Five
975 Words
I slowly walked to the bed, my heart pounding as I reached for the envelope resting on the crumpled sheets. The soft rustling of paper filled the silence, a sound so small yet deafening in the quiet of the room. My fingers trembled as I slid the contents free, my breath catching as my eyes skimmed over the first few lines.
Growing up in an orphanage, I had always longed for a place to belong. I had no family, no one who cared whether I was safe, happy, or even alive. The older I got, the more I understood that no one was coming for me. The younger children always got adopted first, sweet babies with bright eyes and contagious giggles. Teenagers like me? We were a lost cause.
But then, Mr. Smith came into my life.
He had been a regular volunteer at the orphanage, always bringing books and helping with schoolwork. While most of the volunteers favored the younger children, he took an interest in me. He saw past the tough exterior I had built to protect myself. He saw the girl who had spent years convincing herself she didn’t need love, when in truth, she had been starving for it.
At sixteen, when I had given up all hope of finding a family, he adopted me.
For the first time, I had a home. A father. Someone who asked how my day was, who made sure I ate dinner, who told me I was important, that I mattered. I hadn’t realized how much I needed those things until I had them.
But life had a cruel way of taking away the things I cherished.
When he passed away, I was alone again.
The loneliness was unbearable, suffocating. It was as if I had been tossed back into the emptiness of my childhood, the aching hollowness of having no one. I had thought I would never escape that feeling, but then, Jaxon entered my life.
Marrying Jaxon had felt like salvation. He and his grandmother, Ms. Sarah, became the family I had lost. I wasn’t alone anymore. I had people to call my own, a home filled with warmth and laughter, at least in the beginning.
But even in those early days, a part of me had known the truth. Jaxon had never loved me.
I had ignored the signs, convinced myself that love could grow, that one day he would look at me the way I looked at him. I had clung to that hope, even as the distance between us stretched wider and wider, even as he began treating me like a stranger rather than a wife.
And now, as I stared at the bold letters at the top of the papers in my hands, I knew I had lost the battle.
Divorce agreement. The words blurred through my tears, but their meaning was as clear as the pain slicing through my chest.
I swallowed the lump in my throat, my hands shaking as I reached for the small slip of paper tucked behind the legal documents. A check. Blank.
I let out a bitter laugh, the sound hollow, almost hysterical. Was this what our marriage had been reduced to? A transaction? A price to erase the years I had spent loving him?
Tears streamed down my face as I tore the check into tiny pieces, watching them flutter to the floor like shattered dreams. He thought this was about money. He thought he could pay me off and walk away, as if I had been nothing more than a convenience, an obligation.
How little he had understood me.
I had wanted to explain about the money Ms. Sarah had transferred to my account. The two million dollars had come as a shock to me too. I hadn’t asked for it, hadn’t even known about it until I saw the notification from the bank. I had wanted to tell Jaxon the truth, but I knew it wouldn’t have mattered.
His mind had already been made up.
I walked over to the dresser, my legs weak beneath me, and pulled out a pen. My fingers felt numb as I pressed the tip to the paper, signing away my marriage with a few strokes of ink. My vision blurred as my tears fell onto the crisp white pages, smudging the letters, the last remnants of a life I had desperately tried to hold onto.
I lifted my hand, my gaze landing on the diamond ring wrapped around my finger. It had once been a symbol of promises, of forever. Now, it was nothing more than a painful reminder of the love I had given freely, only to receive nothing in return.
Slowly, I pulled it off, my breath hitching as the metal slipped from my skin. It felt foreign, unnatural. For years, I had worn it with pride, believing that it meant something. Now, it sat beside the divorce papers, cold and lifeless.
Just like our marriage.
A violent clap of thunder shook the house, rattling the windows. The storm outside raged on, but inside, I felt nothing. Just emptiness.
I turned to the mirror, my reflection staring back at me. Swollen eyes, tear-streaked cheeks, lips trembling with unsaid words. This wasn’t the woman who had walked down the aisle years ago, hopeful and full of dreams. That woman had believed in love, in second chances.
She was gone now.
I reached up, touching my face as if trying to recognize the person I had become. How much of myself had I lost in this marriage? How much had I given, only to be discarded like I was nothing?
I had spent years fighting for us, for him. Holding onto the hope that one day, Jaxon would see me. That he would love me.
But he never did.
And now, it was over.
- Writer
