After I Decided to Marry Another Man, My Ex-husband Regrets

After being discharged, I took a cab to Hamilton estate.

I stepped inside quietly, heading straight to the bedroom to pack what little still belonged to me when I heard the soft drag of fabric, followed by a low giggle echoing from inside.

Stephanie.

Standing in front of the mirror wearing my wedding dress.

The pearl-laced wedding gown that my grandma stitched on her deathbed, her last blessing to me when she realized that the Winslet household did not care for me at all and I was working five jobs in a row to accumulate some money to buy the silk fabric.

And now?

It hung limp on her frame, the front ripped open. She was using her hands to hold it together, her fingers curling into the delicate fabric like claws.

“Oh, here you are sister.” she beamed, twirling. “I was hoping you would have died but here you are, well guess what happened last night.”

My body stiffened. I already knew I wouldn’t like the answer.

She stepped closer, dragging the ruined hem across the floor. “Alexander took me to the rooftop suite of your favourite hotel. The one where you spent your last birthday alone in?” Her voice dripped with mock sweetness.

“He took me to your private suite with the balcony view.”

My stomach twisted. That used to be our place….the place where we spent our wedding night.

“We left the curtains open.” she said, her eyes glinting. “I screamed his name loud enough for the staff to hear.”

I tried not to flinch.

“Alexander said I taste sweeter and tore the dress open while I was still wearing it.”

My vision blurred.

Stephanie pulled back the sleeve, exposing red-purple love bites scattered across her collarbone, her chest.

“It got a little wild when I told him I was ready to start a family. He didn’t even hesitate.” She smiled, slow and smug. “Who knows? I might already be carrying his child.”

My fingers curled into fists. I was shaking.

“You are disgusting!” I whispered.

She leaned in, tilting her head with mock concern.

“Funny. That is different from what your husband thinks when he pushes my body and enter me again and again trying to impregnate me. Maybe I will finally give him what you could never.”

My last of the reason snapped and I slapped her hard.

The sound cracked through the room like thunder making Stephanie stumble in shock before she fell down with the impact.

“You!”

“Lavina?”

Alexander’s voice echoed.

He stepped in, brows furrowed, taking in the scene: Stephanie half-naked in my destroyed wedding gown on the floor, me standing in the doorway.

But Stephanie didn’t miss a beat.

“I am sorry sister!” she choked out, tears springing instantly to her eyes. “I was modelling the dress for a campaign… I swear, I didn’t mean to damage it! It just… ripped!”

“I-I am your culprit, I was the one who snatched your parent’s love but please forgive give sister, love cannot be forced…I-I can’t do anything else except….” She paused tears tumbling down her cheeks. “except dying……yes, once I die, everything will be yours…”

She got up instantly, picking up a fruit-knife.

“Stop” Alexander growled, lunging forward and yanking it from her. She let out a cry, twisted in his grip and then suddenly darted toward the nearest wall like she meant to crack her skull open.

Alexander caught her just in time, arms locking around her waist. She collapsed into his chest, sobbing like some tragic heroine from a cheap romance.

“Stephanie” he said firmly “I invited you here as my guest. If anyone has a problem with you, they have a problem with me!”

I watched them with numbness spreading in my heart, Stephanie clinging to Alexander, him protecting her like some wounded bird and my lips curled into a bitter smile.

When he turned to me his voice was colder than ice.

“Lavina, apologize to her!”

I merely looked at him numbly “Apologize? Alexander aren’t you even curious where I was last night?”

“I don’t care!” he cut in sharply. “You don’t get to hurt Stephanie! If you don’t apologize right now, I will block all your cards and shift your room to the servant quarters!”

My heart lurched.

My child had nearly died.

Our child.

And Alexander was busy soothing his mistress.

“That should humble you Lavina.” he added cruelly. “maybe I have spoiled you too much.”

I didn’t say a word.

Because in that moment, I realized the truth.

He never saw me as a wife, I was a pet, a maid he kept out of conveinience.

He thought taking away the money would crush me.

What he didn’t know was I had already been poor. Starving. Forgotten.

I only stayed because I loved him. I gave him everything my time, my youth, my soul while building his empire with my blood.

“Shift her to the servant quarters and don’t let her eat until she apologizes.” Before leaving, Alexander ordered the servants coldly.

Just like that I became a villainess in their lovestory.

The moment Alexander walked away with Stephanie, my phone buzzed to life with an anonymous number.

"Where was he? While you were losing consciousness in a storage room, where was your husband Miss Winslet?" The sheer anger in the male's voice made me freeze for a moment before I realized that there was only one person who would be angry like this.

Damien Stone.

“He was with...her.” My throat burned as I whispered.

"I can’t stay away anymore.” he answered his voice barely restrained.

“How long?” I whispered.

He didn’t hesitate.

“One week that's all. After that, I come to take you home.”

"Alright."