After Seven Years of Loving You, I Choose Myself

I shoved the door open. My whole body was shaking.

Warren hung up the phone and looked at me. Not a flicker of guilt in his eyes.

"The blessing charm?"

I raised my hand and held it out to him. He took it without ceremony and gave me a satisfied smile.

Then he turned and walked out, fastening it gently around Georgina's waist, his voice dripping with tenderness.

"Wear this, and you won't have nightmares anymore."

Georgina nodded happily and cast a victor's smile in my direction.

I couldn't stand watching them wrapped up in each other a second longer. I turned to leave, but Warren called after me.

"Eudora, move out of the master bedroom. Georgie's pregnant and fragile. The master bedroom gets the best sunlight. It's the most suitable place for her to rest."

I looked up at him. The pain in my chest had gone past hurting into something numb and hollow.

"Fine."

I went straight to pack. Everything connected to Warren went into a box.

Our photos together. The love letters I'd written him. Our wedding album.

I looked at all of it and felt nothing. I pulled out a lighter and tossed it in. The flame caught instantly, licking across every object that had once held the whole of my love and sincerity, reducing them to ash.

A soft laugh came from behind me. Georgina was standing in the doorway. I didn't know how long she'd been there. Her smile was radiant and venomous at the same time.

"Eudora Fox, you really are pathetic. You trailed after him like a dog for years, and in the end, you still couldn't measure up to me."

I looked at her gloating face and said nothing.

Hurried footsteps. Warren had smelled the burning and come upstairs.

The moment he saw what was in the flames, his face went white with fury. He crossed the room in two strides, seized my wrist, his voice shaking.

"Eudora Fox, you actually dared to burn these?"

Then he let out a cold, scornful laugh. "Are you done with the theatrics? Burning all this to guilt-trip me into going soft?"

I lowered my eyes. My voice was flat. No rise, no fall.

"They're all useless things anyway."

"Get out!" he snarled. "Get to the servants' quarters."

"Fine."

I dragged my suitcase behind me, spine straight, and walked to the servants' quarters.

The whole night, the hard mattress dug into my bones. Cold air knifed through the gaps in the window.

My lower abdomen seized and cramped where the procedure had been. My entire body was ice-cold, and I couldn't stop trembling from the pain.

I held on until dawn. I forced my weakened body upright, opened my phone, and saw that the trending page had exploded.

#EudoraFoxAndWarrenStephensTogetherForYears#

#GeorginaPruittIsTheRealHomewrecker#

The trending feeds were flooded with evidence of my relationship with Warren. Someone had even tracked down our wedding venue.

Every last piece of it proved that he and I had been in love for years, and that Georgina, who'd suddenly returned from abroad, was the one who'd inserted herself between us.

The door was kicked open. Warren stormed in, his face black with rage.

"Eudora Fox, you really are as vicious as you've always been. You got Georgie cyberbullied. If anything happens to her, I won't let you off."

I curved my lips. "Are you saying it isn't true?"

That pushed him over the edge. Something violent churned in his eyes, and he closed the distance between us in long, heavy strides.

Without a word, he pinned me down on the bed and crushed his mouth against mine. Rough. Frenzied.

He tore at my clothes, breathing hard.

"You're jealous that she's carrying my child, is that it? Fine. We'll have one too."

He was about to force himself in. In desperation, I bit down on his lip as hard as I could. The taste of blood flooded my mouth instantly.

"You disgust me."

He recoiled from the pain, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. His eyes were terrifyingly dark.

"I disgust you?"

"Yes." I was panting. "You're filthy."

He laughed out loud, gripped my chin, and forced me to look into his eyes. Every word was a blade.

"Eudora Fox, haven't I already made you filthy too? I know every sensitive spot on your body. Don't ever dream of leaving me. No one else in this world would want you."

I held back the tears surging behind my eyes and stared at him, unmoving. Cold. Hollowed out.

His gaze dropped suddenly to the scar on my lower abdomen. Something trembled in his pupils.

I'd gotten that scar years ago, taking a knife meant for him. The doctor had said the wound was too deep; it had damaged my uterus. Getting pregnant in the future would be very difficult.

His pupils contracted sharply. For a fraction of a second, something shifted in his expression. A flash of panic. A thread of something raw and bitter.

But he crushed it down by force. He looked away, and every word he spoke was designed to destroy.

"Cover up your scar. Are you keeping it on display to remind me how much you've sacrificed? So I'll be grateful and obedient to you forever?"

"Face reality. You're the one who can't leave me. Everyone in Northbank knows I've used you up. No one else would want you."

The words landed, and my tears fell with them. I lifted my head, met his eyes, and smiled. It was a wrecked, unhinged smile.

"Yes, Warren. There was a time I truly believed I couldn't live without you."

He looked down at me from above.

"I'll ask you one last time. You really won't issue a denial?"

"No."

Warren let out a cold laugh. "Good. Don't blame me for showing no mercy."