Contract with Dylan Marcov

Ashley POV

"Thank you, it's beautiful." I closed the door after thanking the delivery man for the fresh flowers that had just arrived. I wore the beautiful flowery frock and the small diamond necklace Alex had bought for me. It was our third anniversary, and I was bubbling with excitement. Finally, I was ready to confess how much I loved him. I spent hours preparing his favourite dishes, making sure everything was perfect. Now, all I could do was fix my eyes on the door. I was eagerly waiting for him to come home.

Finally, the wait was over. The doorbell rang. My heart skipped a beat as I rushed to open it. Alex walked inside, loosening his tie. He looked exhausted, likely from the important meeting with the board of directors. I still hoped he would notice the effort I had put into everything.

"Welcome home, Alex!" I greeted him cheerfully, staring at his face for a reaction. 

"Hey," he muttered without looking up from his phone.

My heart sank a little, but I tried to stay positive. I had worked too hard for this moment. I served him dinner, but he barely glanced up. He scrolled through his phone, acting indifferent. He had seemed tense lately. But today, it was as if I didn’t even exist.

"Do you like dinner? I made all your favourites," I said while trying to catch his attention.

"Yeah, looks good," he replied absentmindedly. Disappointment welled up inside me.

After a few moments of silence, I couldn’t hold back any longer. "You know what day it is today?" I asked. 

He silently ate his food, giving no indication that he had heard me. Then, without warning, he pulled a file from his coat and slammed it in front of me. My eyes widened as I saw the bold word "DIVORCE" on the cover. Next to it were tickets to Norway. He wanted to send me away.

"What... What is this?" I stammered. The words barely made it out of my mouth. 

"Today marks three years since we got married. It also means our three-year contract has ended. There's no need to continue this marriage," he said flatly as if we were discussing a business deal. It felt like the ground had slipped from beneath my feet. I was too shocked to respond immediately.

"What do you mean by that?" I finally managed to ask. My hands were trembling as I struggled to hold onto the divorce papers.

"Our marriage was just a deal. Have you forgotten that? Or did you start thinking it was real?" His tone was icy, cutting through me like a knife. My grip tightened around the edge of the table. My knuckles turned white.

"I thought everything had changed after that night. Our marriage was consummated..." I began, but he interrupted me.

"That night? Do you really think our marriage became real just because we spent one night together?" he scoffed. His words pierced me like daggers.

I was speechless. In the three years we had been married, he had only touched me once, and that was months ago. He came home too drunk to control himself. I had been foolish to think he might have started loving me. It seemed he hadn’t developed any feelings for me, even after all this time.

“I fulfilled all my duties like an ideal wife. I endured all the tantrums from your mother and sister. And now, you want me to divorce you?" I said, hoping for some sign of regret or hesitation. But Alex paused only briefly before continuing.

"Fulfilling duties? You forgot what you did with Vini last evening?" he sounded upset. How can he forget the chaos that happened last evening? 

"I told you I didn't put peanuts in food," I said he seemed upset about it. 

"Stop lying, who else would do something like this? Vini had a peanut allergy. If I had not taken her to the hospital she could have died." 

I recalled how he held Vini in his arms and rushed to the hospital with a worried face. Later blamed me for killing her. 

"I am tired of explaining myself. Why would I trouble your business partner? And would you just divorce me because of this?" I asked, Alex laughed sarcastically.

"Diana, nobody knows who you are. Not even yourself. Your presence in my life brings nothing but misery. You got everything you could ever deserve." he said, his words shattering my heart into pieces.

"So, this is your final decision?" I asked, laughing bitterly at myself for even needing to ask.

"Yeah. When I come back, make sure you’ve signed those papers," he said, leaving me alone with the divorce papers and my shattered hopes. I stared at the documents. I  almost forgot that our relationship had always been just on paper. Memories from the past three years flooded my mind.

Three years ago, I had opened my eyes to find myself lying on a private cruise in the Mediterranean Sea. The first face I saw was Alex's, a handsome face that appeared concerned as he held my shoulder. My mind was as blank as paper, not a single trace of my past remaining. I was struggling to remember who I was, and where I lived. 

At the same time, Alex proposed that I marry him for three years. He offered me a home, a new name, and everything I could need, while he would get to fulfil his family's pressure for marriage. With nowhere else to go, I accepted his offer and married him. I signed a three-year contract. As per the contract, I had to divorce him after three years. 

Within those three years, I slowly fell in love with him, even though there wasn’t a typical husband-and-wife relationship between us. But everything had changed two months ago when Alex came home drunk. He was drowning in alcohol, and I didn’t know what was wrong with him. The touch I had craved for so long... I surrendered myself to him that night, losing my virginity to the person I loved. But the next morning, he dismissed it as a mistake and left. Even so, a small hope had stayed in my heart, but now that hope was shattered.

I grabbed the divorce papers and stepped out of my room with a heavy heart. As I tried to leave, my elbow was grabbed by my mother-in-law, Melissa.

"You bitch, where were you until now? Don’t you know it’s my dinner time? Is the princess resting in her bedroom?" Melissa greeted me with gritted teeth.

I clenched the divorce papers in my hand, no longer willing to tolerate it. I jerked her hand off me angrily.

"Yeah, she didn’t even come to massage my shoulders. This bitch forgets why my brother brought her here," Andy, my sister-in-law, added, her teeth grinding together.

They had been upset with me from the first day of my marriage. They wanted Alex to marry someone powerful, someone who could boost his business. Even though he was already rich, a wealthy partner would have taken him to even greater heights.

"Did I hold your hand? Or your mouth? You can prepare it yourself. I’m not your maid," I said, starting to leave.

"Don’t forget you’re just a burden on Alex’s shoulders. My son is ready to marry the only daughter of the Weber family, a girl who can give him everything you couldn’t. But you’re sticking to him like a sucker plant. Why won’t you just die?" Melissa spat, gripping my shoulder again. My heart sank as I realized Alex was divorcing me because he was marrying that girl. I pulled my hands away from Melissa. 

"Mom..." Alex’s voice cut through the air as he caught his mother, staring at me with tapered eyes. "Why the hell are you hurting Mom?" he shouted at me.

"What about me? She was trying to hurt me!" I tried to explain, but Alex pretended not to hear it.

"Can’t you respect her? She’s the elder of this house," Alex yelled at me instead. I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I signed the divorce papers immediately.

"We are no longer together, Mr. Alex. Thank you for everything," I said, and with those words, I quickly left his house. I left behind everything I had once thought was real.