Catherine's POV
I nervously nibbled on my lower lip as I paced the large expanse of the living room. Sighing, I glanced at the wall clock and exhaled heavily when I saw the time. It was ten minutes past nine in the evening and Alessandro was yet to come home."Excuse me, ma'am," Someone spoke from behind me, and I turned to face them.The head maid of our household, Alice, grimaced as she fiddled with her fingers."Yes, any problem?""Should I place the food in the refrigerator?" She asked, and my heart cut as a bitter realization struck me.Just like in the past, Alessandro was really going to be absent on our wedding anniversary.It wasn't just an ordinary anniversary; it was our third marriage anniversary and according to what I read on a website some years back, three was a lucky number that signified prosperity.Thus, I had gone over the top by preparing a variety of dishes that I was sure he liked.Since he rarely ate at home nowadays, I had secretly called his grandmother because he usually ate there, and she had made a list of his current favorite foods for me.Madam Anita, the heavens bless her heart was one in a million.While my mother in law loathed my existence to the core, Madam Anita loved me like her own and would often rebuke my husband on my behalf.Although I appreciated her effort, her reproaches never yielded results.If anything, they worsened the sour relationship between my husband and I.I could vividly remember how he had packed most of his belongings to where I presumed was HER place after Madam Anita gave him an earful when she found out that his first love was back in town and that they had been seeing each other for a while.As stupid as I was, I had decided to stay, instead of leaving him after finding out about his extramarital affairs.Damn, I was truly the most idiotic woman on earth.My foolish self had been too desperate to remain married and had decided to keep suffering, instead of filing a divorce.Something in me that gradually diminished as the years passed, still believed that my husband would change his ways and become the doting husband that he used to be."Ma'am Catherine," Alice's voice yanked me back to the brutal reality of my life."Y-Yeah, you were saying?" I asked, frazzled."I asked if I should place the dishes in the refrigerator to prevent them from going bad," She said. "The time is almost ten and he's still not back."Suppressing the urge to burst into tears, I inhaled sharply. "Just go to bed. I will take care of it.""I can wait here with you," She said, and I shook my head."No. You should sleep because you worked really hard today. I wouldn't have been able to prepare a platter of dishes if you weren't there with me." I forced out a smile which she returned, albeit, hers was sympathetic."You also worked hard, ma'am. I only prepared the ingredients but you made the food." She countered."Just go to bed, Alice," I gently pushed her out of the sitting room toward the stairs. "I can take care of the rest. I'm serious.""Alright then, if you say so," She still seemed reluctant to leave. "Goodnight, ma'am.""Goodnight, Alice."And with that, she climbed the stairs and was gone.Alice and the rest of the maids probably thought I was the dumbest person alive.I mean, they had witnessed almost every one of mine and my husband's fight.Even our recent fight which was the most embarrassing one ever.Like a weak bitch, I had clung onto my husband's leg while weeping for him to stay and never leave me for his first love, Laura, when he wanted to storm out of the house.I was truly a loser who relied on her husband too much.But I just couldn't help it because he was the first man to ever ask me out on a date.Throughout the nineteen years that I had spent in an orphanage, no guy had ever found me attractive.Yes, I was an orphan.According to what the governesses at the orphanage told me, they had found me in a box without clothes when I was barely a week old, crying my little lungs out.I had been in my third year of medical school while he was training to be the CEO of his family's company.A mutual friend had introduced us during a volunteer outreach.He asked me out on a coffee date some days later and subsequently, after three weeks, we started dating.The most foolish thing that I ever did and would continue to regret until the day I died, was dropping out of medical school to follow him from London to America.He had told me that a new branch of his company had been established in America and he needed to be there to manage it.It was highly unlikely that he would ever move back to London, he had divulged.And like the asinine idiot I was, I had dropped out of medical school in a heartbeat, with the assurance that I could easily transfer to another medical school, with my high grades.However, I was met with a hostile reality than I had expected when I discovered that I couldn't transfer to any medical school in America as their curriculum was completely different from that of my former medical school.A year later on my twenty-first birthday, he asked me to be his wife and I happily agreed, thinking we would live happily ever after.If only I knew that our marriage would be the start of my misery, I would have never agreed to marry him and become his housewife.The sound of footsteps approaching drifted into my ears and yanked me out of my reverie.Before I could take a step, he stormed into the house, looking livid which made my heart cut."Welcome home, Alessandro," I croaked, and he scoffed before flinging a brown envelope at me.Inhaling shakily, I picked up the envelope and gave him a confused look.