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

Clementine's eyes burned with frustration. "You only ever fixate on your brother's widow. Do you even have a clue what I've been through?"

Her voice was raw with rage, but it got drowned out by Samara's soft, honeyed drawl over the phone. "Leonidas, is something wrong?"

"It's nothing. We're done here," Leonidas replied coldly, and hung up.

The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife—one spark, and the whole thing would blow. After a long, heavy silence, Clementine crossed the messy room with a blank face and walked out. When she brushed past him in the doorway, Leonidas's fingers twitched, but he never reached for her.

Clementine hurried down the stairs, wiping stinging tears away with the back of her hand. She hated the person she became whenever those two were involved—all sharp, reactive chaos, like cold water dumped straight into a pan of sizzling hot oil.

The next morning, on the train to Amazon headquarters, Clementine stumbled on a news article while scrolling her phone.

*"The Lopez Couple: Stronger Than Ever, Rumors Put to Rest."*

The article ran with a photo: moonlight spilling over glass windows, framing the two of them in a romantic silhouette. Clementine slammed her phone screen dark, resentment boiling hot in her chest.

Of course. Leonidas had orchestrated the whole thing. He'd cornered her, manipulated her into coming crawling to him, then arranged for a photographer to catch them together. Once, he'd bought her gifts to win her over. Now he was pulling cheap, manipulative tricks like this. Maybe this was the real Leonidas Lopez all along. All that old kindness? It felt like nothing more than the passing whim of a man toying with a caged canary.

At Amazon's executive office, Clementine met with Raphael Garza. Their talk stretched an hour, and Raphael even pushed back an important meeting to fit her in. By the end, the faint disdain he'd started with had shifted to genuine admiration.

He walked her through onboarding personally, and Clementine officially joined the Amazon research team. Then Raphael mentioned he wanted to introduce her to someone.

Clementine was walking on cloud nine on the way over—until she stepped into the private dining room and saw Leonidas sitting there, and her mood plummeted straight through the floor.

"We all already know each other, don't we? No need for formal introductions," Raphael said, following her into the room and pulling out her chair like the gentleman he was.

Leonidas's gaze burned into her. "You really joined Amazon?"

Seeing the tight tension carved into his face, a sharp spark of satisfaction curled in Clementine's gut as she sat down, cool and confident. "That's right. I did."

Leonidas's jaw went tight, the veins in his neck standing out sharp. "You'd rather work for him than come work for me?"

"Work for him?" Raphael smirked, like he knew exactly what game this was. "Classic Mr. Lopez move. Let me properly introduce our new research hire—Miss Clementine Stephens."

Surprise flickered across Leonidas's face, but he kept his stony composure. The two exes were polar opposites right then: one glowing with quiet triumph, the other carved from solid ice.

"Let's order, shall we?" Raphael said, waving the server over and passing the menu to Clementine, acting like he didn't even notice the thick tension cluttering the room.

While they waited for their food, the two men dove into talking business. Clementine snuck glances at Leonidas, secretly impressed by how he'd pulled himself together. One minute he'd looked seconds away from exploding; the next he was calm, focused, giving nothing away.

They were rivals, sure, but Leonidas and Raphael were working on a joint project—bound by mutual profit, not friendship. They'd met a handful of times already, but never locked in a deal.

When Leonidas got hung up on a tiny, missed detail, Clementine smirked. "Wasn't the SkyWing project your brother's brainchild?"

"Seeing how you go out of your way to take care of your brother's widow," she added, "I figured you'd care more about keeping his legacy intact. But today you're ready to throw the whole project away just to please your soon-to-be mistress?"

"Turns out all that caring for your brother's widow is just a cover. It's always been about Samara."

Her words turned Leonidas's cold indifference into a glacial glare. Right on cue, Samara glided into the room, elegant as ever in a white Victorian-style dress. "Leonidas, I heard you were here, so I thought I'd pop in."

She turned to Raphael, smiling sweetly. "Hello, Mr. Garza."

Raphael just lifted his wine glass in a lazy acknowledgment. The clatter of Clementine's knife and fork hitting her plate cut through the awkward silence. "Mr. Garza booked this private room. How'd you even track us down, Miss Samara?"

Leonidas's brow furrowed. "Clementine!"

Samara acted like she'd just noticed Clementine standing there. "You're here too, sister-in-law?"

Clementine, determined not to make a scene in front of Raphael, switched tactics. She'd push Leonidas hard enough to make him finally file for divorce.

Taking a deep breath, she stood up. "Mr. Garza, why don't we give Mr. Lopez and Miss Samara some privacy, huh?"

Raphael chuckled. "My apologies, I should have been more thoughtful."

He made a show of standing to leave, but Leonidas snatched Clementine's wrist hard. "Does it really have to be like this?"

Clementine wrenched her hand out of his grip. "Why don't you tell me, Mr. Lopez? How do you sleep at night, staying so close to the person that killed my baby, while still pretending we have a marriage?"

Her words hit like a bolt of lightning, wiping all amusement clean off Raphael's face.

Clementine didn't care anymore about ripping old wounds open. Didn't care about her pride. If Leonidas had just taken her to the hospital that night, their baby might have lived. But he'd thought she was just being dramatic and jealous, and left with Samara. He left her for the police to pick up and bring to the ER.

They were murderers. They'd killed her unborn child.

Leonidas blinked, thrown completely off his game. "What child?"

Samara stepped closer. "Sister-in-law, children are such precious gifts. No matter how angry you are, you shouldn't say awful things like that. You don't want to curse your own chance at having one later, do you?"

Clementine's heart ached so bad it hurt to breathe. She knew she'd never get another chance.

She looked up at Leonidas, begging him with her eyes to just have mercy, for the sake of the baby they'd lost.

But he stared at her tear-streaked face, and even though a flicker of something twisted in his chest, his words came out cold, logical, unforgiving. "The Lopez family does annual full physicals. You had your last one just last month."

Clementine felt like the ground had crumbled under her feet. In all her despair, he thought she was lying. But when Samara opened her mouth, every word was gospel to him. Of course it was. They were childhood sweethearts. If Samara hadn't married his brother, their kid would probably be starting elementary school by now. Next to her, Clementine had always been the outsider.

Nothing she said could ever compare.

Clementine stormed out, and Leonidas shoved his chair back hard to chase her—only for Samara's soft hand to curl around his sleeve.

"Please, Leonidas," she whispered, "my baby's not feeling well. I have a doctor's appointment scheduled for today. Will you come with me?"

Raphael watched the whole thing, a sharp smirk playing on his lips as he stood to leave. "Looks like the sister-in-law is closer to Mr. Lopez than even the legendary old lovers!"

"Send the driver to take you," Leonidas replied, gently pushing Samara out of his way and hurrying after Clementine.