chapter 3

Aliyah

I have known pain before… but nothing like this. Nothing is as soul-crushing as watching the man you love throw your heart in the fire and walk away without looking back.

As I sat there on the couch, my eyes drifted to the divorce papers lying carelessly on the floor. My fingers trembled as they hovered near them, but I couldn’t bring myself to pick them up again. I couldn’t. Not when everything around me already felt like it was crushing into pieces.

My mind began to wander,  pulling me back to the very beginning, back to the girl I once was… before Liam.

Four years ago, my life and dreams were shattered the moment my mother died.

She was my everything,  a powerful, successful businesswoman who built her empire with her bare hands. But none of it mattered to my father. He never loved her. He reminded her of that every single day, belittling her, and making her feel small. And somehow… he passed that hatred down to me.

When she passed away from depression, from heartbreak, he didn’t even mourn her.

A week later, he brought another woman into our house. Smiling,  laughing and holding hands with her like my mother had never even existed.

The woman came with a girl my age and my father introduced her as his other daughter. Immediately, the truth hit me as I realized that he didn’t just hate my mother. He was cheating on her all along.

When he found out that my mother had willed all her properties to me, he and his new wife threatened to kill me. They forced the documents out of me… and threw me out into the cold night with nothing but the clothes on my body and the tears in my eyes.

I wandered the city alone, Lost, Hungry, Frightened.

It was in that darkness, the darkest night of my life that God sent help. 

When I was suddenly surrounded by a group of boys from nowhere. I still remember the fear, their rough laughter, and the way my body froze when they were trying to force themselves on me until a beam of headlights blinded them and a black cars pulled up. Then we heard gunshots in the air as a group of bodyguards came out of the cars, chasing the men away.

That was the night I met Liam's grandmother.

She took me in, listened to my story with tears in her eyes, and held my hand like I was her own blood. She offered me a new life, a home, and a family. But there was a condition.

I had to marry her only grandson, Liam. He was in a coma. She told me he needed a kidney transplant and all the donors they got, their own didn't match his and he only had a few months to live. So, she needed someone who could give him a child  through insemination before he died 

At first, I didn’t want to do it. I mean, how could I? But she is the only one who ever helped me when I had no one. She saved me from death that night. I couldn’t turn my back on her so I agreed to do It for her. 

And when I saw Liam… lying there, hooked to machines, yet so beautiful it made my heart ache. His dark hair fell softly across his forehead, his jawline sharp, like it was carved by angels. Even unconscious, he looked powerful, untouchable.

I fell for him that day.

Foolish, I know.

 But I did. I fell in love with him immediately 

The insemination worked, and I became pregnant. And with the baby growing inside me, my love for Liam grew too. I started to dream of a real family, of a husband who would one day look at me with love, of a child who would never know loneliness like I did.

And when I found out I was a match… I didn’t hesitate. I gave him my kidney. Willingly. Even when the doctors warned me, Even when I knew the risk.

However, during the surgery, there were complications. I lost the baby and with it, I lost the future I had built in my head.

The doctor told me afterward that I might never conceive again. I remember lying on that hospital bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering if I had just given away everything and gotten nothing in return.

When Liam finally woke up and learned what happened, he rejected me instantly. He said he couldn’t marry someone he didn’t know.

But his grandmother was firm. She threatened to strip him of everything if he didn’t marry me. So he agreed… reluctantly. But he made one thing clear.

“There will never be anything between us,” he said. “You are nothing but a burden I was forced to carry.”

Still… I hoped.

Still… I waited.

I thought maybe, just maybe, with time, he would see me. He would feel something. But he never did.

He never touched me, never smiled at me. He barely even came home and when his grandmother passed away, he stopped pretending altogether. He stopped eating the food I cooked, Stopped speaking to me, and stopped looking at me.

And I stayed like a fool because I thought love was enough. But now, sitting here, I know better.

If there is anything I learned in these four years of my marriage, it is no woman should ever beg any man for love. No woman should sacrifice herself trying to earn the heart of a man who doesn’t want her.

I was still deep in thought when I suddenly heard footsteps descending the stairs, jolting me out of my thoughts.

I quickly looked up and I saw Liam.

His face was blank, but there was a flicker of something… sadness?

Wait, is he feeling guilty for what he did? Is he coming to apologize for the way he treated me?

Different thoughts ran through my head as my heart pounded in my chest.