The divorce.

Katie.

Relief.

That was all I felt as I took another look at the blonde woman in front of me. Dressed in a corporate black pant and grey shirt, with her blonde hair neatly packed into a bun, her blue eyes sparkled with hypocritical empathy - one I wasn’t bothered about. Not in a single bit.

“You know I am truly sorry about all these. And I wish we could have found another solution to all these but Mark and I can’t really live without each other.” She said again.

She attempted to touch me but I immediately stepped back, although I did it in a way that didn’t make it obvious.

“Come on, sweetie. You didn’t steal my man,” I said with a sweet smile. “You were doing me a favor.” That said, I stretched my hand to collect the file Mark had been holding out all along.

Divorce file.

After reading through it all and making sure that I wasn’t giving up anything else except my marriage to the man, I swiftly signed the paper.

“I wish you good luck,” I said as I handed the paper to the blonde woman instead of Mark. With that, I stepped out of the house.

Truely, she would need the luck. In the long run, I know that Mark would show her his true color, and like me, she would have nothing but regret in the long run.

After walking for a while, I finally spotted a bar and stepped in. Ignoring the rowdiness and smell of alcohol and cigarettes even at that time of the day, I went straight to the bar and ordered for a cocktail and began to sip once it was brought to me. It was what I wanted - a drink that is alcoholic but not exactly strong.

As I sipped, my mind went back to five years ago when I was forced to marry Mark Thorn in a business arrangement so that the two families' businesses could merge to create an empire.

At first, Mark had been nothing but a sweet soul and I had quickly agreed, seeing as he had me as his priority and made sure I was always okay. However, three months into the marriage, immediately after the contracts were signed and the two companies became one, the monster in him exploded. That night, I was beaten to the point I had to be admitted into the hospital.

My parents didn’t believe that their sweet son-in-law was such a monster. To them, they were sure their rebellious daughter was just looking for ways to get out of the marriage to continue to live her life of reckless abandon.

How presumptive of them to think I would injure myself so badly enough just to leave the man.

I sighed as I took another sip of my cocktail. I hissed as I realized that I was still thinking of the bastard even after I was free from his shackles.

Perhaps, the drink was not exactly as strong as I thought it should be.

With that in mind, I signaled to the barman and watched as he satutered to where I was seated.

“Get me your strongest alcohol,” I ordered him. My tone was authoritative and left no room for any argument of any sort. I knew that if I didn’t push like that, he might want to oppose, with the claim that women were not supposed to get drunk. Especially not in a bar full of men with different agenda.

The bar man took one look at me and nodded his head. “In a jiffy, ma’am.” He said before he turned his back to me. I watched in plain silence as he cocked open the cover of the alcohol bottle and tipped it over the shot glass once he topped the glass, he slid it over the counter to my front. “Here you go, ma’am, but try not to get drunk.” He said in a slow but deep voice.

I ignored him and downed the entire content of the glass cup into my throat. I squeezed my face as the drink burned my throat and sent a shocking signal to my brain. I managed to swallow the liquid and let out a defeated sigh. The moment the alcohol settled in my throat, it made me feel a lot better about myself than before. Determined to use the drink to forget all the things that had gone wrong in my life, I requested for two more shot. Without wasting anymore time, I downed the two glasses down my throat one after the other.

“More,” I slurred out my words. The alcohol was beginning to numb me and my sense of reasoning and that was exactly what I wanted.

“Ma’am…” the bartender’s concerned voice drifted down to somewhere in my subconscious.

“More!” I cried, throwing my fist on the table to show just how serious I was. Before I had any more chance to whine, another full glass was in front of me. I quickly took it and smiled because I was no longer thinking of anything again.

I stood up from where I was seated and made to walk away to go and break the news to my parents. However, my feet wobbled and I found myself going face down into the earth. Desperate to hold on to myself, I grabbed the nearest thing I could lay my hands on. Rather than stop my fall, the object followed in my fall, landing on me. I grunted from how heavy the weight was.

“Hey, sugar, you don’t have to act all coy to get to sleep with me!” A gruffly, bad smelling breathy voice said.

I wrinkled my nose from the disgusting foul breath and promptly pushed the owner of the voice away the moment I realized he was lying on me. How could a person stink so much? I tried to made to sit up but it proved impossible. That was when I realized that I had not succeeded in pushing the weight away. Suddenly, hands pinned me down to trap me.

“Think you can leave after pulling your low stunt?!” The voice growled.

This time, it was so close to my nostril and mouth that I immediately began to cough to avoid inhaling the air from his mouth. I began to wriggle under him just so I would be able to push him away but it was all futile as his weight was more than I bargained for.

“Let go of that woman now!” I suddenly heard a loud angry voice. The voice sounded a lot familiar. But even as I tried to remember who it belonged to, I couldn’t.

“Just stick to your fucking bar and serve the drink you are being paid to serve, you lowlife bartender!” This time, the voice didn’t come from the man trying to take chances with me, but one of the onlookers.

“You heard the gentleman. Release the lady now!” A new voice bellowed from the entrance.

Immediately I heard the voice, I stopped struggling.

Oh, no.

He found me!