Chapter 2

MELISSA'S POV

I gasp for air, reaching for the glass of water in front of me, but my fingers fumble and knock it over. Before I can fully process what's happening, Listowel is on his feet, moving with that effortless grace of his, pouring another glass and handing it to me.

"Here, take a sip," he said and tried helping me with it. I snatched the glass from his hands and without thinking twice, gulped the whole water down.

Why is he acting caring when he just shattered my heart? Isn't he the reason I was in this state?

He watches as I drink, the expression on his face unreadable.

The water soothes the burning in my throat, but it does nothing to ease the sudden tightness in my chest. Finally, able to calm myself, I looked up at him and asked with a shaky voice.

"What... what did you mean by that, Listowel? About it being time to get divorced?" My knees wobbled underneath the table, but I held them back to maintain composure, waiting for an answer that made sense.

He looks down at me, his eyes gradually becoming unfamiliar. "Melissa, our marriage has always been just a contract," he said indifferently as if he were discussing the weather. "It was never real. You know that."

Once more, his words coursed pain through my body, shattering especially my heart into a thousand pieces. I stared at him in disbelief, trying to find a hint of the man I thought I knew, the man I thought loved me. But his face remained unchanged, cold and indifferent.

As if on cue, his phone rings, breaking the unbearable silence that had settled between us.

Listowell glances at the screen, a slight frown forming on his face before he dismisses it. He leans down and presses a kiss to my cheek as if everything he just said was of no consequence. "I have to take this," he said, leaving no room for further talks. And then, just like that, without another word, he turned and walked out of the room, leaving me sitting there, dumbfounded and confused.

For a moment, I couldn't move, couldn't think. It felt like the ground beneath has been ripped apart, ready to swallow me whole. The memories of our time together flooded my mind, as I desperately tried to weave together how we ended up here.

I close my eyes, and I’m back to the beginning, the night we first met. It was supposed to be just a one-night stand, a reckless decision I made after too many drinks and a desire to forget my troubles. But it turned into something more. At least, I thought it had.

I remember how he looked at me that morning, the way his eyes softened when he asked me to stay, to be his wife. I remember the flutter of excitement, the disbelief that someone like him would want someone like me. He had said he needed me, that he couldn’t do it alone. He had promised to clear all my debt and so he did.

But after 12 months, which was the agreement, he never brought up divorce, nor did he show any signs of us ending things. I had fallen in love with him. I had convinced myself that he must have loved me, or else why would he come back home to me every day? Why would he keep me by his side all these years even when the contract ended two years ago?

But now, as I sit here alone in our kitchen, the truth plays before me like a cruel joke. Was I nothing more than a convenient distraction, a tool he used to pass the time until something better came along? Did he see me as nothing more than a commodity, something he could buy and discard when it no longer served his purpose?

I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe that the man I thought I loved, the man I thought loved me, could be so heartless to do this.

I waited for him to come back, to explain, to tell me that he didn’t mean it, that it was all a misunderstanding. But he didn't come home that night. Or the next. Or the next.

As each day that passes, my hopes subside, I try calling him, but he doesn’t pick up. I left several messages, begging him to come home, to talk to me, to tell me what’s going on. But there’s no response.

I barely ate, barely slept. I’m consumed by the need for answers, the need to understand how everything went so wrong. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that maybe I never really knew him at all.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and then, like a slap in my face, the news broke. I was sitting on the couch, flipping through channels aimlessly, when I saw it. His name, beside hers.

The words on the screen blurred as tears filled my eyes. 'Listowell Gordon To Tie The Knot With His Long Distance Girlfriend, Wendy Maccini.'

Oh, so this is it. So it was true. It is finally happening, my heart shatters into a million pieces as I realize the depth of his betrayal. He didn’t just leave me. He left me for her. And he didn’t even have the decency to tell me to my face.

I couldn't breathe. The walls closed in around me, suffocating me with the weight of my sorrow and anger. I trusted him. I loved him. And this is how he repays me? By casting me aside like I’m nothing, like a commodity he could discard off anytime?

I cried out in anger and pain. It feels like my whole world is collapsing around me, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. The man I thought I knew is gone, replaced by a stranger who never cared about me at all.

The tears come then, hot and fast, streaming down my face as I curled up on the floor, my body shaking with sobs. I cry for everything I’ve lost, for the life I thought I had, for the love that was never real.

But as the tears finally subsided, I made up my mind.. I won’t let him destroy me. I won’t let him take away everything I’ve worked for, everything I’ve built.