idea who she is?"

"Enough! Stop embarrassing yourselves!" Seraphina roared.

She ripped the emerald watch from Leo's wrist and hurled it at me. "Take it! Take the piece of junk your pathetic, dead mother left you! I wouldn't have even touched it if Leo didn't like it!"

"Now take your watch and get out!" she screamed.

The watch hit the marble floor with a sickening crack. The emeralds skittered across the floor, the watch face cracked—a perfect mirror of our broken marriage.

Something inside me finally shattered. I grabbed a wine bottle from a nearby table and threw it in her direction. "Seraphina," I yelled, my voice breaking, "you are the biggest disappointment of my life!"

Security guards quickly subdued me. Seraphina's face was contorted with rage. "Eddy, I am powerful now! I am influential! I am still offering you the position of my husband, so don't be so ungrateful!"

How laughable. Everything she was, I had built.

I stared at her, my voice cold and steady. "I don't need your pity. We're getting a divorce. And I will show you what it means to have nothing."