chapter 3

Sonia's POV

"Sonia was never pregnant." He blurted out, coldly, "The child was the only reason why I accepted to marry her when mother was forcing me. I found out later that she lied about being pregnant just to have me marry her." His voice was cold, cruel, and filled with bitterness.

"I knew it. I knew she was up to no good but It's okay, my love. Everything will be fine now that I'm back." Celine replied.

My blood went cold, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I sat frozen on the bed, my hand trembling as I listened.

Ethan thought I lied about being pregnant just to have him marry me? How could he think of that? Was that the reason why he started acting cold towards me after my miscarriage?

No, I can't believe this.

My breath caught in my throat as I remembered that terrible day, the day my whole world collapsed.

I had been so happy, so full of hope. The child growing inside me had been the one thing that gave me purpose in this hollow marriage. But all that changed when I fell down the stairs. I hadn’t meant to fall—I didn’t even see what had tripped me. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the cold floor, pain radiating through my body, my heart pounding in terror. I had known, even before the doctor confirmed it, that my baby was gone.

I could still remember the look on Ethan’s face when the doctor told us I had lost our child… it was as though something in him had died too. But instead of grief, what replaced it was anger and resentment.

I was shattered and broken. For days, I didn't see Ethan. He let me go through the grief of losing our child alone. He didn't call or pick up my calls for weeks. I thought his sudden change in attitude was a result of losing our child. I thought he was going through the pain of losing our child and he needed time to heal but when he returned, it was as if I was staring at a different person. He looked at me coldly, his eyes devoid of any emotion and he never cared about me ever since then.

So, he thought I lied about my pregnancy? like I never had a miscarriage?

Hearing him now, openly blaming me for something that had already shattered me beyond repair, felt like the final blow.

My heart was shattered and I felt like a thousand arrows had been pierced into it. I couldn’t listen anymore. I couldn't continue to listen to his cruel accusations.

I turned off the phone, my heart heavy with grief and betrayal as tears fell down my cheeks.

"Ma'am, you have to calm down. I believe there must be a mistake somewhere."

Gloria tried to comfort me but all her words went into a deaf ear as I was still struggling to process what I just heard.

"Thank you, Gloria. You may leave." My voice came out in a whisper. I didn't want her to see me like this. I have always tried to be strong all these years and I didn't want her to see me weak and broken.

She stood up and gazed at me with sympathy before leaving.

I can't hold back anymore and for the first time since I married Ethan, I broke down and cried like a child. My heart was suffocating, burning like fire and making breathing difficult for me.

After everything that happened, I came to realize one thing.

I can't make this marriage work. Not when Ethan saw me as a manipulator and a lier. Not when his heart still belongs to his ex.

After crying my eyes out for hours, I stood up and glanced around the room we used to share, though it had long stopped feeling like ours. I stared at the divorce paper that was on the bedside table and picked it up with a heavy heart.

It hurts but I have to do this.

I haven't opened it since Ethan gave it to me. Now that I have made up my mind to sign it, I decided to read it.

It was stated that, for signing the divorce paper, I would be getting ten million dollars as compensation.

"He thought my love for him was just ten million dollars?" I chuckled. He must have really thought that I married him because of his money.

Ethan had already signed them. His signature was neat, emotionless, as though he just signed a contract, another business deal.

I haven't signed mine yet, because I was still clinging to some foolish hope that maybe, just maybe, there was something left to save. But after hearing him on that call, I knew there was nothing left.

I will sign it but I don't need a penny from him. The ten million can not replace all the years of pain and heartbreak I went through. It can't mend my broken heart.

I'm glad he didn't know about our baby, the little life growing inside of me because it's my baby now, only mine.

With trembling hands, I picked up the pen. Tears blurred my vision as I scrawled my name across the paper, sealing the end of what had once been a marriage, though now it felt like it had only ever been an illusion.

I sat there for a long time, just staring at my signature. It felt so final, so irreversible. I thought back to the beginning, to the days when I had believed that we could make this work. That maybe, with time, Ethan would learn to love me the way I had loved him. But now I realized that, that hope had died long ago even before he started asking for a divorce.

I carefully laid down the divorce paper in the middle of the bed. Then, I pulled out the ring on my finger and placed it on top of the paper. The ring I never thought I would ever remove from my finger.

I stood up, wiped the tears from my cheeks, and began to move around the house. It was quiet—too quiet. The mansion that had once felt so grand, now felt suffocating to me, like a prison I needed to escape. I went from room to room, cleaning each space as if I could somehow scrub away the memories of the life we had shared.

I was glad that Tina wasn't around, making my work easier for me.

"Ma'am, please, let me help you with that." Gloria offered as she saw me cleaning the whole house.

"Don't worry, I can do this," I whispered with a smile.

I needed to do this myself, to erase all the memories I had created with Ethan.

I took down every painting and every photograph that had once adorned the walls. I couldn’t leave any trace of myself here. It was as if I had never belonged in this house, not really. I had tried to make it a home, but it had always been his, never ours.

After that, I went back to my room to pack my things. I packed only what I had come with. There wasn’t much, just a few clothes, and some personal belongings that had never quite found a place in Ethan’s world. Everything else, everything I had tried to build here, I left behind. They were just things, after all, and none of them held any meaning now.

As I zipped up my suitcase, I paused, looking around the room one last time. It was empty now, stripped bare, much like my heart. The weight of the divorce papers felt heavier than anything I carried with me, pressing down on me with every step I took.

When I reached the front door, I hesitated. Leaving this house felt like closing a chapter of my life that I wasn’t ready to let go of. But I knew I had no choice. I couldn’t stay here, not with the memories that haunted every corner. Not with the knowledge that Ethan had already moved on while I was still trapped in the past.

I stepped outside, the cool air hitting my face like a reminder that the world was still moving even if I felt stuck.

I closed the door softly behind me, but in my heart, it felt like a slam. The sound of finality, the sound of an ending.

I walked down the driveway, each step heavier than the last. The house faded behind me, but the pain lingered, clinging to me like a second skin. I had given everything to this marriage, but in the end, it hadn’t been enough.

As I reached the gate, I stopped, looking back one last time. The mansion stood there, tall and imposing, but to me, it felt small now. It wasn’t my home anymore. It never had been.

With a heavy heart, I turned away and walked into the unknown, unsure of where I was going, but knowing that anywhere would be better than the place where my heart had been broken over and over again.

And as I left, there was only one thing ringing in my head. I have to live for my child. I have to go far away from Ethan, where I will raise my child alone with love and happiness.