Chapter Two : Our Marriage Was a Deal
1162 Words
For several seconds, I couldn’t move.
His words kept replaying in my head.
You were never supposed to find out this way.
Not I’m sorry.
Not It was a mistake.
Not even I love you.
Just an admission that there was something I wasn’t supposed to know.
I looked at Victoria.
She wouldn’t meet my eyes.
That hurt almost as much as seeing them together.
“How long?” I asked again.
Damian rubbed a hand over his face.
“Amelia, calm down.”
I stared at him.
“Calm down?”
My voice trembled.
“You’ve been sleeping with my best friend, and you’re telling me to calm down?”
Victoria finally spoke.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
I looked at her.
“How was it supposed to happen?”
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
I laughed bitterly.
“Exactly.”
I turned toward Damian.
“Was she the reason you were always working late?”
He said nothing.
“Was she the reason you stopped coming home?”
Nothing.
“Was she the reason you suddenly stopped touching me?”
His expression hardened.
“That’s enough.”
I flinched.
Not because he had raised his voice.
Because it sounded like he was annoyed with me.
As though I were the problem.
I looked down at my wedding ring.
My fingers trembled as I pulled it off.
I placed it on the table beside the bed.
“There.”
Damian’s eyes followed the ring.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving.”
He stepped toward me.
“You’re not thinking clearly.”
“I’ve never been clearer.”
I walked toward the door.
“Amelia.”
I stopped.
“Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.”
I slowly turned around.
“What did you just say?”
He sighed.
“Our marriage has been complicated for a long time.”
I stared at him.
“Our marriage?”
He nodded.
“You knew what you were getting into when you married me.”
I felt cold all over.
“What exactly was I getting into, Damian?”
He exchanged a glance with Victoria.
That single look told me there was something else.
Something bigger.
“Tell me,” I demanded.
Damian walked toward the window.
“When our families arranged our marriage, there were certain expectations.”
I frowned.
“What expectations?”
He didn’t answer immediately.
Then he said quietly, “Our marriage was beneficial to both families.”
I stared at him.
“I know our families were involved.”
“No. You don’t understand.”
He turned to face me.
“You thought we got married because we were in love.”
My heart sank.
“Weren’t we?”
He looked at me for a long moment.
Then his expression changed.
It was almost as though he had stopped pretending.
“Our marriage was an arrangement, Amelia.”
The room became completely silent.
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You told me you loved me.”
“I cared about you.”
“Cared?”
I could barely breathe.
“You spent three years telling me you loved me.”
“I said what I needed to say.”
My eyes filled with tears.
I refused to let them fall.
“Why?”
“Because the marriage served a purpose.”
I stared at him, waiting for him to take it back.
He didn’t.
“What purpose?”
Damian walked toward the table and picked up the ring I had left behind.
“Our families needed the alliance.”
“That doesn’t explain anything.”
He looked at me.
“There are things about your family you don’t know.”
My stomach twisted.
“What things?”
“That’s not your concern.”
I almost laughed.
“Not my concern? You’re talking about my family, my marriage, and three years of my life.”
He remained silent.
I stepped closer.
“Did you ever love me?”
His eyes shifted.
That hesitation destroyed me.
“No,” he finally said.
The word was quiet.
But it cut deeper than anything else.
I swallowed.
“Then why did you marry me?”
“Because it was necessary.”
“Necessary for what?”
He looked away.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Or you won’t?”
“Both.”
I stared at him, trying to recognize the man standing in front of me.
He looked like Damian.
He sounded like Damian.
But suddenly, he felt like a stranger.
I wiped the first tear that escaped.
“How long have you been planning this?”
Damian didn’t answer.
“How long?”
“Since before the wedding.”
My heart stopped.
Before the wedding.
So every promise had been a lie.
Every kiss.
Every anniversary.
Every night I had fallen asleep beside him believing I was loved.
All of it had been part of an arrangement.
I looked at Victoria.
“Did you know?”
She looked down.
“Victoria.”
She slowly nodded.
My chest tightened.
“You both knew.”
“Amelia, I didn’t want to hurt you.”
I laughed through my tears.
“You slept with my husband.”
She lowered her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
I picked up my handbag.
Damian blocked the doorway.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“This is your home.”
I looked around the room.
“No. It isn’t.”
He moved closer.
“You’re my wife.”
I looked at the empty space where my wedding ring had been.
“Apparently, I was never really your wife.”
His expression tightened.
“Don’t do this.”
“Move.”
“Amelia.”
“Move.”
For the first time, I saw something close to anger in his eyes.
But he stepped aside.
I walked past him without looking back.
I made it halfway down the stairs before my legs started shaking.
I grabbed the railing.
I wanted to cry.
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I kept walking.
Outside, the night air hit my face.
I reached my car and sat behind the wheel.
My hands remained frozen on the steering wheel.
I couldn’t start the engine.
Three years.
How could someone lie for three years?
My phone vibrated.
A message.
I looked at the screen.
It was from Damian.
We need to talk about the rest of the arrangement.
I stared at the words.
The rest of the arrangement.
There was more?
My heart began pounding again.
Before I could respond, another message appeared.
There are things you need to know about your family.
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
Whatever had happened between Damian and Victoria was only the beginning.
And suddenly, I was no longer sure I knew anything about the family I had been born into.
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