Whispers of the Stars

Her gaze landed on me with unnerving precision—calm as still water, yet carrying an almost tangible pressure.

"Nicole?" she spoke, her voice soft, yet it hit me like a hammer to the chest.

I nodded instinctively, a sense of dread rising inside me.

"We need to talk." It wasn’t a request, but a statement.

In the coffee shop across from campus, she stirred the black coffee in front of her, untouched by sugar, then came straight to the point. "I'm Ryan's wife."

A deafening *buzz* filled my head, wiping my mind completely blank.

My world didn’t just crack—it detonated. Shards drove into every inch of my body.

My mouth opened, but no sound came out. I could only stare, my gaze locked.

She seemed to have expected this. Calmly, she took a small red booklet from her bag and slid it across the table toward me.

A marriage certificate.

On it was Ryan's face—a gentle, smiling version I had never seen—and the name Abigail.

The registration date was three years ago.

"It was a marriage of convenience," she explained coolly. "No real affection. But I'm carrying his child. You understand what that means, don’t you, Nicole?"

Of course I understood.

I’d been played for a fool.

All the tenderness I’d treasured—it was nothing but a cheap diversion for a married man.

"I…" My voice was rough as sandpaper. "I didn’t know… He never told me…"

"Of course he didn’t." A faint, mocking smile touched Abigail’s lips. "He told my assistant you were… special. Easy to handle. Poor family, starved for affection since childhood. A little pocket money and you’d be grateful forever. Like a well-trained puppy."

*Boom.*

If my world had exploded before, now it was being ground to dust.

"A well-trained puppy…" I repeated the words numbly. An invisible fist closed around my heart, squeezing so tight I could barely breathe.