I Loved Him for Seven Years Until He Broke Me

Chapter 4 The Bracelet Meant for Someone Else

While preparing the divorce documents, I took out my long-neglected camera and began accepting small jobs, including promotional shoots and model portraits.

I never went looking for the woman Julian was seeing. Whether she was innocent or not, the person most at fault in this marriage was Julian. But what I hadn't expected was that she would come looking for me.

At first, I thought she was just a stranger reaching out for a photoshoot.

Lydia Shaw's profile was clean and minimal. Her latest post showed her hand intertwined with a man's. The caption read: The moonlight has finally found me.

Her fingers were slender and fair, laced through his. On his hand was a wedding band.

I knew that ring all too well. It was Julian's. The man in that photo was my husband.

I didn't know what kind of mindset it took to wear a wedding ring while falling in love with someone else.

On Lydia's wrist was a delicate silver bracelet, slender and luminous, its stones catching the light like liquid moonlight.

I had seen that design before in one of Julian's discarded sketches, yet his company had never released the bracelet. I had once asked him why.

It was a soft, romantic design that any woman would love. He had simply said it wasn't perfect yet, that maybe one day, when it met his expectations, he would bring it into the world.

Back then, I had foolishly believed he was saving it for me as a gift for our seventh anniversary.

Now it existed, and it was on someone else's wrist. The bracelet was called Moonlight, and from the very beginning, it had never been meant for me.

A bitter smile curved my lips as I kept scrolling.

In another photo, Lydia wore a red Christmas outfit, the hem of her dress barely skimming the tops of her thighs as she clasped her hands together, making a wish.

That photo was from last Christmas, which meant Julian had betrayed our marriage long before I ever found out.

Her posts were filled with subtle hints. I knew they were meant for me.

She couldn't wait for me to notice, uncover the truth, and walk away so she could take my place as Mrs. Cole.

She addressed me sweetly in her messages, calling me Elle, and the texts kept coming one after another.

Lydia: I've seen your work. Your portraits are beautiful.

Lydia: I wanted to book a couple's shoot, but my boyfriend is just too busy.

Then she sent a photo of her collarbone. Marks still lingered there.

Lydia: Will this affect tomorrow's shoot? I tried concealer, but it doesn't completely cover them.

The image of Julian tangled up with her flashed through my mind. My stomach churned violently.

My phone kept buzzing as more photos came through, this time showing her posing in silk sleepwear in front of a mirror.

Then she changed her mind.

Lydia: I don't want an outdoor shoot anymore. Do you do private sessions?

Lydia: I can pay extra.

Her body was young, perfectly proportioned in all the ways men desired. No wonder Julian couldn't control himself. Men, after all, were creatures ruled by desire.

Lydia didn't care whether I replied. She wasn't here to book a shoot. She was here to show me that she had taken my husband.

Lydia: Elle, you're married, right?

Lydia: You should know exactly what kind of photos a man would love.

Lydia: Men like innocence in public… and something else entirely in private.

Lydia: Honestly, a lifeless partner is boring. The kind of connection that's both emotional and physical, even if it's sinful, is hard to give up, isn't it?

Every word she sent felt like an arrow piercing straight through my chest. My fingers tightened around my phone, turning pale as I exhaled slowly. Then I replied.

Elena: Tomorrow morning. Let's meet at the coffee shop.

I sent her the address and closed the chat without reading anything else she sent.

I had no doubt she would come, because after everything she had said and done, this was exactly what she wanted—to meet me.

It was almost laughable. Instead of pressuring Julian to divorce me, she had gone out of her way to reach the wife.

But she understood men. They crave warmth and excitement outside while still wanting a stable, understanding wife at home.

They were calculating and self-serving. They knew they could indulge themselves as long as they preserved the image of their family.

When the other woman realized she could not win through him, she turned to the wife, hoping she would break and destroy the marriage herself so she could take her place.

In that sense, Julian and Lydia were the same. They were both selfish and driven entirely by their own interests.

And I was willing to let them have each other, not out of kindness, but because I knew that only by being together would they finally get what they deserved.