That beast of a night
Gabrielle's POV
"If you'd told me that morning I'd be signing divorce papers by midnight, I would have laughed. But Charlie wasn't laughing when I walked into his study that night, and neither was the storm outside."
I stood outside the study with my hands shaking. Every instinct in me screamed to turn back, but my feet kept moving.
The servants who'd called me down after dinner wouldn't meet my eyes.
They kept their gazes on the floor and hurried past me without a word. I knew then that something terrible waited on the other side of that door.
I had tried so hard to be a good wife for five years. I waited up for him most nights, even when his calls came after midnight. I kept his food warm, kept his house quiet, kept myself small enough that he never had a reason to complain.
None of it had ever felt like enough, and standing there in the hallway, I finally let myself wonder if it ever could have been.
I took a breath and stepped inside.
Charlie stood by the window, shoulders squared away from me, like he'd already made up his mind. Lightning lit the room for half a second, and even now, even after everything, my heart still ached at the sight of him. I had given this man five years of my life. Why did some foolish part of me still cared about what he thought?
He turned slowly. His face looked as hard as rock. On the desk behind him sat a stack of papers, the top page stamped with two words in heavy black letters: Divorce Agreement.
My stomach dropped. The floor seemed to tilt beneath me.
"Gabrielle." His voice was hollow and rehearsed.
"Bianca is back. She's fully recovered. That means this marriage has served its purpose."
He slid the papers toward me.
"From the day I married you, you were nothing more than a substitute. Now Bianca is home. Your role in my life is over. Sign them."
The words landed like a blow. My fingers went numb. My nails dug into my palm until they hurt. The pain grounded me. It kept me from falling apart in front of them. The room tilted slightly, and I had to grip the back of a chair to keep from collapsing.
In my head, five years scrolled past, all the effort I'd poured into this marriage, the times I told myself patience would be enough to earn his love. It felt foolish now. How had I believed it for so long?
The door behind me opened suddenly and
Bianca walked in as though she owned the house.
Dressed in an elegant ivory dress, she moved with effortless grace before slipping her arm around Charlie's waist as if she'd never left.
"Thank you," she said, her smile small and cold, "for keeping my place warm while I was gone."
She looked at Charlie and smiled softly. "You've always kept your promise to wait for me."
Her words cut deeper than Charlie's had.
My own sister,looking at me like I was already gone. I felt the sting of tears building and forced them back down. I would not cry in front of either of them.
I thought of every birthday I'd spent making excuses for her absence, every time I'd defended her to our mother, every letter I'd written her during her illness that she never answered. None of it had mattered to her.
I had simply been keeping a seat warm.
"Bianca has been through enough,"
Charlie said.
"She deserves to have me back. Sign the papers, Gabrielle. I'll give you money, a house, whatever you want. Just make this easy."
"You should be grateful," Charlie added.
"Most women leave a marriage with nothing. Don't mistake my generosity for guilt. I don't owe you anything."
I stared at the agreement, my vision blurring at the edges. Signing it would end five years of hoping, of believing, of making myself smaller so he'd have more room to love me.
Some part of me wanted to scream every sacrifice back into his face, to ask him if he remembered the night I sat in a hospital waiting room for him after his accident, or the mornings I rose at five just to see him off with a warm breakfast.
Instead I stayed silent. Begging would only cost me what little pride I had left, and pride was the only thing left that was still mine.
I picked up the pen. My hand was steadier than I expected. I signed page after page, the scratch of ink is the only sound in the room.
I refused his money and the house. At that very point he detests me and I wanted nothing that carried his name.
When I finished, I slipped the wedding ring from my finger and placed it on the divorce papers. The soft metallic click echoed through the silent study, sounding far louder than it should have. For a moment none of us moved, as though the sound itself demanded a kind of silence.
"Charlie…" I made myself look him in the eye.
"I hope the woman you chose is worth everything you're about to lose."
His brows drew together for the briefest moment. It wasn't relief but conclusion.
I saw flicker across his face. as though he couldn't understand why I wasn't on my knees begging him to stay.
Bianca only smiled wider and pulled him closer, savoring her victory.
I turned away from both of them, picked up the small suitcase by the door, and walked out without looking back. My shoes echoed against the marble as I made my way down the long hallway.
The servants still wouldn't look at me. No one tried to stop me. I pushed through the front doors and stepped straight into the storm.
The rain soaked me instantly, cold against my skin, but I barely felt it. I started down the long driveway, Windsor Estate shrinking behind me with every step, taking with it the only life I'd known for five years.
Tears mixed with the rain on my face. My chest ached with each breath, but I kept walking. I thought of the woman I had been when I first arrived at this house, hopeful and naive, certain that love could be built slowly if I was only patient enough. That woman felt like a stranger to me now.
I pressed a hand to my stomach as a wave of dizziness rolled through me.
"Madam!" someone shouted from behind, voice swallowed by the rain.
I didn't turn around. There was nothing left for me at Windsor Estate.
That night, I left Windsor Estate with nothing but a suitcase, a broken heart, and a future I couldn't yet see.
I didn't know I was carrying the one thing Charlie would spend the rest of his life begging to have back.
