After Five Miscarriages, I Divorced Him

Chapter 1

The conversation inside continued.

"These three years, your wife has done everything in her power to conceive your child, and I have witnessed it all. If she were to learn that you came here seeking a barrenness curse to ensure she never would, do you think she would hate you?"

"I also hear that you were the one who arranged to have her wedding sabotaged, that you spread s****l slander about her and let her bear the shame alone, all while she believed you were her salvation. In our faith, acts such as these invite divine punishment."

Sebastian Calloway lit three sticks of incense and knelt in prayer.

"What is divine punishment compared to Viv's happiness? She is fortunate enough to have me as a husband. Who in all of Harlow holds more power and influence than I do? As long as she behaves and does nothing to harm Viv, she will always be respected as Clara. As for children, I would sooner remain without an heir than raise a child that isn't Viv's."

The abbot let out a weary sigh, his lips moving in quiet prayer. "God have mercy."

Something tightened in my chest, and tears spilled silently down my face.

Three years ago, the scene of public condemnation was still vivid in my memory. A woman had hurled a stack of doctored photos at me and doused me in red paint, shrieking that I was nothing but a cheap w***e. The guests called me shameless, a woman who had no conscience and no decency. My fiancé took another woman by the hand and announced that the bride had been replaced. My mother collapsed on the spot from the shock and was rushed into the operating room. She never recovered, and she had been lying in that hospital bed ever since.

It was Sebastian who pulled me out of that darkness, who poured his money and energy into fighting to save her. I had believed he was my salvation. I never imagined he was the one who had pushed me into the abyss to begin with.

The thought made me want to laugh.

I dug my nails into my palm until the sharp sting brought me back to myself, my lips pressed so tightly together I tasted blood. I turned to flee, but in my panic I dropped a prayer card I had just collected for him. The sound brought Sebastian out of the nave.

He took one look at my ashen face, and something urgent flickered in his eyes. "Clara, what's wrong? You look terrible." He cupped my face in both hands, his touch as gentle as it had always been, and somehow that made the ache in my chest worse.

I lifted his hands away and kept my eyes from meeting his. "The temperature drops at this altitude. I think I caught a chill."

Without a word, he shrugged off his jacket and draped it over my shoulders, and when I glanced up, I found his gaze warm and steady on mine. "You're not well. Don't let yourself get cold, or your husband will worry."

He was exactly as he had always been, every gesture, every tone. There was a time when that would have made me feel safe. Now it only felt hollow.

He picked up the prayer card from the ground, a quiet smile crossing his face. "You got this for me?"

I nodded without speaking.

He drew me into his arms, his breath soft against my ear. "What did I ever do to deserve a wife like you, Clara? Promise me something. No matter what happens from here on, don't leave me."

A hollow laugh built in my throat. You don't want me to leave because you need me to be Vivienne Hayes's blood reserve. That's all this has ever been.

I loved you. Why would you do this to me?

Sensing my low spirits, he tilted my chin up gently, leaning in as though to kiss me. I pulled back without thinking.

"Still upset about the baby?" he murmured. "It's all right. As long as it's you, it doesn't matter."

The whole reason we had come up the mountain was to pray for a child. It wasn't as though I had never been pregnant in those three years. Five times in three years, and every single pregnancy had ended in a miscarriage with no explanation. I had blamed myself, grieved, and taken to bed the moment I conceived each time, desperate to protect what little chance I had. It had never been enough.

Sebastian's mother (Skylar Calloway) made no effort to hide her contempt. She told anyone who would listen that I was a barren woman, that the Calloway family must have done something terrible in a past life to have brought a woman like me through their doors. Her words were knives, and she drove them in without mercy. I bore it all in silence, burying every wound somewhere she couldn't see.

Now I knew the truth. Every last bit of that pain traced back to Sebastian.