My breath hitched.
So that was all I had ever been? A stand-in? A convenient replacement for the woman he truly wanted?
I had believed him. I had loved him. I had dreamed of building a family together.
I clenched my fists beneath the sheets, blinking back tears.
He thought he had won.
I would let him believe that. For now.
The door opened, and Archie stepped inside, his face a mask of concern, his expression carefully crafted.
"Wendy, you’re awake." He rushed to me, wrapping me in an embrace, pressing kisses to my face as if I meant something to him. As if I mattered.
I did not respond.
He had never cared for me—not truly.
But I would make him pay.
Three days passed before I was discharged from the hospital. I stood at the entrance, staring at the empty driveway. Archie had not come to collect me.
Instead, he had sent his assistant.
"Come, Mrs Knight." Caleb, the man who had long been tasked with handling my affairs while Archie busied himself with his empire, gestured towards the waiting car.
I swallowed my disappointment—an emotion I had grown far too accustomed to. Without a word, I stepped into the vehicle. Caleb shut the door behind me, and the journey home began in silence.
To distract myself, I reached for my phone. A notification appeared. A post on social media.
I tapped it open— and my world crumbled all over again.
A photograph.
Archie and Claire.
They stood side by side in front of a maternity hospital. She was smiling—radiant, joyful. Archie, though turned slightly away from the camera, was unmistakable. He held a newborn wrapped in white, his posture protective.
The caption beneath the image twisted the knife deeper.
[Welcome, our little son. The most beautiful gift of our lives.]
My hands trembled.
Archie wasn’t even trying to hide it.
Tears burned at the back of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.
I had been clinging to a sliver of hope that somewhere, buried beneath all the cruelty, he still cared for me.
But I had been wrong.
Foolishly, painfully wrong.
I curled my fingers into fists. No more tears.
Not for the man who had destroyed me.
I was sitting on the bench in the back garden, letting the afternoon breeze cool my skin when the sound of approaching footsteps reached my ears. I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.
"What are you doing out here alone?" Archie’s voice was light, almost as though nothing had ever happened between us.