Dear Ex husband Damn you

Nina's POV

“I can’t believe Damian is actually married to that fat pig,” Someone giggled behind me at the funeral but I ignored them.

I was already used to such comments,  and besides, I was here to bury the only person in this family who ever cared about me, and that was where my focus needed to stay.

The worst thing I could have ever imagined had already happened to me, so what did I care about a few nasty comments?

At least, that was what I thought before my husband suddenly divorced me a few hours later.

We had just returned from Grandfather’s funeral… the only man in the entire aristocratic Knight family who had ever looked at me with a shred of genuine kindness and now my chest was hollow, from grief.

But as soon as I stepped over the threshold of the grand mansion, a thick stack of papers was violently slapped against my chest before I could even close the door behind me.

I gaped in shock, and watched, as the white papers slipped from my damp coat and scattered across the dark floor.

My exhausted brain reeled in confusion before I forced myself to look down, and the bold, clinical words printed on the cover sheet burned themselves into my eyes:

Petition for Dissolution of Marriage. 

"Divorce papers…?" My voice was ragged from all my previous tears as I struggled to understand what was happening.

My husband, Damian… the only man I had ever loved, the man I had spent twelve years of my life serving and loving, was divorcing me after I had slaved away my youth to his family?

First I had served as a quiet, invisible maid who dusted his books for the first 10 years, but for the last two years, I had been his legal, faithful, loving wife who had given him everything he had ever asked for.

So No, it wasn’t possible. Damian wouldn’t just throw me away like that. No.

I blinked rapidly, as tears began blurring my vision, but I kept desperately hoping I was hallucinating from the sheer lack of sleep and the agonizing stress of the past few weeks.

But then, Damian suddenly spoke and his voice sliced through the heavy silence of the room.

"Sign them, and get out of my house Nina. This sham of a marriage is over," he hissed, in a tone as cold and sharp as cracked ice.

I stared up at him, my heart hammering violently against my ribs in disbelief.

We had literally just gotten back from the graveyard. The damp dirt on Grandfather’s casket hadn't even settled yet. He hadn't been resting in the earth for a full day, and my husband was already casting me aside like garbage.

"Damian..." My voice cracked, thick with unshed tears. "What is this? How can you do this today of all days?"

He elegantly adjusted his diamond cufflinks, completely detached, barely giving a glance at my face. "There is no reason for us to remain married, Nina. You know as well as I do that the only reason I ever put a ring on your finger was to fulfill the old man's dying wish. Now that he’s gone, this tragic excuse for a marriage has served its purpose. It's over."

He stepped closer, and his dark, piercing eyes slowly swept down my body. Then a look of raw, disgust crossed his handsome features. And automatically, I pulled my coat tighter around myself, trying to hide the soft curves of my body.

Over the last two years, the crushing weight of a loveless marriage, the absolute isolation, and the deep, suffocating depression of being ignored had completely broken me. I had turned to food just to feel a fleeting moment of comfort in a house that felt like a cage. I had become chubby, after gaining a significant amount of weight, and that fact clearly disgusted him.

To the elite, image-obsessed Knight family, my plus-size figure was a cardinal sin. They had originally despised me from the moment Grandfather elevated me from a maid to a daughter-in-law, but my recent weight gain gave them the perfect excuse to treat me like an absolute embarrassment.

"Look at yourself, Nina," Damian sneered with disdain. "You didn't even try to fit into my world. You completely let yourself go. Did you honestly think a Knight would ever proudly present a fat, shapeless wife to high society? Aside from your face, you are an eye-sore. You don't fit the mold of a billionaire's wife, and you never will. Nobody would ever want a woman who looks like you, so stop forcing yourself on me."

The words cut deeper than any physical blade ever could and the pain of his betrayal bled through my chest.

For a decade, I had cleaned every inch of this very house, washed his clothes, and anticipated his every need, hoping he would see my devotion. Instead, all he saw was a fat woman who didn't fit his superficial standards.

"I’ve already had the lawyers draw up a generous settlement," he continued smoothly, as if he were discussing a minor corporate merger, completely oblivious to the way my soul was dying. "I've transferred fifteen million dollars to your account. That’s more than enough for someone like you. It's certainly enough to ensure you never have to go back to cleaning houses for a living."