“What is this?”“Divorce papers,” He snarled. “Sign it before tomorrow ends and leave my house, you fucking leech!”“It’s because of Laura, isn’t it?” I kept my gaze rooted to the floor, as tears rolled down my cheeks.“I don’t have time for your useless questions. Just sign the damn papers and leave!” He barked, before marching upstairs.With tears rolling down my cheeks, I placed the envelope on the dining table, packed all the dishes I had prepared, and placed them in the refrigerator before cleaning the dining table.Then, I headed upstairs to my bedroom with a myriad of thoughts assailing my mind.I was truly done for.Where would I go from here?Begging him not to leave me would probably worsen his temper and cause him to throw me out of the house that night.And I couldn’t have that because I had nowhere else to go.I had zero dollars in my bank account and less than $50 at hand, with a rickety phone.After his first love showed up, Alessandro started sleeping in the guest room.He had told me that my scent disgusted him and that seeing my face whenever he woke up was irritating.Some weeks ago, he had been intoxicated and had shared my bed, for the first time in almost three years.Alessandro had woken up angrier than I had ever seen him and had called me a useless leech.As if it was so wrong to have sex with his wife.After peeling off my clothes, I stepped into the bathroom to take a shower.However, I was extremely shocked to see Alessandro sitting on the bed, with an eerie grin plastered to his lips, when I came out of the bathroom."Y-You are here," I stammered, fidgeting with the straps of my bathrobe."Why do you look so shocked to see me?" He scoffed. "Have you forgotten that we are married?"Wait, what was happening? Wasn’t he the same person who hurled an envelope containing divorce papers at me? Or was I hallucinating?"I-I don’t understand," I stuttered out, and he huffed."You don’t have to,” He spat. "Come and sit on my lap."I couldn't believe my ears. "W-What?"Had something happened? Why was Alessandro acting so weird?"Fuck this," He gritted out.Before I could make out what he meant by that, he flung me on the bed.Catherine's POV "W-What are you doing, Alessandro? Please I'm not in the mood," I begged, as he loosened the belt of my bathrobe. He paid no attention to my protests and just smiled wickedly before forcing my bathrobe open, and exposing my nakedness."You are my wife and your sole duty in my life is to ensure that I'm always sexually satisfied," He spat, unbuckling his belt and getting rid of his pants.Interesting. So now, I was his wife because he was in need of a release.As much as I wanted to have the old Alessandro back, I didn't want him like that.He was a predator while I was his prey that was shivering with fear as he pried my legs open.At that moment, I realized that begging him wasn't going to do anything, so I just decided to lie down as take it.He was right.My job was to give him sex whenever he wanted whether I was in the mood for it or not.After all, I lived under his roof and he bore all my responsibilities because I was his housewife.It was my role to ensure th
Catherine's POV As soon as Alessandro left the house the next morning, I retrieved the divorce agreement and perused it.Afterward, I signed on the designated corner before placing the paperwork back into the envelope and placing it on his journal.I wanted it to be the first thing he saw the next time he decided to come home.Exhaling sharply, I gave the study one last look and made my way back to the bedroom where my empty suitcase was laying on the bed.Then, I packed the last bits of presentable clothes that I still had into the suitcase, tossed my hair into a bun and darted the mirror above the dresser a sad look before exiting the room."Are you going somewhere, ma'am?" Alice asked as I walked down the stairs with my packed luggage."Yes," I said. "I'm going far away from this place and never coming back."Alice's jaw slacked in shock. "M-Ma'am, is this a joke? Are you really leaving Sir Alessandro?""My senses have finally come back to me and I've realized just how dense I was
Catherine's POV Both the man and my ears had to be playing jokes on me.And an unfunny one at that, because how could I have lived twenty four years of my life without a mother and then suddenly have a mother now?No matter the angle I tried to see the whole situation from, it still didn't make sense."You are not saying anything, miss," Thomas said, and I huffed incredulously."Are you an organ trafficker?" I asked, because that seemed to be the only realistic explanation for the whole mess."What? I don't quite get what you're implying, Miss," He raised a puzzled brow."You target vulnerable women and approach them with this cheap lie of yours, lure them to an unknown destination, kill them, and then harvest their organs, isn't it?" I snarled. "Tell me, how long have you been gathering information about me?""I do no such thing, ma'am," He slipped a card toward me.Begrudgingly, I retracted the card from the table and my eyes gaped when I saw that he was the owner of a large restau
