A Marriage Built on Lies
727 Words
“No…” Aria whispered, clutching the photographs tightly. “This isn’t me. Ethan, please believe me.”
Her voice cracked under the weight of heartbreak.
She had spent three years loving Ethan Kingsley with everything she had. She had stood by him through endless business trips, lonely nights, and the constant pressure of being married to one of the city’s youngest billionaires.
She had never betrayed him.
Not once.
“Ethan,” she pleaded, stepping closer to him. “Look at me. Do I look like someone who would cheat on you?”
His expression remained cold.
“I don’t know who you are anymore.”
Those words pierced her heart more deeply than any knife ever could.
She reached for his hand, but he pulled away as if her touch disgusted him.
“I trusted you,” he said quietly. “I defended you when everyone warned me not to marry you.”
Aria frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“My mother said you were after my money.”
“My board members said marrying an ordinary woman would ruin my reputation.”
“My friends told me you would eventually betray me.”
He let out a bitter laugh.
“They were right.”
Tears streamed down Aria’s face.
“No… they weren’t.”
Vanessa stepped forward with a fake expression of sympathy.
“Aria, just admit the truth. It’ll make this easier for everyone.”
Aria turned sharply.
“The truth?” she snapped. “The truth is that you’ve hated me since Ethan chose me over you!”
Vanessa’s smile faltered for a split second before returning.
“You’re imagining things.”
“No, I’m not.”
Aria looked back at Ethan desperately.
“She never accepted our marriage. She’s been trying to separate us from the very beginning.”
“Enough!” Ethan’s voice thundered through the room.
The silence that followed was suffocating.
He picked up the divorce papers and placed them back in front of her.
“I’ve already signed them.”
Aria stared at the signature at the bottom of the page.
His name.
His handwriting.
This wasn’t a threat.
It was over.
“You didn’t even ask me if the accusations were true,” she whispered.
“I already have my answer.”
“You judged me without listening.”
“The evidence speaks for itself.”
Aria felt something inside her break.
Not because of the papers.
Not because of Vanessa.
But because the man who had once promised to trust her forever no longer believed a single word she said.
Slowly, she removed the wedding ring from her finger.
Her hands shook so violently that it slipped from her grasp and landed on the marble floor with a soft metallic sound.
The tiny ring rolled across the room until it stopped near Ethan’s polished shoes.
Neither of them bent to pick it up.
Aria wiped away her tears and looked at him one last time.
“If you truly believe I betrayed you,” she said softly, “then there’s nothing left for me to fight for.”
She picked up the pen.
With a trembling hand, she signed her name.
Aria Bennett Kingsley.
The moment the ink dried, her marriage ended.
She placed the papers back on the table.
“I hope one day you discover the truth,” she whispered.
“And when you do… I hope you remember this night.”
Without another word, Aria walked toward the front door.
Behind her, Ethan remained frozen.
For the briefest moment, he wanted to call her back.
Something deep inside him whispered that she was telling the truth.
But Vanessa’s hand gently rested on his arm.
“You did the right thing,” she said.
Ethan closed his eyes.
He wanted to believe that.
Outside, the rain poured harder than ever.
Aria stepped into the storm with nothing but the clothes she was wearing and the shattered pieces of her heart.
She didn’t know where she was going.
She only knew she could never return.
As lightning flashed across the dark sky, a strange wave of dizziness washed over her.
She pressed a hand against her stomach and frowned.
“What… is happening to me?”
She took another step before everything around her began to spin.
Then the world went black.
- Writer
