Chapter Three

PRISCILLA’S POV

His sentence slapped me across the face like a lash.

“What did you say?” I asked in a whisper, unwilling and unable to believe what he had just said.

“You heard me, ” he said coldly, “Divorce or I show the whole world the kind of woman that you are.”

I saw Pamela send me a smirk of victory behind Brent's back and I immediately knew that this was her doing. This was all her plans — what she wanted. My heart squeezed in pain at her victory.

“Brent, are you really going to divorce me because of these lies?”

“Because of your lying and cheating nature. I want nothing to do with a woman who won't think twice before sleeping with her ex.”

I stared at him for a few seconds. Then at the papers. This was it. I had lost. He hadn't believed in the end. Knowing that crying and pleading would no longer do me any good, I wiped my tears and stood a little straighter. Henceforth, I would no longer let any of them see my tears. I was done.

“I'll sign the papers.”

“Good, but not only that,” he said. “My company's shares in your brand will be withdrawn.”

“No! I won't allow it, Brent! Please!”

“Then get ready to be exposed.”

“Brent, please, anything but that! I beg you!”

His company had fifty percent shares of my brand and if they withdrew it now, it would ruin my brand and take me back to square zero. My other investors would no doubt withdraw their investments when they learned that the Kingston Group no longer backed my brand.

I would be left with nothing.

I went down on my knees. “Brent, please. I beg you.”

He ground his jaw together. “Sign the papers and get out. I never want to see you again. You should be thankful I want you out of my life peacefully. Now sign the papers and get out before I change my mind!”

It seemed begging would do nothing. I stood up and took the pen and as I placed it on the paper, I paused and turned to him,

“I'll warn you this once, Brenton. Pamela isn't who you think she is. She's only here for what you have to offer. Nothing more.”

“Let me worry about that, so why don't you shut your mouth and sign the papers?!”

Silently, I did as asked and put my signature on the papers.

“Good,” he said. “I also want you to sell the rest of your shares to me. That way, you will have some money to start your life all over again. Either that or I withdraw my company's shares. And you know the repercussions for that.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. He wanted to erase me completely from his mind and heart. But not this way. Not with the business I spent years building.

“Brent, no.”

At my pleading and the fear in my voice, he smiled a malevolent twisty thing.

“You should be merciful that I'm giving you this option. And I advise you to take it because if you don't, I'll make sure no investors or fashion brand ever works with you again.”

He wasn't bluffing, I knew. He had the power and influence to ruin me, and I knew he would do it if I didn't comply with his request. He had enough hatred for me.

“I—”

“Name your price,” he said with steel in his voice, cutting me off.

I sighed. There was nothing to do anymore. Pamela had won. She had succeeded in turning my husband's heart completely against me.

“I'll sell it,” I told Benton. It was time to cut my losses and move on.

“Name your price.”

I mentioned the amount to him and he brought out his phone. After a few taps on it, I heard a ding on my phone on the stool by the door.

It was done. My life here with him was over.

“I want you gone from this house before I return,”

With that, he shoved past me for the door, Pamela following behind, but not before she gave me a triumphant smile.

As I heard the sound of the car revving away, a few tears squeezed past my eyelids but I quickly wiped them away. This wasn't the time for tears.

****

I packed as much as I could and within an hour, I was outside the house.

I stood for a while outside the door, my brain unable to process the event of the last few hours.

I was divorced from Brent. Separated. No longer together. And I would be raising my child as a single parent.

This was a turn of events I would never have thought of in my life.

It had begun just like any normal day. I had gone to the hospital to go for a checkup after an appointment with the doctor. The checkup revealed that I was pregnant for a month. I had been happy for the new life growing inside me and I had been even more thrilled to share the news with Brent. I had wondered what his reaction would be like. Surely, he couldn't say no to a child, would he? And what sort of a father would he be, I had wondered.

But I had gotten home to meet my husband and his ex-lover on our matrimonial bed, having sex. I had left home and returned, expecting an apology or even denial that he had cheated, but the tables were turned instead and I was suddenly the cheat.

These thoughts kept rampaging through my mind as I stood there and let the rain wash over me, but I also knew it was time to make a decision. I had to figure out what my next move would be.

I had no one else to go to. I was all on my own once again.

Then I would leave for somewhere new.

That was what I would do. I will travel out of this country and I would start afresh. I had done it before. I could do it again.