Three
828 Words
Tessa followed him slowly, her chest tightening with each step. When she reached the main lobby, she stopped.
There he was.
With her.
His first love—the woman he had always talked about with a softness that scraped Tessa’s heart. The woman he had brought into their house and had Tessa move from their bedroom for her sake. She was beautiful, effortlessly elegant, standing beside him as if she belonged there.
Worse still, Bella wore the dress that she, Tessa had been telling Smith to get her.
She had seen it in a boutique and asked him if he could get it for her on multiple occasions. He always brushed it off, saying it was too expensive.
For her, it was too expensive, but for Bella, it was the perfect dress. Her heart bled.
Smith placed a hand on the woman’s waist. “Everyone,” he called out to the passing staff, “meet my girlfriend and our new assistant.”
Girlfriend.
Her heart didn’t just break. It shattered so loudly within her that she wondered if anyone else could hear it.
Tessa looked down at the papers she held. She turned to the very first page, and the bold letters stared right back at her:
PETITION FOR DIVORCE
He had signed the document, without realizing he had just ended their marriage.
Her breaths came unevenly as whispers floated around her.
“They look good together…”
“He’s holding her so tightly…”
“Isn’t that the woman he used to date years ago?”
“They seem perfect…”
Then the woman turned, and her gaze found Tessa’s instantly.
For a brief moment, her lips curved, not into a polite smile, not into surprise, but into a slow and deliberate smile.
The smile held recognition, triumph, confirmation. It wasn’t loud, but it said everything.
“I told you so, he’ll always choose me.”
The smile hit Tessa harder than the introduction itself because this wasn’t the first time Bella had looked at her like that.
That day in the kitchen, the day Bella hurt herself and blamed it on her, she had given her that smile, saying,
“He’ll always choose me. No matter what you do, no matter how much you sacrifice.”
Now, standing in the lobby of Pado group, Bella’s smile said the same thing, this time, louder.
She glowed beside Smith, radiant and victorious, basking in the attention, one that Tessa had waited years to get. She enjoyed the bliss of the choice he made without hesitation.
And Tessa felt it; the heartbreak and humiliation. She had promised herself not to cry but it was hard to keep up with that.
Tessa swallowed hard. Her vision blurred. She blinked rapidly, refusing to let the tears spill, not here, not in front of him.
He had chosen another woman to show to the world and it was not her.
“How can I make him pay for this excruciating pain in the exact same way?” she thought within herself, her heart heavy with pain.
She turned, gripping the divorce papers so tightly that the edges cut into her palm. With silent steps, she walked out of the building. No one even noticed her, they all had their attention on their boss’ girlfriend, trying to curry favour.
She didn’t look back.
She couldn’t.
When she reached home, she didn’t collapse like she expected. Instead, she walked straight into her bedroom and sat on the floor, staring at the white ceiling for a long, empty moment.
She had given up her career for that man. She was a promising youth and the brightest student in her class. Her professor had been so proud of her and wanted her to get to the peak of her career but she didn’t. She gave it up to be with a man that didn’t choose her in the end.
She had left her family. She was the heiress of a wealthy family but she left everything, including her identity, just to be with him.
She had accepted being his secret wife just to protect his image and his first love’s memories.
And now?
He introduced another woman as his. All her sacrifices and everything she had done meant nothing.
Tessa wiped her tears with the back of her hand, reached for her phone, and dialed a number she had not called in years.
The person picked up after two rings.
There was silence.
A heavy, emotional silence.
“…Jeon,” her voice broke. “I’m coming home.”
A sharp inhale from the other end. “Tessa?”
But she ended the call before her resolve could weaken.
She didn’t pack a single thing. She wanted nothing from this marriage.
As she grabbed her purse, fierce calm settled over her.
She wasn’t going back home to cry.
She was going back home to rise.
And when she did…
Smith would realize the true meaning of loss.
- Writer
