Chapter-6

Kara’s POV.

Derrick stared at me in horror, eyes wide with disbelief. It was the opposite of what I expected. I didn’t know he’d be shocked; I thought he’d be smug. I’d be giving what he wanted, anyway.

The surprise only lasted a moment before Derrick grew livid. Within moments, he moved from across the room to right in front of me and grabbed my arm. His grip was hard as if it were made from steel, and the wrath in his eyes was frightening.

“You have no right to demand a divorce from me,” he spat through gritted teeth, making spittle land on my face. “You’re going to stay by my side forever, and serve me until your pathetic, useless life ends, do you understand?!”

His grip was too tight, and pain shot up from my wrist. Behind me, the nurse was panicking while Derrick’s assistant was doing her best to keep her from calling the police on us. 

“Let me go!” I demanded, trying not to yell. “Let me go, right now, Derrick, before I do something I regret.”

“Something you regret? I’d love to see you try,” Derick mocked me, his voice called. “You’re nothing compared to me, and you’ll always be like that. You’re bound to me now, worthless and entirely dependent on me. You’re only fit to be slave for me for the rest of your life!”

At those words, I saw red.

My hand rose without me even thinking about it, and a loud crack! echoed through the room. When the scarlet tinge of my vision cleared, I saw Derrick’s reddened cheek and realized that I’d slapped him across his face.

Hard.

I stepped back, taking advantage of the shock to make him let my arm go. That moment was enough to bring him back to life.

“Why, you-” he started, advancing toward me with his arm raised. But before he could hit me, his assistant jumped in between us, a firm glare on her face.

“Mr. Whitney, you cannot do that. We need to leave to the company right this second, there’s been a work emergency!” Derrick’s personal assistant chose that moment to intervene before Derrick got himself in a lawsuit. “Please, Mr. Whitney, let’s solve this at home, not here. We cannot have this escalate.”

I didn’t think it would be possible to stop Derrick, but somehow the assistant managed it. She started to not so subtly push him towards the exit, calling out apologies for both me and the nurse and promising that this was all a huge misunderstanding.

Yeah, right.

“Fine, fine, I’m leaving,” he snapped at her, before turning his attention back to me, dark eyes pinning me in place as if I were an insect beneath him. “Know your place, Kara. Don’t think you can act however you want, and I’ll take it lying down. Know your goddamn limits. If I catch you ignoring my calls again, I will freeze all your cards. You won’t be able to do anything. You’re nothing without me!”

With that, he left, the assistant in tow.

“God, what a vile man,” the nurse shuddered. “You should’ve allowed me to call in security at least, ma’am. That man is clearly abusive.”

“I’ll take care of it,” I assured her dully, replaying Derrick’s words in my head.

Freezing all my cards. Now, I knew what he really thought of me. If his first instinct was to threaten my finances to keep me in line before everything else, he clearly thought that I was with him for the money. In his eyes, I was nothing but a gold digger.

Which was not true. I didn’t care for his money at all; in fact, I rarely used it on myself. I was frugal, and using Derrick’s money didn’t feel right, despite the fact that he had millions of it.

Still, that didn’t matter. There was no use trying to convince Derrick of anything else.

Nor did I care to. Why should I explain myself to a man who thought I only lived to be his subservient slave-wife?

Screw him.

“Oh, hon,” the nurse cooed, and a wad of tissues appeared right on my hand. “Don’t cry over a man like that, it’s not worth it.”

I blinked at her, suddenly realizing that I was crying. I didn’t even notice it before. Derrick’s words seemed to have hurt me after all, even though I thought I had long since grown immune to them. But there were echoes of my past love for Derrick still present in my head, remnants of hope that dwindled through the years of our marriage. I wondered how long it would take for those remnants to die away completely.

“Get away from him, honey,” the nurse went on to say. “He’s a scoundrel, don’t waste your tears on a scoundrel like him. You’re young still, and so beautiful. You’re a total catch, Miss. Hatchett, you can have any man you want, and someone who deserves your affection. Don’t let his words get you down. I may not know you at all, but from what I’ve seen I can say for certain that if there’s anyone worthless in this relationship, it’s not you.”

Hot tears collected in my eyes again.

“Thank you,” I told her, as genuine as I could get, because it’s been so long since I received any kind of praise like that. Ever since I married Derrick, all I’ve been hearing is about how I didn’t deserve him. Everyone saw me as a desperate, money-hungry girl salivating after him, an airhead whose only virtue was her looks. Even my looks got criticized. They said I looked too plastic, too basic, too much like a try-hard. Nothing I did was ever good enough.

But it hadn’t been like that before. Once, I was seen as my own person.

For the first time since I became a wife, I was looking forward to something. And that was divorce. Because after my divorce, I’d be able to reclaim myself, to get away from Derick and show me just how much control he actually had on me.

I could focus on my career and have a new life.

“Thank you,” I told the nurse, and smiled at her. “You’re right. I shouldn’t let him ruin my life any longer. I’m going to leave him as soon as I can. Let’s see who’s going to win then.”