Chapter 1: Divorce Agreement
Mayella POV:
On a night ablaze with tempestuous fury, torrents of rain clashed against the windows, as if heaven itself was crying out in anguish. I lay confined in my sickbed, ensnared by a labyrinth of medical tubing, marking my four-year sentence in this sterile prison.
The door to my private ward creaked open, and in glided Arabella St. Clair, an epitome of upper-crust grace. Her makeup was flawlessly applied, each stroke a testament to her artful vanity. The sound of her Louboutin heels reverberated through the room, each click echoing like a metronome of impending doom within the chambers of my heart.
"Arabella, you've finally graced me with your presence,"
I whispered, my eyes searching frantically beyond her, seeking another figure that wasn't there.
"Where is Maximilian?"
Desperation tinged my voice as I noted the absence of my husband. Arabella had assured me that Max would visit, and yet the room behind her remained eerily vacant.
"Darling May, Max is preoccupied with matters far more significant than these trivial visits," Arabella sneered, elegantly crossing her legs as she sat, exuding an air of casual disdain. "In fact, I've come with exciting news. Westwood Enterprises, the empire Mother bequeathed me, has been officially absorbed by Vanderlin Holdings. From this day forth, you are devoid of any remaining clout."
I stared at her, my eyes widening, my heart plummeting. My lips parted, but the torrent of words I wanted to unleash remained dammed within my broken spirit.
"Let me make it absolutely clear," Arabella continued, pulling a legal document from her Givenchy handbag. "Your final vestige of importance has been vaporized. Max asked me to deliver this to you."
My eyes skittered to the paper she extended towards me, recognizing it instantly as a divorce agreement, its ink almost maliciously fresh.
"This is impossible!" I exclaimed, my voice quaking, my denial bursting forth like a shattered dam. "Max promised me a lifetime of devotion and solidarity!"
Arabella emitted a condescending laugh.
"You naive little thing. Did you truly think Max's commitment to you was anything but tactical? Your corporate legacy, your lineage, and even your fortuitous rescue of Lord Frederick of Vanderlin, were your only merits. Stripped of them, you're a nonentity."
Her eyes turned glacial as she leaned closer. "Maintaining this farce of love has been draining for Max. Your so-called 'accidents' over the past years were draining”.
I'd lived through accident after accident since I married Max. First, a string of car crashes that left both my hands paralyzed. Poof—there went my career as a doctor. Then, three years into our marriage, I was pregnant. I got pushed off the stairs, and we lost our baby. I nearly bled to death. And if that wasn't enough, some i***t messed up in surgery, severing my spinal cord nerves. I became a prisoner in my own body, giving Max the chance to take over my family's company. Looking back, it seemed unreal. I was a doctor, and I couldn't fathom how my spine could get damaged during a simple procedure. Could it be—? My eyes narrowed as I stared at Arabella.
"It was you, wasn't it?"
Arabella grinned, curving her bright red lips.
"Oh, please. Max said you were dense, but this is a new level. You had the Unity connection and couldn't even climb their corporate ladder. Max just decided you needed a long, long break. Now, thanks to him, Westwood and Vanderlin are one happy family, and their future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."
I couldn't believe my ears.
"You're lying. Max is my husband. He'd never do this to me!"
"Why would I lie?" she responded, her voice eerily calm. "You're basically one foot in the grave. And let's get real—Max loves me. He always has. Once he got his hands on Westwood Enterprises, he was ditching you to marry me."
Something broke inside me. I coughed, spitting out dark, grimy blood. I'd been living in a fairy tale, but this was my rude awakening. Just then, the door opened, and there he was. Max, dressed to the nines, gold-rimmed glasses and all. Arabella's face instantly morphed into the picture of innocence.
"Max, we've got a problem. She's not signing."
Max walked over, his eyes locking onto me. My heart clung to one last shred of hope. "She's lying, right? Tell me she's lying."
Max stared back, colder than ever.
"Mayella, maybe it's time you started living in the real world."
And that's when it hit me. My life was an intricate web of lies. A dark fantasy spun by people I'd thought loved me. Everything I'd believed, everything I'd lived for, shattered in that single, cruel moment.
His hands clamped around my hair, pulling my head back with a force that sent sharp jolts of pain down my neck. My eyes locked onto his, and I found myself staring at the divorce papers placed deliberately in front of me.
"Mayella, I'm sick of you," he growled. "This marriage is over, one way or another."
His voice cut through me, slicing into the vulnerable places I'd long hidden, and I tasted the acrid tang of dark blood rising in my throat.
"I can't stand the sight of you anymore," he sneered, his hand making sharp contact with my face in a stinging slap. "Just give over power of attorney to Arabella to sign on your behalf the damn papers."
So, I was repugnant to him now. My mind raced back to when he'd been on bended knee in a picturesque square, swearing eternal love. My heart tightened, the emotional pain almost physical, rendering the air around me thick and suffocating.
"If you sign, I might let you leave with some semblance of dignity," he taunted, a cruel twist to his mouth. "Or would you prefer the Vanderlin Holdings to arrange your farewell?"
As his words hung in the air, a surge of desperate energy erupted within me. I couldn't lunge at him or strangle him; my body below the neck was a useless mass of flesh. But I could still act. I mustered all the saliva I could and spat at his face.
"I loathe you," I hissed, "You're dead to me."
Startled, his eyes widened for just a moment before Arabella, ever his faithful puppet, lunged at me with a blunt object aimed at my head.
"Clang—"
I crumpled, my vision blurring, blood pooling around me like a ghastly halo. My thoughts meandered back to the days of youthful innocence, to a high-school crush that took years to convert into a relationship. Despite the paralysis, the medical bills, and the endless sea of challenges, he had stayed. Or so I thought.
I'd seen our love as a romantic saga, something for the ages. But it had been a facsimile of love, shattered now into cruel shards of reality.
Was this to be my end? Discarded and betrayed, my life reduced to this grim, heart-wrenching moment?
My vision tunneled, the past flickering before my eyes like a disjointed movie. My body grew colder, my pulse slowing as if matching the dimming light in my eyes, which widened one last time before fading to black.
