Chapter Two

The Elimination Plan

Ariana’s POV 

The first time I set eyes on Camilla Hernandez, I understood exactly why everything had fallen apart with Sebastian so easily.

The lady didn’t just walk into the Frost mansion and our marriage… she arrived, and fully.

Standing at the top of the grand staircase, my freshly done nails digging softly into my palms as my fingers squeezed tightly beside me.

I watched the scene below play out, like a thriller movie… Sebastian walked beside her as she moved around with the annoying confidence of someone who had just bought the place.

When Camilla laughed at something he said, he reach out to her brushing away a strand of hair from her face. 

And right that moment was when I knew that I’d been shoved aside and replaced with this seductress.

Suddenly the house didn’t feel like mine anymore. In truth it hadn’t for a while, but now, it was really undeniable.

It had been two days since her arrival, and I’d been informed after the decision was made… like I didn’t matter at all. How could Sebastian treat me that way? I was his wife!

On one part… a tiny thread I was no where willing to let Sebastian pull… I couldn’t completely blame him. Camilla was beautiful. Truly beautiful. Even I couldn’t deny that.

She was tall, perfectly sculpted with that effortless kind of charm that didn’t need any effort to steal the room.

Short blonde hair framed her face, and her eyes… which my husband seemed completely lost in… were bright green. It was as if she had already owned him.

He had introduced me to her so casually.

“Camilla,” he’d said, his voice softer than I ever remembered it being with me, “this is Ariana.”

That was it. Not my wife. Not even something worth any respect. Just… Ariana. Like I was a stranger in my own home. My God, the audacity of it!

Camilla’s lips had curved into a polite smile, which I was convinced was just an act.

“Oh, I’ve heard so much about you,” she’d said to me.

I’d held her gaze for a moment, shocked and shaken at the same time by what was happening before my very eyes.

“I’m sure you have.” I’d managed to say before they ignored me again.

It didn’t take long for everything to shift completely. Sebastian spent more time with her than with me. Breakfasts turned into shared laughter between them while I sat in silence. 

He even stopped spending the night in our bedroom, going straight to wherever she was, leaving me alone in the room that used to belong to us.

And Isabelle? She didn’t even bother hiding her satisfaction that her son was no longer interested in me.

***

Later that evening, as I passed through the main hall towards the bedroom, I heard Isabelle’s voice coming from Sebastian’s study.

I had not been eavesdropping on their conversation. And even after I heard them, I wasn’t trying to listen. But then I heard my name and I stopped.

“…this has gone on long enough,” Isabelle was saying.

I moved gently towards the door which was slightly open, my steps silent against the polished floor.

Sebastian’s voice followed. “I know, mother.”

My chest tightened.

“You know?” Isabelle repeated, her tone laced with disbelief. “Then why is she still here?”

A short pause followed between mother and son as they pondered on what sounded much like my matter.

“I’ll handle it.” Sebastian broke the silence that spread through the empty hallway where I stood.

The words sent a chill down my spine. Handle what? Handle who? I questioned myself. 

“When?” Isabelle pressed. “Because I tell you Sebastian, I won’t tolerate her presence much longer. She’s an embarrassment with no child, and therefore… no value.”

Each word felt like a blade thrown at me behind the door, even though they were unaware of my presence.

But still, I waited to hear more.

“You’re overreacting, Mom,” Sebastian said, but there was no weight in his voice.

“I am not,” Isabelle snapped. “That girl has outlived her usefulness! She’s just a liability, nothing more!”

The deafening silence returned. This time, I could only hear the pounding of my heart so loudly, I was scared they would hear it.

“She was never meant to be permanent,” Isabelle continued, her voice dropping into something colder. “You know that.”

That instant, I stopped breathing.

That was it… the truth I had been avoiding, too afraid to face.

“She’s my wife,” Sebastian said finally.

But even that sounded hollow in his mouth.

“And?” Isabelle challenged. “Wives can be replaced. Especially ones that fail to fulfill their purpose.”

My fingers trembled at my sides. I pressed them gently against the wall to steady myself.

“You need to end this now,” the woman went on. “Cleanly. Quickly. Before it becomes a bigger problem.”

There was a longer pause this time. And then Isabelle’s response shattered any hope I had left.

“Or I will.”

Her cold cruel words echoed on in my head. And Sebastian wasn’t even putting up any argument. He wasn’t defending me. He didn’t even seem to be hesitating.

“I’ll take care of it,” he just said to her at last.

I stepped back from the door quietly, my vision blurring from gathering tears in my eyes as I turned away. Every step I took felt heavy.

So this was it. Three years of marriage and loyalty to him gone in the blink of an eye. Three years of standing by his side, loving him… now reduced to nothing.

I realized that moment that our sham of a marriage was only a strategic move. A temporary arrangement, which I was no longer part of now.

I reached the bedroom and closed the door behind me, my back pressing against it as I finally allowed the weight of everything crash down upon me.

Tears began to flow freely down my cheeks. But I didn’t make a sound. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing me broken.

Instead, I lifted my head slowly, staring into the empty room that once held fond memories of something I thought was real.

For the first time, I stopped hoping. Because now I knew the truth. I had never been loved here. And if I stayed any longer… they wouldn’t just stop at discarding, but destroying me.

As I stood against the door shut behind me, my legs gave out and I sank to the ground, my trembling hands pressing against my face.

As I wept, a hollow thought slipped into my mind. Gently, I lifted my face from my hands. My gaze slowly also lifted, falling on the desk across the room.

The drawer was filled with confidential files, documents recording years of my life’s work at FrosTech. It was my work. Yet, I had no real claim to it.

A dangerous thought began to form in my head. At first, it felt impossible, reckless or risky even. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

If they could discard me like I was nothing… then maybe I could walk away with something that meant a great deal to them.

My fingers curled into the fabric of my dress as I rose from the floor, my breathing gradually steadying as clarity began to replace the pain and betrayal I felt inside.

I had helped build their precious empire once. There was nothing stopping m

e from stealing the secrets and doing it again… but somewhere else.