Seraphina

Seraphina

The next two weeks were torture.

I watched my husband care more for his mistress than his wife. I stared at my wedding ring—it was cheap, symbolic, meaningless.

One evening, I saw them having a candlelit dinner together.

“Seraphina,” Natalia said sweetly, “can you prepare my bath? You do it better than the maids.”

I looked at Dominic.

He was reading a magazine. He didn’t even acknowledge me.

“Fine,” I whispered.

If becoming her servant earned even a second of his attention, I accepted it.

I oiled her hair and went to prepare the bath.

I returned to my room to breathe.

Then—

A scream tore through the mansion.

I ran toward the bathroom.

Dominic was already there.

My blood turned cold.

Natalia’s arms were red and blistered. Steam rose violently from the bathtub.

“You stupid!” Dominic roared. “Are you trying to kill her?”

“I—I put cold water!” I cried. “I swear!”

The water was boiling.

It made no sense.

“Shut up!” he yelled. “You’re a witch. A filthy, jealous witch!”

He pointed at the door.

“You’re not staying here another second. Get out of my house!”

“Dominic,” Natalia sobbed weakly, “don’t scold her… just take me to the hospital…”

Dominic grabbed his phone.

“Get the car ready. Now.”

Then he turned to me, his voice ice-cold.

“If you’re still here when I come back, I’ll throw you out myself.”

I was homeless.

No job. No husband. No future.

With a small bag in my hand, I went to the only place left.

The Vance estate.

I knocked on the door in the middle of the night.

“Who’s dying at this hour?” my stepmother, Genevieve, snapped as she opened the door.

Her eyes widened.

“What are you doing here?”

“I want to see Dad,” I said, pushing past her.

She grabbed my arm, her nails digging into my skin.

“Your father married you into the most powerful family in the city,” she hissed. “And you couldn’t keep him for three months? You’re a disgrace.”

I jerked my arm free and ran inside, screaming for my father.

Genevieve lunged again.

I shoved her away.

She fell.

Her head hit the marble table with a sickening sound.

Blood pooled beneath her.

At that moment, my father, Arthur Vance, stepped into the hallway.

He stared at me.

Then at his wife on the floor.

“Call the police!” Genevieve shrieked. “She’s insane! She tried to kill me!”

She pointed at me, shaking.

“She’s a murderer!”

I spent two days in a cold prison cell.

No visitors.

No calls.

No one asked if I was alive.

I became a ghost.

On the third day, I was released on bail. As I stepped onto the sidewalk, my phone buzzed.

A message from my father.

I sent you a ticket. Leave this city and never come back. Don’t tell anyone I helped you.

That was it.

No concern. No apology.

Now when I stepped out of the prison. I had nowhere to go.

Dominic’s harsh words were still echoing in my ears. I couldn’t go back to him.

Not like this.

I drifted through the city like a shadow.

I slept where I could, standing in long lines for food and water with people the world had forgotten. Under the scorching sun one afternoon, my vision blurred.

The ground rushed toward me.

And everything went black.

When I opened my eyes, the ceiling above me was white.

A hospital.

A woman in a doctor’s coat smiled gently at me. “You’re awake.”

I tried to sit up. My body felt weak.

“Congratulations dear,” she said softly. “You’re eight weeks pregnant.”

I couldn’t process those words.

“Pregnant?” I whispered. “How?”

She smiled wider. “You’re having twins.”

My heart stopped.

Twins?

Dominic and I hadn’t touched each other after the wedding. But then—

That night.

The drugged night before the marriage crashed into my mind.

“Is it… possible from just one night?” I asked, barely breathing.

The doctor nodded. “It only takes once. You’re carrying two healthy lives.”

I pressed my hand to my stomach. Tears slipped down my cheeks.

God sent you to save me, I thought.

Hope bloomed in my chest for the first time in months. Surely Dominic would change when he knew. Surely he would protect his children.

I was wrong.

I went straight to the Montgomery Mansion.

Dominic was in his study, standing stiffly behind his desk. He looked like ice carved into human form.

“Dominic…” I whispered, instinctively covering my stomach.

“Sign this.”

He slammed a thick file onto the desk without looking at me. My smiled flattered as I grabbed the file.

I opened it.

DIVORCE.

The word burned my eyes.

“You want to divorce me?” My voice shook.

“This marriage was a jackpot for you. You tricked me to sleep with you,” he said flatly. “After what you did to Natalia, I can’t risk keeping you around. It’s better if you disappear.”

The warmth in my chest vanished.

If I told him about the babies now, he wouldn’t be happy. He would think it was another trap.

He might even force me to get rid of them. What if he ask me to have an abortion?

I couldn’t let my children grow up where they weren’t wanted.

I picked up the pen and signed my name.

“Thank you,” I said calmly.

Dominic finally looked at me, startled.

“Good.. Take this amount. Compensation for the divorce. It was more than you could ever pull out of me.” He smirked.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.”

I slid the wedding ring off my finger and dropped it onto his desk.

Clink.

I walked out of his study.

Out of his mansion.

Out of his life.

I swore he would never see me again.