Chapter 3

The world came back to me, blurry at first but gradually sharpening into focus. I was surprised to see myself on the floor, my back against the bed frame. As I tried to stand up, my head throbbed sharply and I ceased moving instantly.

"Anna, are you okay?" I heard Marcus' voice. I blinked, trying to steady myself, and saw him kneeling beside me, a damp washcloth in his hand.

His face hovered above mine, his expression unreadable. His brow furrowed in what might have been concern but it was hard to tell from this angle.

"What happened?" I murmured, feeling disconnected from everything around me.

"You fainted," Marcus said, his tone curt, as if stating a fact rather than expressing worry. "It seems you passed out sometime when I was away. It's been three hours since I left. When I came back, you were out cold."

I struggled to sit up, and he helped me into a sitting position. My eyelids were heavy when suddenly the incident that had happened before I lost consciousness came back to me. The empty account.

"Marcus..." I began, my voice cracking as I tried to find the right words. "The account... My father’s money. It’s gone. All of it. I don't know what to do."

He stood up, letting out a long breath as he ran a hand through his hair. As he did so, something else caught my eye— there was someone else in the room.

A blonde lady. She appeared to be in her mid twenties and looked like a model as it was clear that she made an effort in her clothes; They were chic leather.

She stood by the window, her arms crossed and she watched us with an air of discomfort, as if she didn't like what she was seeing.

“Babe. Hurry up so we can get out of here,” She said in a whiny voice to Marcus.

“Who is this lady?” I asked Marcus, tearing my eyes away from her as my voice went up a notch.

To my surprise, Marcus didn't answer me immediately. Instead, he went over to her and threw a hand over her shoulder drawing her close to him. In response, she snuggled against him and winked at me.

“Anna, I didn’t want you to find out this way. Not like this,” he said, his voice steady but lacking the softness I’d once known. He glanced at the lady and then back at me. “This is… Rachel. I plan to make her my wife.”

I stared at him, feeling as if the ground had fallen out from beneath me. His wife. My suspicions about him cheating was true but it was way worse than I had imagined. "Your what? Tell me you're joking". The words came out way harsher than I intended but I was past caring.

“We’ve been drifting apart for a while now, haven’t we?” he continued, as if I wasn’t crumbling in front of him. “You’ve been distant. Our marriage hasn’t been the same for years. I needed… more.”

More? My mind struggled to wrap around the concept. Our marriage hadn’t been perfect, but I thought we were still in it together. I swallowed, trying to push down the rising wave of nausea in my mouth.

“And the money?” I managed, the question slipping out before I could stop it. The inheritance—my parents' legacy—had vanished from the account. A cold realization came to me. Was this connected?

“I was trying to fix things. For us. But... things didn’t exactly go as planned.”

“When do they ever go as planned with you?...”

“Bitch, don't raise your voice at him like that. Watch your tone. We will give you your money later,” Rachel interrupted me before I was done talking.

“Why is this fool telling me what to do right in my own house?” I addressed your question to Marcus, pointedly ignoring Rachel.

“Anna, don't insult her,” Marcus stepped in, cutting me off too.

“Why are you on her side? You heard her call me a bitch just now. Infact, save your explanation, I don't want to get more angry than I already am right now.”

"You don’t understand," he said, finally turning to face me, his eyes cold. "You’ve always had this safety net, this cushion to fall back on, and you’ve used it to make me feel small. Every time something goes wrong, you swoop in with your money, with your solutions, as if I’m just some charity case. I needed to prove I could do this on my own."

I gaped at him, my mind reeling from his words. "Prove? Marcus, this wasn’t about you proving anything! This was about our house, our future! You took everything without asking me. How could you—"

He cut me off, his voice rising which was now laced with anger. "You’re the one who’s been controlling everything from the start! Your family’s money, your success—it’s always hanging over my head. I’m never good enough for you, am I? I can never measure up."

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He was turning this around, making himself the victim when I was the one who had been betrayed. Anger surged through me, replacing the shock and confusion.

"This is not about my family’s money!" I snapped, standing up as my body was shaking. "I have never held that over you. I’ve offered to help, to work together on our finances, on your business, but you’ve always shut me out. You never wanted me to be involved. And now look where we are. The mortgage, the failed businesses—Marcus, this isn’t just about feeling ‘good enough.’ You’ve put us in a situation where we might lose everything."

He didn’t respond. His eyes were fixed on the floor and his jaw was clenched tightly but his silence spoke volumes. He didn’t care about me. He was too wrapped up in his pride and the need to prove himself, to even see the damage he had caused.

“I’m sorry if you feel inadequate, Marcus, but this isn’t how you fix it. You don’t lie to me, you don’t take my money behind my back, and you don’t brush off my concerns like they’re nothing.”

My voice cracked and I started crying, the weight of the situation pressing down on me, making it hard to breathe. “You’ve made me feel like a stranger in my own marriage, please send her away.”

I went down on my knees and reached out to touch him but he shifted back at the last minute, sending me sprawling on the ground.

I heard stifled laughter coming from Rachel. The bitch found my situation amusing.

“Pull yourself together and stop making a spectacle of yourself. Someone seeing you cry will think a terrible harm has been done to you,” Marcus said looking down on me.

I couldn't believe what he was saying. What other word could be used to describe what he had done to me.

The tears streamed down my face harder as I got up and looked at my husband who was behaving so differently from what I was used to.

The silence stretched on, suffocating in its finality. I didn’t know what else to say, and Marcus clearly wasn’t going to offer any explanations or apologies.

He was too far gone and it was clear that he was wrapped up in Rachel and her charms.

“There's just one more thing I'll like to settle,” Marcus finally said.

“What is it?” I asked, wondering how much worse it was going to get.

“I want a divorce.”