Chapter 2: The Affair

Seraphina pov

I couldn’t breathe, my chest was tightening and yet I could still hear their mocking voices.

My back pressed against the cold wall as their voices drifted through the half-open door, each word slicing deeper than the last. The ultrasound report lay at my feet, but I couldn’t bring myself to pick it up. Not when my entire marriage was being torn apart in real time.

Selena’s mocking laugh cut through the air. “Poor Seraphina. Always fluttering around you like a desperate little moth. Did you see the way she lights up whenever you give her the tiniest bit of attention? It’s actually pathetic.”

Ethan’s deep chuckle followed — the same laugh that used to make my heart skip. But now it made me want to throw up.

“She tries so hard,” he said, amusement clear in his voice. “Cooking those stupid surprise meals, staying up late to learn about the company just to impress me. I almost feel bad for how easy she is to fool.”

My hand flew to my mouth to stifle a sob. The wall behind me was the only thing keeping me upright.

“Does she really think you love her?” Selena asked, her voice dripping with cruel delight.

“Love her?” Ethan scoffed. “It’s not like I ever wanted to marry her in the first place.”

The words hit like a physical blow. My knees nearly gave out.

“The merger was all that mattered,” he continued casually, like he was discussing quarterly reports. “Hart Group’s shares, the inheritance, the connections… she was just the convenient package that came with it. Pretty enough to look good on my arm, obedient enough not to make noise. But love? Please.”

I pressed harder against the wall, tears streaming down my face as I remembered every sacrifice, every lonely night, every time I defended him to my father — it had all been for nothing. He had never loved me. Not even a little.

Selena’s silky voice returned. “So what happens after tomorrow?”

“Simple,” Ethan replied, completely unbothered. “I’m filing for a divorce first thing in the morning. Once the final share transfer is done at the board meeting, I’ll be free of her. We can finally stop hiding.”

The hallway spun. I clutched my stomach tighter, nausea rising in my throat as I remembered why I was home early in the first place. My baby, our baby. Ethan didn’t even know yet. Would he even care?

This man I had built my life around saw me as nothing more than a business transaction. A tool. The inheritance, the merger, the influence—those were what mattered. Not me. Never me.

The tears I’d been trying to hold back finally streamed down my face silently. I wanted to scream, to burst in and demand answers, but my body wouldn’t move. Every breath hurt.

Every memory of sacrifice replayed in cruel clarity: turning down opportunities at Hart Group to support his career, ignoring the way his eyes lingered on Selena during family dinners, convincing myself that the cold nights and distant touches were just the pressure of being a Knight.

“How long?” I whispered brokenly to myself. How long had they laughed at me behind my back? How long had I been the fool in their twisted game?

Selena’s next words cut even deeper. “She’s going to be devastated, you know. That desperate, clingy way she looks at you… it’ll be delicious watching her crumble. Maybe I’ll even comfort her as the good sister. Tell her she should have seen it coming.”

Ethan’s response was a low, satisfied hum. “She’ll get over it. Women like her always do. They’ll throw money and sympathy at her, and she’ll fade into the background where she belongs.”

The pregnancy report remained there at my feet, the ultrasound image partially visible— that tiny, bean-shaped promise of a future I would never have with him.

My hand trembled as I reached down to pick it up, desperate to hide this last piece of vulnerability from them. But my fingers grazed the paper wrong and It crinkled loudly against the carpet.

The intimate sounds inside the room stopped abruptly.

And I felt my heart slam against my ribs with a voice in my head screaming at me to run. Run. Just run.

But it was too late.

The bedroom door swung open fully. Ethan stood there, shirtless, his hair disheveled, a silk sheet wrapped hastily around his waist. His eyes—those same eyes that had once made me believe in fairy tales—met mine. For a split second, shock flickered across his handsome face. Then it hardened into something colder and calculated. He looked almost annoyed.

“Seraphina,” he said, his voice flat. There was no guilt or panic. Just mild irritation, like I’d interrupted an important meeting.

Behind him, Selena sat up in bed, pulling the sheet around herself with a smirk that didn’t even try to hide her satisfaction. “Well,” she drawled. “Look who finally decided to stop being oblivious.”

I stumbled back a step, the report clutched to my chest like a shield. My vision blurred with tears, but I couldn’t look away from the man I had loved so desperately. The father of the child growing inside me. The stranger who had just dismantled my entire existence with casual cruelty.

“Ethan…” My voice cracked, barely a whisper. “How could you?”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “This isn’t how I wanted you to find out, but perhaps it’s for the best. We can handle the paperwork cleanly now.”

The words barely registered. All I could feel was the shattering inside me—the final, irreversible break. The hope I’d carried all day crumbled into dust. The baby shoes waiting downstairs. The candlelit dinner I’d planned. The future I’d imagined, none of it mattered now.