Chapter 1 Divorce
A leaked video of Henry Grant's "one who got away" and his boss caught in a steamy affair in the operating room flooded the internet. The web went nuclear. Outraged netizens demanded the hospital c***k down on the scandal.
To shield his beloved, Henry went live, bold-facedly lying and pinning it on me as the woman in that video. The world branded me a cheating wife. Men catcalled and spat at me in broad daylight.
When my mother confronted him at the hospital, he snarled vile curses at her. Then, to prove my innocence, she jumped from the 18th-floor rooftop. Her lifeless form hit the pavement with a sickening crunch right before my eyes.
Gasping through tears, I roared at him, "Why?!"
"Vivian's fragile. The cyberbullying would destroy her," he dismissed me with an arctic smirk, "but you're strong; this won't break you."
Seven years of love. Three years of marriage. Gone in a breath, like smoke. My heart turned to stone.
*****
White-knuckling the divorce papers, I rammed them into the envelope, my face a mask of ice. I kicked the door open. Henry didn't even glance up from his screen.
"Still making a scene over nothing?" his eyes flashed with irritation. "Some people never learn."
My fists clenched until my nails drew blood. "Sign this," I ground out, sliding my suspension notice across his desk.
His phone lit up. Vivian Cole's pouting profile photo glowing on the screen. He snatched the call. Her voice quivered, a damsel-in-distress act. "Henry! He's stalking me again. I'm terrified!"
Henry lunged to his feet, scribbling his signature without reading. Then, wham! The papers slammed into my face. The edge gashed my cheek, a sting I barely felt. He bolted out the door. Bang! The door shuddered behind him. Not a backward glance, typical.
On my knees, I scooped up the scattered pages. His flamboyant signature mocked me in jagged ink. Tucking the divorce decree away, I whispered to the empty room, "It's over, Henry."
For seven years, Henry and I were madly in love. He doted on me endlessly. If I wanted the stars, he'd have plucked them from the sky. Everyone in the city knew the untouchable Henry had fallen head over heels for me, and no one dared say a bad word about me. The night he proposed, the city blazed with fireworks all night long, as if shouting our happiness to the world.
He made me feel like a princess, until Vivian returned, and he yanked me off that pedestal and crushed me underfoot. The truth was, I'd only caught the Grant family heir's eye because I bore a seventy-percent resemblance to Vivian. Every bit of love he gave me was just a pale reflection of what he felt for her.
I wanted a divorce. His response? "In the Grant family, there are only widows, no divorces."
Just the mention of Vivian made him lose all reason. I could only imagine the look on his face when he saw the signed divorce papers. I laughed, tears streaming down my face, hollow and broken. Good. Let this be over. Henry, I hope you regret this for the rest of your life.
I turned and headed to the dean's office to say my goodbyes.
"Elena, it's you," Dean Bennett's hair had turned half-gray. My troubles had clearly worn him down.
