Chapter 7 : You’re Nothing Without Me!

Celine's POV 

Veronica’s voice was still ringing in my ear when the phone changed hands. A faint scrape sounded against the receiver before Nathaniel’s calm voice cut through the silence.

“Let her in.”

That was all he said. No explanation. No apology for the way his fiancée had just spoken to me. Just a quiet order, as if he were granting permission for a delivery.

I ended the call without a word and stood at the gate, arms folded.

One of the guards spoke into his radio. A moment later, the iron gates swung open. I walked through without looking at either of them.

The driveway stretched ahead, lined with the same neatly trimmed hedges I used to pass every evening after work. Home. The word felt foreign now. I had spent years living here, yet I had never truly belonged.

Veronica appeared on the front steps the moment I approached. She hurried toward me, her heels clicking against the stone, her face twisted with anger.

“You have some nerve showing your face here.” She stepped into my path. “After the stunt you pulled last night, you still think you can walk into this house like you belong?”

I kept walking, ignoring her  

She grabbed my arm and spun me around. Her other hand shot up, ready to strike.

I caught her wrist before her palm could reach my face.

Her eyes widened briefly before fury overtook them.

“You used that video,” she hissed. “You made a scene so the whole world would feel sorry for the poor little assistant. Gold digger. That’s all you are. You spent years pretending Nathaniel cared about you so you could climb higher. And now that he’s marrying someone from his own world, you throw a tantrum in front of cameras like a discarded mistress.”

I said nothing.

Behind her, Nathaniel stood in the open doorway, watching. He made no move to intervene. He simply stood there, as though he had already decided I deserved whatever she had to say.

Veronica twisted her wrist free and stepped closer.

“You were never anything but a placeholder,” she continued. “A warm body he kept around until he found someone worth introducing to his family. He will never love you. Do you understand that? Never.”

I stepped around her and headed for the stairs.

She shouted after me, but I refused to turn around. My legs felt heavy, yet I kept moving.

There was no point explaining myself to someone who had already decided what to believe.

The guest room looked exactly as I had left it two nights ago. My laptop sat closed on the desk, and the work files I had brought home remained neatly stacked beside it.

I opened the closet and began pulling out my clothes.

Only the things that were mine.

Not the dresses Nathaniel had chosen for company events. Not the jewelry he had given me to wear when we appeared together in public. Just the clothes I had bought with my own money and the few personal items I had brought into this house.

As I folded a sweater into my bag, memories of our agreement surfaced.

Nathaniel had insisted we keep our marriage secret. He said it would protect us from suspicion at the company. The board would never accept a relationship between him and his assistant, he had explained. But one day, when the timing was right, we would tell everyone.

I had believed him.

For two years, I had waited for that day. Through birthdays, holidays, and countless nights when I wanted nothing more than to stop hiding. I had convinced myself that every sacrifice meant we were building something worth protecting.

Now I knew how foolish that had been.

I checked every drawer, removing my notebook from the bedside table and unplugging the spare charger from the wall. I searched beneath the bed and behind the curtains, determined not to leave anything of mine behind.

When I finally zipped my bag closed, the room felt strangely empty.

The door opened behind me.

Nathaniel stepped inside and shut it with a soft click. He rested one hand on the handle, blocking my way out.

“We need to talk.”

I swung the bag over my shoulder and approached him.

“Move, Nathaniel.”

“Not until you explain yourself. I deserve an apology for your bad behavior.” His voice carried the same controlled authority he used in board meetings.

My mouth fell open. I stared at him, genuinely stunned. 

An apology? He had to be fucking kidding me.

“You walked into that dinner and turned it into a spectacle, Celine. My family was there. Business partners. People who matter. You slapped me in front of everyone and threw a ring at my feet like some scene from a bad drama.”

I stopped a few feet away and looked at him properly. The man who had once made me believe I was enough stood before me, furious about the damage I had done to his reputation.

“You’re worried about embarrassment,” I said, “Not about the fact that you stood in front of a room full of people and announced you were marrying someone else while you were still married to me.”

“You should have waited.” His jaw tightened. “You should have come to me privately. I would have handled it.”

“Handled what, exactly? The part where you let your fiancée call me a desperate slut? Or the part where you revoked my access to the house I lived in for years without even telling me?”

“You’re overreacting.”

I stared at him, stunned by his audacity.

Was he fucking out of his mind? How could he stand there and accuse me of overreacting after everything he had done?

He had humiliated me in front of his family, locked me out of the house I had once called home, and lied to me for years.

Yet somehow, I was the one making a fuss.

I rolled my eyes. “What could you possibly still have to say to me?”

His face darkened, his jaw clenched so tightly I thought his teeth might crack. He glared at me, his anger barely contained.

“Have you been sleeping with my brother?”

I folded my arms across my chest and held his gaze. A slow, satisfied smile crept across my lips.

“My private life is none of your business,” I shot back.

He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a dangerous low.

“I will not tolerate you having an affair with Adrian. You are still my wife. You belong to me. Without me, you are nothing.”

A bitter laugh escaped me. I looked him up and down with disgust, struggling to believe the sheer audacity of the man standing before me.

“Funny,” I said, my smile widening. “You can no longer control me or what I do with my own body. Get used to it.”

I had spent years believing his love made me somebody. Now he was standing in front of me, reminding me that he had never seen me as anything more than something he owned.

I pushed past him. My shoulder brushed his as I headed for the door.

“You will regret walking away from this,” he warned.

I reached for the handle.

A sudden movement behind me caught my attention. Nathaniel was holding a thick white envelope. He tossed it toward me, and it struck my chest before falling to the floor.

“My lawyer prepared those months ago,” he said. “I had already decided this marriage was over long before last night. Sign them. This ends now.”

I stared at the envelope.

The seal remained unbroken. The papers inside looked ordinary, almost insignificant, yet they carried the weight of everything I had believed about our marriage.

The realization hit me hard. He had been planning to end our marriage for months while I continued working beside him, sharing his bed, and waiting for the day he would finally acknowledge me as his wife.

My grip tightened on the strap of my bag.

He hadn’t been waiting for the right time. He had been waiting for someone better. And now that he had found her, he expected me to walk away without a fight.