I Married Him to Save My Mom, Then Destroyed Him

Chapter 2 Waste Them on You

Every word on the page felt sharp enough to cut. It was as if the divorce agreement had taken every last fantasy I'd ever had about marriage and sliced straight through them.

The room grew so still I could hear him breathing.

Jeffrey Avalos, the man who had once sworn he would spend the rest of his life with me, sat back on the leather sofa with a glass of red wine in his hand, looking at me with a kind of effortless contempt that needed no explanation.

His fingers tapped against the table, acting as if this entire situation was nothing more than a tedious, trivial farce.

"You really want a divorce?"

When Jeffrey finally spoke, his voice was low and magnetic, yet laced with a chilling cold that was impossible to ignore. He tilted his chin up slightly, looking down at me. There wasn't a single shred of reluctance in his gaze, only an arrogant, untouchable distance.

I took a slow breath and forced my voice to stay even. "Yes. I've made up my mind. This is the last shred of respect I can offer you. And the last shred I can offer myself."

After three years, a clean ending was the best outcome either of us could hope for.

Jeffrey let out a quiet laugh. The sound was all mockery. "Respect? You don't get to talk to me about respect. What is this? I haven't touched you in two weeks, so now you're lonely enough to start looking for the next man?"

My hands clenched into tight fists. My nails dug painfully into my palms.

He wasn't entirely wrong about one thing. In three years of marriage, I had never once received real respect from his family. In their eyes, I was the girl from nowhere who married Jeffrey for his money and clawed my way into a life that didn't belong to me.

Jeffrey pinched the bridge of his nose and stood, a gesture I knew too well. It meant his patience was almost gone.

"I don't want to see this kind of stunt again. And relax. No one's taking the title of Mrs. Avalos from you. Camila doesn't even care about that kind of thing."

He picked up the agreement I'd rewritten more than ten times and flipped through it like it was a piece of junk mail.

"Not bad. Looks convincing. Next time, don't bother."

The casual cruelty of it hit harder than I expected.

Even now, Jeffrey still thought I was bluffing.

I lifted my chin and looked him straight in the eye. "I'm not throwing a fit. And I'm not joking. I don't care whether anyone else wants this title. I've been standing in it for three years, and I'm done! Please, Jeffrey. Just let me go!"

'Sometimes it was only when people woke up that they realized it was never a dream at all. It was a nightmare.

Jeffrey, who had clearly planned to end the conversation and head to his room, stopped in his tracks. His eyes darkened with intense irritation.

"Think this through. Without the Avalos family, you're nothing. And your mother's medical bills? Those aren't something you can handle on your own."

For one second, my whole body went rigid.

'My mother...'

"You don't get to talk about my mother! And I don't need any of this anymore."

I shoved the papers farther across the table.

"Mr. Avalos, sign the papers."

He frowned. "Lori, do you even hear yourself? What is this supposed to be? Playing hard to get? You actually think that works on me?"

I actually laughed.

"Jeffrey, I'm not your precious Camila. And trust me, even if I knew how to play games like that, I wouldn't waste them on you!"

God, I had really been blind.

Three whole years of being head over heels for this bastard. Three years of playing housekeeper, caretaker, and convenient body whenever he felt like it!

"Lori! You don't get to talk about Camila like that! After all these years, you still can't shed your vulgar manners..."

Before Jeffrey could finish his sentence, his phone rang on the table. The moment he saw the caller ID, his piercing, hostile glare instantly melted into something soft, and even his voice dropped an octave.

"Camila."