Chapter 1

Alaria:

“Liam, no.”

I said, looking at my husband who sat quietly, staring at me as if I was some kind of lunatic. His eyes were cold and void of any emotion. It was as if this was the most casual thing that he was throwing at me and he was just expecting me to accept it. “I am not going to sign these papers. Not like this. I'm not going to agree to something like this.”

“I am not asking your permission, Alaria. I am telling you to sign them. Whether or not you agree does not concern me.”

He, the man I once loved, the man I trusted with every broken part of me, the man who once held me as though the world would crumble if he let go, spoke like I was a burden. Like I was the one ruining everything.

“It is going to be a lot easier if you sign them without a problem.” He said, crossing his arms over his chest. He walked towards the hearth and I watched as he poured himself a glass of whiskey.

I blinked, staring at the ink-stained line with my name already printed above it. He had already signed his part, he was just waiting for me to sign mine. My hands trembled, but I kept them clenched at my sides.

“What do you mean it's going to be easier?” I whispered, barely recognizing my own voice. “You’re asking me to let go of everything like it means nothing. You’re walking away from this, from me, without even giving me a reason. You did not even consider to come and talk to me about it, you know, as a woman, as your wife, for you to come and discuss this with me.”

“There was no need for me to discuss this with you. The two of us know that our marriage was nothing more than a deal.”

“Yes, it started out as a deal, but it ended up being something that is real. You know that!” I took a step forward, needing him to see the truth, to feel it. “After everything I’ve endured for you… with you… you’re really just throwing it all away. Why? What happened? What did I do to make you change like this?”

My hand moved to my stomach, cradling it gently through the fabric of my dress. He didn’t notice. He never really noticed anything anymore. He didn't even know about it. I wanted it to be a surprise, but it seemed to me that it fate had other plans.

Just a little longer, I told the life growing inside me. I need you to hold on.

“I gave you years, Liam,” I continued, forcing down the lump in my throat. “I gave you my name, my loyalty, my youth, and you give me this? Paperwork? And needless to say, that paperwork means ending everything that I believed was real between the two of us. A divorce paper.”

There was so much I wanted to say, so many words trapped behind the steel walls of pride and heartbreak. But he just looked at me, unbothered, unmoved.

“It’s because of her, isn’t it?” I asked, my voice barely more than breath as I wrapped my arms around myself. “It was always about her.”

“It’s you who never understood,” he said coldly. “There was never anything between us beyond duty. We married because of the contract, and that contract is now fulfilled.”

I flinched at the way he said contract, like I’d been nothing more than a signed deal, a pawn on a legal page.

“I don’t think we need to keep pretending. I’m tired of pretending. Aren’t you?” He asked, sighing. “Aren't you tired of playing lovers all the time when there is nothing that is real between the two of us?”

“Liam…” I tried, my voice cracking.

But he cut me off.

“No one is ignoring anything,” he said. “I’m giving you an out. I’m telling you to take it. Go live your life. Isn’t that what you always wanted? You had dreams. You wanted school. Freedom. A normal life. Why are you clinging to something that was never supposed to be permanent?”

Because I loved you, my mind whispered.

But I didn’t say it. I wouldn’t give him that. He didn't deserve it.

“Is that it?” he pushed, standing now, looming tall with that Alpha stance he wore like armor. “You got a taste of power, and now you don’t want to let it go? Is that why you’re fighting this?”

Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I wouldn’t cry for him.

“Things will be simpler if you just sign them, Alaria,” he said, almost tired now. “Dragging this out isn’t going to help anyone.”

“Well, suddenly deciding to throw a marriage away without discussion doesn’t help anyone either.” I looked him in the eye, letting my heartbreak bleed into my stare. “You didn’t even try to talk to me. You just decided. And you are expecting me to just accept it because you want this to end? Just as everything went around in our lives, whatever you wanted had to happen. Whether or not I agree to it, you did not really care.”

His expression didn’t change.

Silence stretched between us like a canyon.

I reached for the pen.

Not because I agreed.

Not because I forgave him.

But because I was done begging for something he’d already buried.

I signed slowly, the tip of the pen cutting through every last thread of my pride. And when I pushed the paper back across the desk, I didn’t look up.

“You’ll regret this,” I said softly.

“Oh, I doubt that I will.” He said, looking at the papers as if they were everything that he could have ever wished for.

His voice didn’t shake. His hands didn’t tremble. But mine did.

“Go to hell.” I said, taking a step back. “Because that's the one place where I believe that you might be welcome, Alpha…”