Chapter 10

Instead of looking upset like Marcus expected, I actually looked relieved to see the divorce papers all signed. There was no panic on my face at all, which made Marcus feel angry and confused about how easily I could leave him.

He pulled Sophia close and smiled down at me with a cruel look.

"Next month, I'm going to marry Sophia as my legal wife. You, as her sister, are invited too." His voice was cold and sharp. "Unlike you, who could never give me a child, Sophia will do everything a Moretti family wife should do. Her children will be my heirs."

Sophia's eyes lit up with excitement. She hadn't expected Marcus to marry her so soon.

"Ava, I know you loved Marcus a lot, but please try to understand, sister. You can't force someone to love you back," she said with fake sweetness in her voice.

I squeezed my hands into tight fists, trying to stay calm even though my heart was breaking into pieces. It would have been okay if he just replaced me - I had no hope left for Marcus anyway. But to say that I could never be a mother? That cut deeper than anything else.

He crushed my heart without any mercy.

The office felt too small, too hot. The smell of Sophia's expensive Dior perfume made me feel sick.

"Goodbye, sister Ava." Sophia's smile was full of mockery. "If you want, I can make you one of my bridesmaids."

"I'd rather die," I whispered under my breath.

I ran out of the office with tears filling my eyes, not caring about anything anymore. I just needed to get away from them. But as I rushed through the glass doors outside the building, I crashed right into someone, and my body fell backward from the impact.

The next moment, gentle arms caught me and held me tight, stopping me from hitting the ground.

Looking up through my blurry, tear-filled eyes, I apologized quickly.

"I-I'm sorry, please forgive me... it was my fault."

"No."

The answer surprised me, and I stopped moving to look up at the person who caught me. It was a man wearing a black mask that covered half his face. Beautiful blue eyes stared back at me with concern.

"If you're really sorry, you better make up for my loss." He pointed to the spilled coffee on the ground, which made me feel even worse.

"Okay." I fumbled with my purse, trying to find some money, but he stopped me.

"Not like that. There's a cake shop near the office. Buy me something there."

The weird request made me stop crying as I pouted like a child.

"Fine. But if you're trying to kidnap me, you should know that I don't have any money, and I have no family to pay ransom for me. Also, I just got fired today." My complaint made him laugh in a warm, rich way.

"Alright, let's postpone the kidnapping for later then—"

"Wait, what? Are you really going to kidnap me?"

"No, darling." He spoke clearly, then muttered something under his breath that sounded like, 'Even if I wanted to kidnap you, Ava, I'm not exactly a kidnapper.'

"What did you say?"

"Nothing. Let's just go."

We walked to the bakery shop, and this shameless man didn't think twice before ordering what looked like a whole buffet - raspberry cheesecake, chocolate chip cookies, a blueberry milkshake, and so many other things.

Strangely, all of the items he ordered were my favorites. We got a table by the window with a beautiful view of the Seine River.

"What, you're not going to eat any of this?" I asked angrily, just thinking about how much money all this food cost. Just because I spilled his coffee, he made me buy him a feast.

"I don't like sweets."

By now, my stress and tears had completely disappeared, and I looked ready to murder this man.

"What?!"

"Since you spent so much money on it, why don't you try how it tastes?" Even though I couldn't see his whole face, I could hear his voice become gentle, and it looked like he was smiling behind that mask.

"I hate that I bumped into you!" I shouted. My pregnancy hormones were making me drool over all the food, so I dove in without caring about this stranger. If I paid for it, I might as well enjoy every bite.

The raspberry cheesecake melted on my tongue like heaven. For the first time in days, I felt a little bit happy.

When I had almost finished eating everything, the man's phone rang, making him sigh deeply.

"It was nice meeting you, stranger. Now I have to go." He stood up and put some dollar on the table.

Suddenly it hit me - this was a complete stranger, and I had been eating with him like we were old friends, completely forgetting about Marcus and Sophia.

"Wait... do we know each other?" I asked him quickly as he got ready to leave.

"Maybe, darling." And with that mysterious answer, he was gone.

The waiter soon came over with a bouquet of beautiful yellow roses, holding them out to me.

"Um, I think you have the wrong person. I just need the bill."

"Madam, there's no mistake at all. The bill is already paid, and these flowers were left by the gentleman who was with you." The waiter smiled kindly. "Also, you now have a lifetime membership to our chain of restaurants, so wherever you go, you'll get the best service."

Shocked, I took the roses. They smelled like sunshine and hope. Just then, I saw a small card tucked between the flowers.

'Welcome to Canada, Ava~ Your friend Dominic Moretti'

"Dominic Moretti." My breath caught in my throat as my eyes went wide with shock.

The roses suddenly felt heavy in my hands. Dominic Moretti - Marcus's older brother who had disappeared years ago after a family fight.

While I was trying to figure out what just happened, Marcus found himself thinking about me obsessively. The very next morning, he ordered his assistant to find out everything about where I was in canada and to have someone secretly watch me.

To get more information about where I might go and who I might talk to, Marcus searched through all my things in our mansion.

When he opened my walk-in closet, he realized that all the expensive jewelry he had bought me as gifts was still there, untouched. Most of the designer dresses still had their tags on them. Only a few regular clothes that I had bought with my own money from working at the gallery and restaurant were missing.

After our fight, Marcus had wanted to burn all my things, but seeing all the untouched expensive items made him freeze.

"Strange. A greedy woman like her... why would she leave all this behind?" Marcus muttered to himself as he went through my belongings.

His hands touched the Cartier necklace he'd given me for our first anniversary - still in its box. The Tiffany earrings from last Christmas - never worn.

Suddenly, a document fell out from between some old books.

[KIDNEY TRANSPLANT]

[DONOR NAME: AVA HARRISON]

Marcus stared at the paper, his hands shaking. The date showed it was from two years ago - right around the time I had been "sick" for weeks and he had accused me of being lazy.