I Left Him after He Chose The Sister-in-law

Clementine Stephens pressed her shoulder to the second-floor bay window, staring out at the street below for what felt like hours. Long enough for the car to vanish completely around the bend.

After a while, she finally tore her gaze away, her eyes throbbing with that dull, familiar ache. She lifted a trembling finger to brush the faded wedding decals stuck to the glass. Leonidas Lopez had always favored a muted, cool color palette, and their wedding day had been completely stripped of any festive decor. The day after we said I do, I stood right here on this windowsill and put these up myself, she remembered.

He’d frowned so deep his brow looked like it would stay that way forever, but he’d still let the decorations stay up in our bedroom. That small concession had made her giddy for months. But after that day? He never spent a single night in that room again.

Every lonely night she spent alone, those bright red cutouts started to look less like wedding decor and more like two leering faces, taunting her. She should’ve known from the start: a man like him would never bend for anyone. He wouldn’t even give her the decency of a straight-out no.

The thin paper, faded and brittle from two years of sun, tore apart at the lightest touch. Just like their marriage—over before anyone even noticed it had cracked. Clementine set to wiping the room clean of anything that was hers after the wedding. Every little thing she’d added—those decals, their wedding portrait, all of it went straight into the trash.

Her clothes, her jewelry, every worn and unused thing she’d brought into the marriage—she packed them all up and sent them off to auction. They’d signed a prenup, and she wasn’t entitled to a single cent of Leonidas’s fortune. But the fine print said all her personal items—jewelry, clothes, all of that—was hers to keep. She wasn’t stupid enough to leave her own things behind for him to throw out.

As dusk crept in, Mckenna Lopez knocked softly on the bedroom door. She glanced at Clementine, still hovering by the window, and didn’t say a word. She just hefted the stacked, packed boxes and hauled them out to the car one by one.

On her third trip up, Clementine dragged the last suitcase behind her, her voice steady and light. “Let’s go.”

“You sure you didn’t leave anything behind?” Mckenna asked, taking the handle from her.

“Nothing that matters anymore.”

Still, Mckenna did one last sweep of the room. Her gaze caught on something peeking out from under the foot of the bed, a crumpled corner of paper, and she paused.

She pulled it out, and it unfolded into an obstetrics clinic medical report. Patient name: Clementine Stephens. Date… one month ago?

Clementine turned to find Mckenna frozen, shock written all over her face as she stared at the positive pregnancy result. She walked over, her voice soft as silk. “Six weeks. The doctor said the heartbeat was strong… but it’s never going to get to be born.”

Mckenna’s knuckles went white as she gripped the paper, but her face stayed cool and composed. “What does your uncle think?”

“He doesn’t know. And there’s no reason for him to find out now.”

Losing that baby felt like a cold knife twisting straight through her heart. And with it went every last sliver of hope she’d carried for Leonidas, every bit of her unrequited love. All gone.

“Don’t tell anyone. Especially not your uncle,” Clementine said, taking the report back, ready to tear it into tiny pieces. They were divorced now. What was the point of laying her raw, bleeding heart out for everyone to gawk at?

It would only get her pity, or worse—disdain. It would just leave her more humiliated than she already was.

But Mckenna stopped her before she could rip it. “There’s a paper shredder down in the car. We’ll destroy it properly, no loose bits.”

Just then, Clementine’s phone rang, and she handed it over to Mckenna to answer. Once the door clicked shut behind Clementine, Mckenna slowly smoothed the crumpled report flat, and walked over to the nightstand.

The cold glint off her glasses caught on the edge of a document left out on top: the signed divorce agreement. She bent down, ready to tuck the medical report right on top of it.

But after a long minute of thought, she turned, and walked back to tuck it right where she’d found it, under the foot of the bed.

---

Clementine moved into a small new apartment, and spent one long day unpacking and getting settled. As the sunset painted her silhouette in warm amber, she stood gazing out at the city skyline, her chest light for the first time in years, brimming with anticipation for what came next.

Her phone buzzed on the wooden desk, which was cluttered with half-assembled airplane models. She glanced down—it was a message from Mckenna on WhatsApp.

“The dinner party video got leaked!”

Clementine opened Twitter casually. #LeonidasLopezFamilyScandal was already blazing at the top of the trending page, stamped with that bold red “BREAKING” banner.

The caption screamed about a scandalous affair, all the dirty Lopez family laundry aired out for everyone to see, and the view count was skyrocketing by the second.

Calls from her father and Benjamin Lopez poured in one after another, both demanding she get to the Lopez estate immediately.

She hung up on the last one, brushed her thumb over the screen, and a cold, sharp smile tugged at the corner of her lips. Mckenna had warned her to ignore all calls from the Lopezes, but she wasn’t going to listen.

The flames were already licking the roof. To not throw a whole bucket of gasoline on them would be a total waste of all this attention…