Divorce papers

~Zara POV~

“Look at her. Even a dog eats better than her.”

The servant’s laugh bounced off the marble walls. 

Another one chimed in. “Can’t believe she cheated on Mr. Wilson. Disgusting.”

I kept mopping. Knees screaming. Sores splitting open with every drag of the cloth. The pain didn’t matter. The weight in my chest did.

A vase crashed behind me. Water and glass sprayed across the floor I’d just cleaned. 

“She’s nothing but a servant now,” they sneered. “We’re worth more than her. Embarrassing”I scrubbed harder. This was the deal. Clean. Cook. Bleed. In exchange for Ivy’s medicine. My baby’s treatment money. 

My stomach still throbbed from the miscarriage. Hot, dull, endless. I pushed up and kept working. No choice.

“The Adams family is the richest in the country,” another servant muttered as she passed. “What was a broke peasant like her thinking? That she was a queen?”

For five years I played the wife. Five years in a cage. They envied me. Pitied me. No one saw the truth. It wasn’t glitter. It was chains. It was silence. It was lonely.

“Come here.”

Wilson’s hand clamped around my arm like steel. Bruises bloomed under his fingers.

“Stop… you’re hurting me… Wilson!” I fought him, but he dragged me down the hall. I caught Ivy’s face in the shadows. Small hands gripping the doorframe. Tears running. I shook my head. Don’t cry. Don’t look.

“Sign them.” He threw me onto the bed. Divorce papers spread out like knives.

“You can’t do this,” I choked. “Ivy is yours. You betrayed us.”

He grabbed my wrist. Shoved a pen in my hand. “Sign it. Leave. Now.”

He forced my hand down. Scratched my name across the line. The sound of pen on paper felt like a bone breaking. 

Then another. This one stripped Ivy of his name. Of his blood. Of everything.

My heart cracked with every stroke.

“Did you ever love me?” I whispered. “Two years of dating. Five married. Did you love Ivy? Even once?”

“Sympathy,” Wilson scoffed. Cold. Proud. “Your father died. Left you drowning in debt. They took your house. Threw you out with nothing. I took you in. That’s all it was.”

“She’s your daughter,” I said, voice breaking.

“On paper,” he said, kneeling until our eyes met. He tucked my hair behind my ear like he used to. His touch made me want to vomit.

“You planned this,” I whispered. “All of it. The love. The promises. Lies. All lies.”

A hysterical laugh bubbled up. My life was a joke. A dog had more dignity than me.

“Just leave, Zara,” Wilson yelled. “I don’t love you. Leave us.”

My bags were already packed by the door. He’d planned this too. 

He yanked me up. Ordered the servants. I saw Ivy dragged away, screaming for me.

“Wilson, please…”

He hauled me down the stairs like I weighed nothing. My feet hit each step. Bruises on top of bruises.

“Get the fuck out,” he threw me through the front doors. “Or I’ll ruin you.”

Rain hit me like ice. Heavy. Merciless. My suitcases landed beside me. Then Ivy. 

“Daddy!” She hit the pavement, her small body crumpling.

“Wilson!” My voice came out broken, drowned by rain.

The doors slammed. Lock clicked. 

“No… please, she’s sick, you know that!” I pounded on the wood with bloody fists. Nothing. No answer.

Ivy clung to me, shaking. Soaking wet. Pale. She needed medicine. She needed warmth. She needed her father.

I stared at the mansion. Remembered the day I arrived. Bride. Queen. Loved. Now thrown out like trash with a dying child in my arms.

They killed my baby. No remorse. No tears.

I wiped my face. Rain washed it away anyway. I held Ivy’s hand.

“Mommy, why is Daddy mad? Does he not want me?” Her voice was so small it broke me.

I dropped to my knees on the wet driveway. Blood still stained my dress. Pain still tore through me. But I smiled for her. 

“No, my love. Daddy’s just upset. I made him upset.” I wiped her tears. Rain kept falling.

“He hurt you,” Ivy whispered. “Does he hate us?”

I pulled her into my chest. No answer. No lies left.

We had to disappear. If I stayed, they’d finish the job. They’d kill us both.

I stood, soaked, shaking. I looked up.

Justin was on the balcony watching us. Smirking. Enjoying the show. His secret lover, Vincent’s wife, was inside laughing while I bled in the rain. If only Vincent knew what his son and wife were doing under his roof. And his other son, Wilson, was about to lead the company to bankruptcy. 

I looked at Ivy’s pale face. My daughter was delicate; I could only hug her to keep her warm; she was shivering. Her teeth chattering. It broke my heart..

We had one choice left: vanish. Or die.