When My Husband's Ex Returned, He Kicked Me Out of the House

She glanced around the room, and her gaze finally landed on the cake with “Our Anniversary” written on it.

“Just slipped out after an event. Haven’t eaten yet. You don’t mind, do you?” she said lightly.

Before either of us could speak, she had already taken the knife and sliced the whole cake cleanly in half.

I looked over at Desmond. He didn’t stop Seraphina.

Seraphina wasn’t here for cake. She tilted her head, voice soft. “Tell me, if I hadn’t left back then… would the one sitting here celebrating our anniversary with you be me?”

She looked like she was drowning in regret. She was clearly talking to Desmond, but her eyes never left my face.

“Seraphina, stop it,” Desmond said, sounding helpless, as if he never knew how to deal with her.

I laughed bitterly to myself.

His words only encouraged her. She pushed even further. No wonder she was an actress—her tears came on cue.

She cried as she reminisced about her past with Desmond, insisting she wanted to drink the wine sitting in front of him.

Desmond stopped her hand. “You’re allergic to alcohol,” he blurted out.

The moment the words left his mouth, he froze, then lifted his eyes to look at me.

I went still, then let out a bleak little laugh. “You remember that so clearly.”

Our wedding anniversary he could forget. Seraphina’s alcohol allergy, he never did.

Desmond looked like he wanted to say something to me, but in the end his attention was pulled back to Seraphina.

She covered her mouth, feigning surprise. “So many years have passed, and you still remember I’m allergic to alcohol.”

I had to admit, she got exactly what she wanted. Just sitting here, I was humiliating myself.

I set my fork down. “Miss Hale, there’s no need to be so impatient. Desmond and I aren’t divorced yet. If you want to pick things up where you left off, at least wait until we are. Do you really need to rush to be the mistress?”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I caught Desmond frown, displeased.

What was he unhappy about? That I’d called Seraphina a mistress?

“You’re the mistress,” Seraphina snapped, my words hitting right where it hurt.

“Rosalind Foley, Desmond was mine to begin with. If I hadn’t left back then, how the hell would you ever have married him?”

She wasn’t wrong. It was the truth. Still, I couldn’t help glancing at Desmond.

He didn’t react to what she said. It didn’t seem to matter to him.

Disappointment washed over me yet again. “Miss Hale, you said it yourself—that was in the past. Right now, I’m still Desmond’s wife.”

“You’re so eager to take my place? At least wait until Desmond and I are divorced.”

“Big star that you are, you don’t want to be known as the homewrecker mistress, do you?”

My voice rose with every sentence. When I finished, I pushed my chair back and stood up. I didn’t care how either of them reacted—I didn’t want to stay in that room a second longer.

The night wind outside cut straight through me, making me shiver as I stood by the side of the road. Desmond didn’t come after me.

He didn’t come home until very late. He stopped by the bed, the cloying sweetness of someone else’s perfume clinging to him.

“Don’t overthink it. There’s no way this is going to work out,” he said.

When I didn’t stir, he turned and went into the bathroom.

No way this is going to work out—meaning not that he didn’t like me, but that we had no future.

I didn’t open my eyes. I lay there, silent, swallowing my sobs as the tears slid down.

After that night, I didn’t speak to Desmond for days. Or rather, I gave him the cold shoulder on my own. Desmond didn’t seem to care either way.

From the moment Seraphina came back, I knew this was where Desmond and I would end up. That was when I started rethinking our marriage.