Chapter 2—I Accept the Divorce

MONIQUE

Silence crashed over the room.

“D-Divorce?”

I stumbled back one step, the ultrasound photo crumpling tighter in my fist.

Maxwell’s voice was final as he stared down at me with a cold gaze.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “I already made the decision for both of us. The papers aren’t ready yet, but they will be.”

The same man who once whispered I love you against my skin in the dark, who had touched me like I belonged to him alone… now spoke of ending us with the same detached efficiency he used to close a merger.

I never saw this coming…

Or maybe I did. Maybe, in the quiet moments, I had questioned it. The way they looked at each other sometimes—sparks that lingered too long. Behind closed doors, how many unspeakable things had they done while smiling at me, feeding me lies, laughing at my naivety?

Elise tried to reach for me again, eyes wide and pleading.

“Monique, I’m so sorry—”

“Don’t touch me!”

I jerked away so violently that Elise stumbled back with a sharp gasp. For a split second it must have looked like I had shoved her.

Maxwell reacted instantly. He caught her before she could fall, then moved toward me and pushed me hard, his palms slamming into my shoulders.

My knees hit the thick carpet with a dull thud.

“That’s enough,” he warned, voice low and authoritative. “Don’t you dare lay a hand on her in front of our son.”

‘Our son.’

The words carved straight through me. Their son. Not mine. Never mine.

Elise started crying softly, trembling as she looked at me.

“Monique… it was just a mistake. I never meant for any of this to happen. I kept it a secret because I didn’t want to destroy what you two had.”

A mistake.

I wanted to fake a laugh, but the ache in my heart made even that impossible.

My throat burned. “A mistake that made him choose you?”

Maxwell looked down at me, jaw tight, voice flat and controlled.

“You’ve always been convenient, Monique. You never asked for anything complicated. You fit into my life the way I needed you to. That’s all you are to me.”

That’s all?

I let out a broken sob and tried to laugh it off as I turned my head away. “Yeah… how convenient for you.”

Laurel’s voice followed, cool and matter-of-fact. “You’ve always tried very hard, Monique. But you were never part of this family in the same way Elise is. She grew up here. She belongs here.”

Derrick exhaled slowly, almost tired. “You were given a good life. That should be enough, to be honest. But Maxwell needs an heir. A continuation of the Lohr name. That’s something you cannot give him.”

They really believed I was infertile. That quiet little insult they had thrown at me for years—every doctor visit, every disappointed sigh, every time they looked at Ambrose like he was proof of what I could never be.

Elise shook her head quickly, tears slipping down her cheeks.

“I never wanted to hurt you… I really didn’t. But Ambrose is here now. He’s his son too. I just… I couldn’t keep pretending he didn’t exist.”

Every word landed heavy, not loud, just final.

I had given them everything. Every fragile piece of the orphan girl who once had nothing. And somehow… I still wasn’t enough.

My fists trembled around the ultrasound photo, the paper creasing deeper.

The memories hit me then, one after another, sharp as glass.

The night of our fifth anniversary. I had worn the dress he liked, lit candles, waited three hours. Maxwell cancelled at the last minute because Ambrose had a fever. He drove straight to Elise’s side instead.

Another time, Ambrose was scared of the dentist. Maxwell left me waiting in the car for our dinner reservation so he could hold Elise’s hand in the waiting room while the boy cried on her lap.

How many times had he chosen them first? How many nights had I told myself it was just because he was protective? That she was like a sister?

I pushed myself up on shaking legs.

The room tilted slightly. My vision blurred at the edges. But I forced myself upright anyway.

My voice came out quiet.

“I understand.”

A breath.

“I accept the divorce.”

I looked at each of them—Laurel, Derrick, Elise… and finally Maxwell.

For a brief second, something shifted in his eyes.

Then it disappeared, as if he could see through the facade I was putting on.

My lips curved faintly, though it didn’t feel like a smile at all.

“I hope you get the family you wanted. Something real.”

I turned before anyone could respond.

The family I had dreamed of my entire life had never truly been mine.

And it never would be.

The gates blurred behind me as I stumbled down the long driveway, the afternoon sun too bright against my swollen eyes. My sandals slapped against the marble steps, but I barely felt it.

All I could feel was the crushing weight in my chest and the crumpled ultrasound photo still clutched in my fist.

“Ross,” I choked out when I reached the car. “Take me to Chelsea’s clinic. Now.”

My mind kept circling back to Elise—the girl who had always been there.

Laurel and Derrick had raised her as their own. She had grown up in this house, treated like family in every way that mattered.

And I had known about her crush on Maxwell.

Everyone had.

But no one had treated it as something real. In everyone’s eyes, she was just… part of them. Like a sister. Like someone safe.

Maxwell had always been the one to look after her. Always the one she could lean on.

Nothing more.

Or so I believed.

By the time we reached the sleek glass building in the business district, fresh tears still streamed down my face. I pushed through the clinic doors, ignoring the receptionist, and burst straight into Chelsea’s private office.

She was reviewing patient charts, but the moment she looked up, her eyes widened in alarm.

“Mon? What happened?”

“I want an abortion,” I sobbed, collapsing onto the small couch in the corner. The words tore out of me, desperate and ugly.

“I can’t do this, Chels. I can’t.”