FIVE YEARS LATERAlessandro’s POV I heaved a sigh of despair as my eyes landed on her dress which was the only memory of her that I had left.Initially, I had wanted to burn it as I did the rest of her belongings, but something from within had restrained me from doing so, thus I had left it in the closet.Nowadays, whenever I saw it, it always awoke a mixture of misery, despondency, and fury that was directed towards myself.The universe had blessed me with the most precious jewel of inestimable value but I had been so indifferent about her and had broken her both emotionally and physically.The memory of how I had forced her to satisfy my sexual needs on the third anniversary of our marriage still haunted me every second of my wretched life.I had it all.And I literally meant it.I had several fleets of cars, five estates, abundant wealth, literally everything the average man wanted yet a hollow pit of sadness still existed in my heart.Fuck, how could I have been so cruel to a pure
FIVE YEARS LATERCatherine’s POV "Okay, so his blood pressure is now stable," I said, gazing at the waves on the heart monitor. "You did great, guys.""It's all thanks to you, doctor Williams," One of the nurses said, as she handed me a pair of tongs.Currently, I was in the midst of a major brain surgery.The patient had almost lost his life in a car crash some hours ago due to his reckless driving.Thankfully, the surgery was a success but I would make sure to give him a strict warning when he woke up."I will leave the rest to you guys, then," I said, placing the forceps on the instrument table.Afterward, I headed out of the theater where the mother of the patient was waiting and dumped my surgery outfit into the trash can.I was now clad in just a pair of teal scrubs.The poor woman looked exhausted and her eyes were as red as cherry, probably because she had been crying ever since her son was rushed in here."Doctor Williams!" She shot up from her seat and sprinted up to me. "H
Alessandro’s POV "Welcome, dear," Grandma grinned, as I embraced her in a warm hug."You look radiant, ma. The ever gorgeous beauty of Santos Island," I grinned, when we broke the hug."Oh, please, dear," She scoffed, but giggled anyway. "It's so nice seeing you again. You know I was thinking; what if I never get to see my Alessandro's children before I pass on?"“Stop thinking like that, ma.” I chided her, and she just gave me a bored look, as we both headed into the dining room, where my mother was sitting and already plating her own food.Upon seeing Grandma and I, she darted us a smile before averting her focus back to her food.You see, Grandma had finished her last dose of chemotherapy a week ago, after undergoing a brain tumor removal surgery a month back.We had all been scared when her neurologist told us that her tumor could metastasize as cancer into her liver and other vital organs.Thankfully, that didn't happen and now, she was up and active on both feet, without the ai
Catherine’s POV "Mummy, we are in America!" Liam squealed, as he bounced down the stairs of the helicopter, with Mr Thomas following closely behind him."Be careful, sweetie," I sighed, tightly holding onto Leo who seemed wary of his new surroundings."This place is strange and hot," Leo muttered. "I don't like America. When are we going back to Canda, mummy?""Soon," I lied, knowing fully well that I had signed a contract to be a neurosurgeon at the America branch for one year, at least."Really soon or far soon?" He scrutinized my expression as if trying to deduce an ounce of lie on my face."Soon soon, baby," I lied again, just as three bald burly men that were identically dressed in black suits and dark sunshades trekked up to us."Welcome to America, ma'am," They bowed in unison to me before collecting our luggage and turning to Mr Thomas."It's been a while, sir," They said to him, and he nodded."It sure has," He said. "Take the luggage to the car. How many cars did you bring?
Alessandro’s POV "Do you care for a drink?" I asked my best friend, Ethan, as he plopped onto one of the sofas in my study."Yes, please. Do you have Brandy?" I shook my head in disapproval. "I thought your doctor told you to quit drinking alcohol because of your reoccurring cirrhosis."Ethan waved me off. "She doesn't know what she's talking about. Alcohol is the only thing that makes me feel alive nowadays. Chloe has taken my children to heaven knows where and the court is refusing to grant me joint custody of them."His wife divorced him three years ago due to his frequent abuse of alcohol and how it was causing their marriage to fall apart.It was quite saddening to see Ethan in such a vulnerable state nowadays.Him and I went way back since kindergarten. As we were both heirs from wealthy families, we had gradually bonded and became best of friends.Ethan was even part of the people that had criticized me for maltreating Catherine after the divorce and because of that, we had