2. An asshole

Alex felt as if a part of him just left him, he quickly rushed upstairs to the direction caro went. Her room.

He needed to get his full control back. He's already feeling like he's lost her forever, even when she's still in the house. And what does she meant by divorce?

Never!

He needed to scream and scare her so she could tremble and dance to his command, erasing those plans from her head.

 Caro had met Alex when she was about graduating in school. Caro has a soft and sweet heart that she took pity on Henry, a little boy on a wheel chair at BMS children playground. She saw how he was struggling to get a hold of his balloon that slipped away from his hand and she couldn't keep her eyes away, she helped grabbed and retuned it to him. 

Henry was about three years old, his smile were too cute that caro sat on the grass and started gisting with him, also asking after his guardian but Henry didn't say anything meaningful. Henry felt homely and so happy to the extent that he didn't want her to go again. 

Just then Alex walked in with two pop corns on his hands. He'd gone to get the sweetest milky popcorn in the queue, leaving Henry all by himself. 

He met a beautiful lady with son.

Caro.

They exchanged pleasantries and he thanked her for keeping his son company but their eyes stuck on each other that they couldn't pull away.

Henry asked "daddy, is she my mummy?"

Alex coughed surprisingly, he didn't expected that so quick. Caro chuckled.

Alex didn't want to let her go either. He found out she'd be graduating soon. He professed his love to her and pleaded for her to accept him so they could take care of Henry together seeing how he loves her. Making her know she could give Henry motherly love he couldn't get for three years he's mother abandoned him.

Their relationship turned rosy but looks as if it was a one sided love or maybe caro didn't noticed. She was the one emotionally invested in the relationship. Alex was just there but not really into her. Caro who had no family of her own, as an orphan who's been alone all her life felt comfort for the first time, now finally happy not to have only found a rich billionaire who loves her but also a family of her own now. She cherished the relationship more than Alex himself.

Months later, she graduated and got a job as a cyber security agent. She dedicated half of her time to Henry making sure the child is well taken care of, and with this, Alex saw she could play a sweeter role in the child's life more than anyone else. 

He decided to propose to her and promised to take care of her if she quits her job and accept his proposal. He'd give her the whole world and anything she asks if. Caro couldn't hold her joy.

A dream come true.

They got married and caro moved in with him.

She found out Alex didn't really love her but nevertheless she's glad, she finally got a home.

Alex harsh words pushed her out of her thoughts, he bashed the door open.

"What the fuck did you mean by those words?"

Caro didn’t look up, her head buried into her legs. She sat on the edge of the bed, the photographs spread around her like the ashes of a burned-down house. She had been staring at them for nearly half an hour, still hoping foolishly, that her mind was playing tricks. That it was some cruel joke. That someone could announce a game over but it wasn’t.

And now, he was standing there. Still full of nerve, ergo like he'd always done. Still pretending this wasn’t his fault.

“ I asked you a question,” he said, arms folded. “Are you going to keep sulking like a child, or are you going to get over it and cook something decent for us to eat?”

She slowly looked up, eyes red but dry. “You really think this is about meals?”

Alex scoffed, stepping farther into the room. “ It’s always about something with you, isn’t it? One day it’s the bills. Then it’s me being late. Now it’s this?” He gestured toward the photographs with casual disdain. “You’ re overreacting.”

“Overreacting?” she whispered, stunned.

“Yes,” he snapped. “ It’s just pictures. They don’t change anything.” Her voice grew firmer. “They change everything, Alex.”

“ No, they don’t,” he said, shaking his head. “You’ re my wife. You’ re in this house. You take care of it. You look after my son. That’s your job. I go out, I deal with the real world and still return to you, you shouldn't be ungrateful Caro”

“The real world?” she echoed, anger simmering now.

“ Exactly. You think staying at home makes you important?” he laughed cruelly. “You’ re a housewife, Caro. Stay in your lane.”

She stared at him, her heart thudding, her mind absorbing the cold cruelty in his voice. “ I gave up everything to build a home with you,” she said, her voice shaky.

He snorted. “ No one forced you.”

“ damn you Alex! You promised me real love. You told me I was your partner.”

“ But yes you are ! You are in this house. In my life. You just forgot your place.” Caro stood.

There was a pause, brief, electricified. “ My place?” she repeated.

Alex’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. Your place is here. Raising our kid. Cleaning the house. Not digging through my business like some desperate detective.”

“You call this your business?” she snapped, holding up one of the photos.

“ I told you already, it meant nothing,” he barked. “She’s the one with the money, the meals you we take, the house we live in, everything! I do what I have to do. You wouldn’t understand.”

“ No, I don’t,” Caro said, her voice firm now, with fury. “ Because I don’t use people. I don’t sleep with my ex to pay rent. I don’t walk around with that smug, entitled look on my face like the world owes me or I own the world.”

He stepped closer, eyes dark. “ Don’t raise your voice at me, mind your words Caro.” “Or what?” she challenged, lifting her chin.

There was a tense silence. A cold war in the bedroom, two people on opposite sides of a crumbling marriage.

Alex took a deep breath, brows furrowing. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. You’ re too emotional. Dramatic. Always making things bigger than they are. You’ve gone soft since you stopped working. All this free time has turned your brain to mush.”

Her hand balled into a fist at her side.

“You know what the real problem is?” he continued, eyes burning with contempt. “You think you’ re owed something just because you folded a few clothes and wiped some countertops. Please. You couldn’t last a week in my shoes.”

“ No,” Caro said, stepping forward, “because unlike you, I have a conscience. I have integrity and I would never disrespect someone I claimed to love.”

“ I gave you a roof over your head,” he shot back. “You live here because I allowed it. Everything you touch, my money paid for it.”

“ No,” she corrected, voice like steel. “ Bella’s money paid for it. The woman you crawled back to. The woman you still see.”

“ I do what I want,” he added. “ I’ve earned that right.”

“ Earned it how, Lazy?” she said, tears threatening but refusing to fall. “ By lying? By humiliating me? By using me like a babysitter you can sleep next to?”

“You’ re overreacting again,” he said. “You’ re lucky I came back at all.” That was it.

The last string inside her snapped. Caro’s voice was steady. Calm now. “ I still stand on my decision and it's final Alex. I need a divorce.”

Alex froze, blinking as if the words were foreign. “What? You dare not! Don't dare me Caro...”

“You heard me,” she said, stepping away from him, pulling open the closet doors. “ I’m done. You don’t get to keep me in this prison you built with deceive ness and call it love.”

His laugh was harsh and mocking. “You’ re not serious. You think you can survive without me? We are your only family”

“ I know I can,” she said.

“And what about my son? Our son? Huh?” His tone turned venomous. “You’ re going to take him too? Play the innocent victim card?”

“ I’m not taking him,” she said coldly. “ I’ve raised him. I’ve loved him when you didn’t even have the time to kiss him goodnight. When you didn't even want to wake up to take him to the clinic when he's burnning, when I stayed awake with him and sing him lullaby every night. I earned the right to call myself his mother.”

“ He’s not even your biological son, so that start nonsense pity mother here,” Alex growled.

“ But I’ve been more of a parent than you’ll ever be.”

Alex stepped forward, his voice dropping into something crueler. “ listen.....You walk out of that door, don’t expect anything. No money, no pleading, no help, no family. You’ll come crawling back, and I won’t be here.”

Caro met his glare without flinching. “Then I’ll crawl if I have to. But I won’t crawl back to you." She turned her back to him and began packing a small bag.

He stood there for a long moment, as if waiting for her to break, to cry or even to beg.

But she didn’t.

She just kept folding her clothes and for the first time, Alex didn’t know what to say.