DIVORCED, THEN CHOSEN BY THE MAFIA DON AND HIS SON

ANNE.

"Hello, good afternoon, we are from San Conti Medical Center, oncology department. The results of your and Mr. Ray's health examinations from last month are out. The doctor asks you to come back immediately for further examination."

"Sorry, what do you mean?" I asked while wiping the table and stirring the food in the pan.

"We found abnormal cells in your screening results. The doctor needs a biopsy to confirm, but the indication strongly points to cancer. We suggest you come as soon as possible."

The phone slipped from my hand and hit the floor with a loud crash. Cancer?

"Hello, are you still there?"

I quickly picked up the phone. "I'm here, thank you for the information, I will come there soon with my husband."

I hung up and paused for a moment. Cancer? Am I going to die? No, impossible, maybe they made a mistake. I wiped the tears dripping down and suddenly smelled something burning, my cooking had burned and I quickly turned off the stove.

Without thinking, I grabbed my cell phone from the table. My trembling fingers tried to press my husband's number. One call, two calls, three calls until 5 calls but he hadn't picked up.

Finally, on the umpteenth call, the line connected. Before I could speak, Ray's voice sounded angry and annoyed.

"Damn it! What the hell is wrong with you?! I'm busy! You keep calling like a crazy person! What do you want?!"

I tried to take a breath, shouting from my husband was something I was used to hearing.

"Ray, the hospital just called me. The test results are out and I have cancer," I said trying to stay calm.

Silence, he said nothing for a moment and then the sound of a exhale was heard.

"Wait at home. I'm coming home now."

The line disconnected.

I stared at my phone screen that had gone dark, then stared at the room around me. I tried to calm myself. Maybe it's not that bad and maybe it can still be cured.

Ray will come home soon, and we will face it together. That was his promise, right? In joy and sorrow, in sickness and in health. He promised.

Not long after, the sound of a car was heard, I rushed to the window, hoping to see my husband's panicked and worried face but from the passenger side, a woman got out.

Serena, his secretary. She wore a tight silk blouse and pencil skirt, her slim and well maintained body was in stark contrast to my fat body and in her hand, she was holding a boy around 4 years old. The boy had the same eyes and jaw as Ray.

The front door opened. Ray entered first, his face blank without expression. Serena and the boy followed behind him. I stood in the middle of the living room, my eyes moving from Ray to Serena, then to the boy. My brain tried to process this absurd scene.

"Ray? Who is this child? What is happening?" I asked.

Ray didn't even look at me. He walked to the coffee table, placed a folder he was carrying. His hand moved to take out a thick sheet of paper. He pushed it toward me. I could read the large text at the top: DIVORCE AGREEMENT.

"Sign this," he said flatly.

I stared at the letter, then stared at him. My trembling hand lifted, pointing toward the boy.

"Please explain. Who is he? Why is Serena here? I just told you that I have cancer and you give me a divorce paper?"

Ray sighed, like a person tired of explaining something that was already obvious. He looked at me coldly.

"You have cancer. I don't have the time or energy to take care of you and rather than becoming a burden to me, it's better we separate now," he said.

"Burden? We have been married 6 years. You promised..."

"Promise?" Serena stepped forward, still holding the boy's hand. "Mrs. Anne, you should have realized and left a long time ago. You can't give Mr. Ray a child. You can't make him happy. Look at your body. Even looking at you makes him sick. You think he's happy coming home and seeing that?"

She moved her hand toward my body with disgust that was not hidden.

Tears flowed heavily on my cheeks. I stared at my own body, the body I had hated all this time.

"I never wanted to be like this, everything I did to my body was so I could get pregnant. To give you a child, Ray. I sacrificed everything even sacrificed my body to become fat," I said.

Serena pushed the boy forward.

"Well, here is the proof. I can give Mr. Ray a son, and I can still maintain my perfect body shape which you could never do."

I stared at Ray, my eyes searching for a trace of the man I once married. The man who once swore at the altar that he would love me in joy and sorrow. But what I saw was only a stranger with eyes that never knew me. I stared at Serena, the woman who once worked for me and who I gave a job to when she had nothing.

"This company I even built with you, I pioneered it but after we got married I started gaining weight because I was trying to get pregnant, I also took fertility drugs on your suggestion until my body swelled, then you removed me from my position and took my shares with the reason that my fat body damaged our company's image. So you planned all of this from the beginning?" I asked.

Ray shifted his gaze, not wanting to answer.

Serena instead laughed softly. "You're smart too," she said cynically.

I stared at the two of them then stepped forward, even though my legs were shaking.

"I beg you, I can't do this. I have cancer and maybe I will die soon. I don't have money for treatment. I don't have money to pay for my younger sibling's school. Have you forgotten our marriage vows? You promised to give me the love and attention I never got from my parents. You promised, Ray!"

Ray finally looked at me, but there was no pity in his eyes.

"Don't blame me for the destruction of our marriage, you are the one who can't have children. You are the one who became fat and embarrassed me. Your cancer is not my problem, it's your own problem. Sign that letter, and leave," said Ray.

He stepped closer, looking at me with a threatening stare. "One more thing. If you dare to expose my affair to the media, I will stop all the living expenses I have been giving for your younger sibling who is studying abroad. Do you hear? I will make his life miserable. So think carefully, Anne. Sign, and leave quietly or face the consequences."

I stared at the divorce letter on the table, then stared at the faces in front of me. My cheating husband, his cunning secretary, and the child who was proof of their betrayal. Meanwhile inside my body, something deadly was growing and gnawing at me from within.

I had nothing left. No husband, no health, no money. There was only an impossible choice, give up and disappear, or fight and risk my younger sister's future.

Tears flowed heavily on my cheeks. I stared at Ray, the man I once loved with all my soul, and wondered if he had ever truly loved me. Or was I just a stepping stone that he now threw away after I was no longer useful.

With trembling hands, I reached for the pen he placed beside the letter then stared at the two of them, Ray's cold face, Serena's face full of victorious smiles and the small child whose face resembled Ray who was holding his father's hand with a confused expression.