Chapter 0002

•CAMILLA•

I leaned back from Lucius and felt the ground under my feet trembling. A tear silently rolled down my eye, and my heart ripped open.

“I’ve done everything for you and this family. I gave my life and even my soul to this marriage. Even the time when your company barely made any money. Why are you doing this to me now?”

His mother stood up, frowning. “My son doesn’t owe a wretched and barren woman any explanation about why he wants to marry a capable woman. The only thing you can do for yourself is to leave my son alone and give him the divorce that he wants.”

My stomach turned as I looked at Lucius, who didn’t show any emotion whatsoever about what his mother was saying to me.

“So, you brought another woman to our home to bring me shame and dishonor?” I asked.

“Sasha is my fiancé, and she has every right to come here. Our marriage is over, Alisha. Plus, we don’t have any kids, so I believe it will be easy for us to go our separate ways.”

Well, of course. We didn’t have any kids of our own, but soon, he was going to have one with her.

“We’ve been married for 3 years!” I snapped at the top of my voice. “I don’t deserve this, Lucius. This is not how I’m supposed to be treated in my husband’s home!”

Without another warning, Lucius slapped me again. This time, his eyes blazed with hate.

I saw something that I had never seen in him before. I knew at that very moment that I had lost my husband, and no matter what I did or said to him, he was never coming back to me.

“Leave my sight, now!” he commanded me.

I didn’t hesitate as I turned around and hurried to our bedroom. When I got inside, I closed the door behind me and leaned my back against it.

I closed my eyes and cried, sliding down the door until I sat on the floor.

“Open this fucking door!” Olivia’s voice called from the other side of the door.

I got up and opened it, and before I could ask her questions, she shoved me out of the way and headed to the closet.

“Olivia, what are you doing?” I asked when I saw her taking all my clothes out from the shelves and throwing them on the floor.

“Something that Lucius could’ve done a long time ago.” She took out all my clothes from the racks, and when she was done, she turned to me with a frown, her finger pointed at me.

“Now, you’re going to leave my son alone. I will no longer tolerate anything that has to do with you. The last thing I want is for my son to grow old with no one to further his line.”

“So, you know that she’s pregnant? You knew all along that he was seeing her behind my back?” I asked.

“Of course, he’s my son.” She snarled. “You didn’t think that I was going to stop him from being with someone much better than you, did you?”

I felt a pang in my heart, and my throat instantly felt dry. Something about what she said caused a knot in my stomach.

When she had said her piece and rendered me speechless, she walked past me and left the closet room.

I sat down on the floor and cried.

When I suddenly had an idea to ruin the dinner that was going on in the dining room, I got up from the floor and left the room.

I walked down the stairs with my chest fuming, and that’s when I stopped in my footsteps when I saw Lucius with her outside the house near the swimming pool.

Without thinking twice, I walked to the door and slammed it behind me. They both tilted their heads and looked at me in shock.

“Is this why you asked for a divorce, Lucius?” I sneered. “You asked for a divorce because of this thing!” I pointed at her. “Can’t you see that she’s here because of all this luxury that you accumulated because of me?”

“What is your problem, Alisha?” Lucius asked. “I thought I made myself clear that she’s my fiancé, and I love her.”

My heart skipped a beat at his response, and I felt every limb in my body growing weak.

I couldn’t believe that he could say such a thing to me in front of her.

“You and I are married,” I breathed, wiping the tears that were rolling down my cheeks. “Is it really our childlessness that has driven you to this hatred toward me?”

“Hey,” Sasha tapped Lucius on the shoulder, and he turned and looked at her. The way his eyes lingered on hers caused my heart to break even more.

He looked at her as if I weren’t there. As if I weren’t his wife.

“Do you mind giving us a moment?” She glanced at me and then looked at Lucius. “I’d like us to talk woman-to-woman.”

“Are you sure? I don’t trust her. I don’t want her to hurt you.”

“Don’t worry, she won’t. Besides, I’m a big girl, and I can take care of myself. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Lucius leaned forward and looked down at me with contempt. “If you do anything to her, you will see a side of me you’ve never seen before. Do you understand?”

The lump in my throat prevented me from saying anything to him. So I just looked at him and allowed the tears at the corners of my eyes to spill.

Lucius didn’t even seem to care that I was in pain because of him.

He just scoffed as he walked past me, closed the door, and left me with Sasha.

“You heard him, Alisha. He’s mine now. So, do yourself a favor and leave him for me. I don’t want any trouble with you, but if you resist the divorce, you and I will surely have a problem, and trust me, you wouldn’t want that.”

“Is that a threat?” I asked as she closed the small gap between us.

“I don’t have a problem with you, but for Lucius, you don’t want to be my problem.”

I gulped at her words and leaned back from her. I was trying to restrain myself from doing anything to her.

“He’s my husband.”

“Not anymore. He’s not. Perhaps you need some motivation to show you that the man is now mine.”

I looked at her, confused, and for a split second, I thought she was going to push me into the pool when I turned back from the pool, but Sasha turned her back against the pool, locked eyes with mine, and walked backward to the pool.

Before I could comprehend what she was doing, she winked at me and then fell into the pool on her back.

“Lucius!” I screamed as I ran to the edge of the pool, thinking that she was going to keep her head above the water, but she was drowning.

“What’s happening here?” Lucius asked after closing the door behind him and rushing to the pool.

“I don’t know - She -“ I stuttered, confused and not sure what to make of what just happened.

Lucius jumped into the pool and pulled Sasha out. She kept coughing and gasping for air, and when she tilted her head and saw me, she clutched tightly to him.

“What’s wrong?” He asked as he looked at me and then at her. “What happened?”

“She pushed me into the pool.”