*Prologue 2*

Kathleen kept watching Ryker’s face while he deepened the stare to show her the seriousness in his words. He wasn’t only threatening her this time; he was done with her.

“But I am your wife,” Kathleen tried to raise her voice but instead it came out like a broken whisper. Her eyes formed big tears, which she blinked quickly to stream down so that she wouldn’t miss a single detail of his expressions.

“Which will change very soon when I will throw the divorce papers at your face,” Ryker muttered in hatred, there was no affection left in his eyes for Kathleen. It was hard for her to see so much resentment towards her by Ryker, the man who she fell in love with, the man who married her, the man she has a beautiful son with.

“Don’t act all innocent. I lost all the feelings that ever existed for you when I saw a man dropping you off in the middle of the night from your workplace.” The intensity of Ryker’s scream was so loud that she instantly shut her eyes in fear and terror. She badly wanted to tell him that how could he blame her for something so small when he had been having an extramarital affair himself.

“I was being chased by some people an---d and then he helped me,” She sobbed in the middle but quickly reclaimed her posture as Ryker was getting angrier with her sobs.

“I don’t care, Kathleen, it’s over.” He bent down to her level and shouted at her face. Kathleen lowered her eyes from watching his face and sniffled silently.

“What about our son? Our Juan?” she was shaking miserably while asking Ryker the question she dreaded to hear the answer for.

“Oh! Now you remember your baby? Forget about him. You are never seeing him ever again.” He turned his face to the side and scoffed, “Besides, Juan will have Eloise by his side, she will make a better mother for him.” As he announced, Eloise let out a sigh of relief and smiled gently.

“But I gave him birth, how could you steal everything from me, Ryker?” Kathleen couldn’t hold back anymore.

The audacity of this man to ruin her entire life and then move on like whatever he had with Kathleen meant nothing was playing with her mind.

“My entire family left me because of you, my own brother, the brother I did so much for believed Scarlet over me and you---,” she raised her eyes and big tears streamed down her cheeks, “You broke the last bit of me.” It was heartbreaking for Kathleen how everybody wanted her to make them her priority while nobody wanted to even add her to their priority list. She got used and tossed aside like her existence meant nothing to anyone. And then there was Ryker, they had such a strong love together, she could swear that she had seen only herself in his eyes, but that too changed.

“Maybe now you should think why? Don’t you think you are doing something wrong that nobody wants you around?” Eloise came forward from behind Ryker with her arms folded across her chest and a fake concern on her face.

“You are the one to say? What do you even know about me?” Kathleen was done with people judging her when they didn’t even know anything of her. She lunged at Eloise to push her out of her way when Ryker dashed past her and grasped Kathleen’s wrist, shoving her back which made Kathleen trip and fall down on the floor.

“Don’t ever try to touch her again, she is not someone like you Kathleen, she holds a reputable place in society and a very special place in my heart,” Ryker came forward and pointed his finger at Kathleen, who was still in shock at what had just happened.

This man who had promised her that no harm will ever come her way hurt her for another woman.

“She slapped me last night!” Kathleen’s eyes had big tears in them as she innocently mumbled while not looking away from Ryker. Somewhere, her innocent heart thought Ryker will warn Eloise the same way to not hurt Kathleen again, his Kathleen again.

But all her dreams withered away when Ryker rolled his eyes and scoffed, “that is your personal matter with her.” He muttered, showing no care.

“She pushed me the other day and was rude to me,” Kathleen, for a moment, had completely lost her way. She didn’t hear what they said, her focus was on Ryker, he will defend her right?

“Kathleen! Grow up. He doesn’t care, why are you so desperate for his attention?” Eloise, who didn’t like Kathleen lunging at her, took the opportunity to mock Kathleen.

“Eloise, come to my room with Juan, he will be with us tonight.” Ryker declared and gestured at Eloise to pick up the baby when it was Kathleen’s day to keep the baby with her.

“No! it’s my --,” Kathleen tried to get a hold of her emotions to leap onto her feet when Eloise shoved her to the side and sprinted out of the room with the baby. Ryker instantly blocked Kathleen from touching or even going after Eloise by blocking Kathleen’s way.

“Well, this is your value.” Ryker smirked at Kathleen’s condition, she looked all broken and distorted, “I showered a tiny bit of fake love to you and you fell in love with me,” he almost scoffed at her stupidity.

“Fake love? That wasn’t fake love.” Kathleen was about to let out a cry but the satisfaction on Ryker’s face to crush her feelings and soul under his feet stopped her from showing him how miserable she was.

“Think what you wanna think. I never gave you the place of my wife. Remember the day we got married and I left for somewhere?” he asked, making Kathleen walk closer to him so that she could stare him in the eye with a broken stare, “I was sleeping with someone every night,” he felt pleasure when Kathleen closed her eyes once heartbreak hit her, “Guess who I slept with?” he uttered while bending down to her, “Your ex-best friend, the girl who stole your crush, the girl who crushed you, Meesha!” the mention of her name made Kathleen turn her face to him in shock and her lips parted to let out a gasp.

“Meesha?” she whispered under her breath and once he nodded, anger rushed through her entire body, “How dare you!” she shouted, raising her hand at him but he was quick enough to prevent the hit and after grasping her by her arms, he shook her body.

“Don’t you ever make that mistake again?” He shouted at her face while she sobbed loudly.

“You slept with her? Ryker, she was the reason behind my destruction, she stole everything from me and then I ended up being a stripper by force, how could---you---do this to me?” Kathleen cried loudly this time, she never thought he would go this far to hurt her. Meesha had been nothing but a curse to Kathleen, that’s why Meesha kept mocking Kathleen, making fun of her because her husband was pleasing her.

“And that’s why you should know, I don’t care about what you think Kathleen, I don’t.” he pulled her closer to his chest and whispered in her ear fiercely.

And just like that, not only did he leave her completely shattered but now she wasn’t even allowed to hold her own son because Ryker’s mistress wanted Juan.