Five Years Gone, Now Watch Me Destroy You

Blair. The senator's daughter. The key he would use to legitimize his family and ascend into the "proper" world.

So, I had paved a "brighter" future for him with the blood of my own family.

An invisible hand seemed to clench around my heart, squeezing the air from my lungs.

"So, that's it?" My voice trembled, my nails digging into my palms. "You're just... annulling our marriage?"

He avoided my gaze, his voice stiff and cold. "This was always the plan. Alessia, you knew our marriage was a contract. The contract is now fulfilled."

"You were a pawn. A peace hostage. As long as your family held any power, I had to keep you by my side to appease the old guard."

"I was good to you for five years to ensure your obedience, to make you and your foolish family believe in this ridiculous alliance."

Every word was a cold blade, twisting deeper into my heart.

Five years. All those days and nights, all the possessive tenderness and domineering affection—it all became a colossal joke in an instant.

I fought back the tears, pulling the slightly crumpled pregnancy report from my clutch. I held it out to him, a desperate, humble offering.

"Colin, look... I'm pregnant... It's our child..."

Colin's expression froze. He stared at the paper, a flicker of panic in his eyes before it was swallowed by an even deeper coldness.

He snatched the report from my hand, glanced at it, and crumpled it into a tight ball.

Then, I heard the cruelest words of my life.

"Get rid of it."

He looked down at me, his eyes as hard and cold as stone, devoid of emotion.

"This is a critical time for the Morton family's transition. This child is an ill-timed complication."

"A complication? A problem?"

A soft, broken laugh escaped my lips—a desolate sound, like a rusty blade scraping against my heart.

Tears finally streamed down my face, mingling with my makeup in a pathetic ruin.

Colin's brows furrowed, a flash of impatience on his face. "Have you gone mad?"

I wasn't mad.

In that moment, the illusion had simply shattered.

I bent down, trembling, to pick up the balled-up paper he'd thrown on the floor, but his polished leather shoe landed on it first.

This was my child. The only connection I had to the man I had loved for five years.

But in his eyes, it was just a "problem" hindering his new empire.

I looked up, meeting his cold gaze, my voice so hoarse it wasn't my own. "Colin, you used my family to build your empire. Did you ever once consider what my sacrifice meant?"

He sneered as if I were a petulant child. "Don't be difficult, Alessia. You know this is for the best."

Just then, the phone in his pocket rang, a jarring interruption. The name dancing on the screen was "Blair."