Someone like you.

His words burned like acid in my chest. To him, I wasn't a partner. I wasn't a human being with feelings. I was just the charity-case maid who had overstepped her boundaries.

"I don't... I don't want your money," I choked out, shaking my head as hot tears finally spilled over my lashes.

Damian let out a harsh, mocking scoff at me. "Please. Everyone wants my money. That is exactly why you manipulated my grandfather in his final years, isn't it? Don’t bother denying it, you greedy gold digger."

"Can we... can we please just discuss this later?" I pleaded, my hands trembling violently as I clutched my stomach. "Just wait until the mourning period is over. Our family tradition requires one month of mourning for the entire household. Grandfather meant everything to me, Damian. Please, just let me properly grieve alongside the family first. Then I will sign whatever you want. Just give me one month."

"No," he said flatly. “You can’t even stay one more hour in this house. I want you gone, now!”

I gaped at him in shock at his heartlessness. "Why? Why the rush to throw me out into the storm?"

"Because my Vivian’s plane lands today." He smirked and the name struck me like a physical blow, knocking the remaining air straight out of my lungs.

Vivian.

He was talking about Vivian my sister. The slender, glamorous, perfect sister who had always possessed everything I was denied.

"I’m leaving shortly to pick her up from the airport," Damian explained. "And I don’t want her arriving at her new home and finding you still living in this house."

A sick, suffocating realization washed over me.

So, my suspicions were right. He had been having a secret affair with my sister while I cooked his meals, cleaned his home and waited every day for him to come home.

I wasn't blind. I had noticed the late-night phone calls, the secret, soft smiles he directed at his phone screen, the way her name casually slipped into his conversations over the past few months. But hearing him confirm it so casually, right after his grandfather's burial, was agonizing.

Damian, my husband, had been having an affair with my sister, and he was throwing me away like trash to clear a path for her.

"Okay," I whispered, from the sheer exhaustion crashing over me. "I’ll sign them. But please, Damian, I’m begging you for one small favor. One week. Just give me one single week. It’s enough time to finish the basic mourning rituals, and enough time for me to find a cheap apartment. I just need a few days to prepare myself for starting over completely alone."

"I said no. The maids already packed your bags, so take them and leave now!"

He lifted a cold, dismissive hand and pointed toward the grand front entrance. I followed his gaze, and my heart stopped.

Stacked neatly by the door was my luggage. Every single suitcase I owned, every cardboard box of my meager belongings, already packed and waiting. He had planned this entire eviction before I even came home from the cemetery.

The humiliation washed over me in sick, hot waves. I didn't feel like a wife being separated from her husband. I felt like an unwanted, oversized piece of furniture being tossed into a dumpster.

Damian crossed his arms, utterly unmoved by my tears. "Save the fake tears, Nina. You manipulated an old man to climb into the Knight family, and it isn't going to work on me."

Every ounce of self-respect yelled at me to turn around and walk out into the rain. But I couldn't, because I had a secret… a terrifying, fragile possibility that changed everything.

And For that reason alone, I had to swallow my pride and began to kneel down, even if it completely destroyed me.

Slowly, and agonizingly, I lowered my heavy frame on my knees on the freezing marble floor.

And For the very first time, a flicker of genuine surprise crossed Damian’s face as he looked down at me.

"Please," I sobbed, looking up at the man I had loved with every fiber of my being. "One week. Damian, I am begging you on my knees. Just one week. That is all I ask."

His expression hardened instantly, replacing the brief surprise with that same impenetrable wall of ice. "I said No."

I opened my mouth to keep begging, but suddenly, the edges of my vision began to turn into darkness.

The room suddenly started to spin wildly and a heavy, suffocating tightness gripped my chest, squeezing so hard I couldn't draw oxygen.

The crushing grief, the utter betrayal of my sister, and the cruel insults about my body crashed down on me and I began to get dizzy.

"Damian..." I wheezed, reaching a trembling hand out toward his polished shoes. "Something's... wrong..."

Through my rapidly fading vision, I saw him watching me with cold disbelief, entirely convinced I was just putting on another pathetic, desperate performance to gain his pity.

Then, before I could say another word, the darkness pulled me completely under, and my body hit the marble floor with a heavy, thud.