LOGINCaden“She had the nerve to divorce me.” The words came out angry and broken, and I almost made promise with the image of me strangling Nora in my mind.I’d been so occupied with the fun I was having with Rory that I didn't see that Nora was slipping from my hands or even planning anything. How could I have signed the divorce papers without realising it?I flipped through my memory, but all I got were images of Rory and me messing around. Fuck!My hands grabbed the neck of the whiskey bottle, coordinating to drown my thoughts as I downed its contents halfway, then stopping to give myself a moment to breathe.Everything was a mess now. I worked tirelessly, planned and schemed through the years and married that deadbeat to ensure I came on top, and now she was undoing me.The moon was bright and glowing with an ethereal beauty, but all I felt was its mockery. I was outside my house on the steps, drinking my failures away alone in the same place I watched Nora take my child away from me.
NoraI am waiting for the props to drop and the hidden director to yell ‘cut!’ or for me to wake up because it has to be a dream. Because Dorian couldn’t have just claimed me in front of hundreds of people and a good number of them filming the chaos.Caden and Dorian are both top racers in the country, highly recognised and crushed on by many. After my divorce, I thought I’d lay low as I trained before coming into the spotlight as I intended to, but now, that ship has sailed.My body stiffened. I was too stunned to speak. Not when the whispers started, and not even when Caden continued his insults and defamatory statements. I could already imagine the controversial headlines that were going to come from the videos.“I suggest you leave before you embarrass yourself further.” Dorian finally said to a fuming Caden. His face was a reddish-purple hue. He ignored Dorian and turned to me.“I get it. You wanted me to get jealous. Now, I am.” He spread his arms and shrugged as he let them dow
Nora“Dory?” I repeated as my brow shot up questioningly. I don’t know why it irked me that she called him that. I wanted to mock it, but really it wasn’t even my business. I had to call myself out on being a bitch.“Um… This lovely lady came to say, Hi," he replied, stretching his arm forward to point at me. She gave me a once-over before smiling and stretching her hand to me in a handshake. The movement sent the wind forward, and I caught a whiff of her cologne.She smelled like vanilla and saffron. It was such a delectable combination.I accepted her handshake with my free hand and offered her a smile.“Hi! I’m Michelle Stone. Dorian’s sister.” Her smile was cute and ethereal, and I just kept thinking about how stupid I was to misunderstand the situation and even get angry at him for it.Maybe I was a little jealous, but again, it didn’t make any sense. I hated that my emotions were all over the place. Mentally, I started calculating the dates and realised my period was near. It ha
NoraI had just made a sandwich for Nora and me when I got an email. I cleaned my fingers with a paper napkin and checked it.The email contained the details of my training, due to start next week, since Uncle Colton had made it mandatory for me to rest for a week before I started training so I could recover properly.A smile graced my face, and I could feel my heart swell with happiness. Many years ago, I threw my first love away, but now, I am going to get it back. No… happiness didn’t do justice to how I felt as I read through the contents of the email.Nostalgia hugged me like a cozy sweater, the words melting in my mind and feeling all too familiar. The one year was split into four phases, with a break of two weeks in between.I could handle that.My main worry now was how I was going to get another nanny for Zara while I trained. Or, if I’m being honest, how I was going to trust another nanny.I may have divorced Caden and successfully left him, but he wouldn’t take what I had j
NoraImages of my time in the house—in my marriage with Caden— flashed through my mind as the car pulled out of the mansion gates, and I watched the house shrink in the side mirror until it was nothing but a speck behind the trees.I wondered if Caden was still standing in the driveway, and how he felt about the turn of things. I hated to admit it, but I still cared a little about what he thought.Detaching from him isn’t something I thought I’d ever have to do. Five years of marriage and seven years of devotion and love to a man who would stick a knife in my skull if it meant he was going to get more money, power or status.As I stared out the window, the road blurred into a mirage and a part of me wondered if he would regret any of it later, once the shock wore off and the reality of losing everything he took for granted finally settled in. Then again, men like Caden rarely regretted anything until it cost them something they actually cared about, and I doubted I had ever made that l
NoraSomething about the timing of Rory's pregnancy nagged at me the second the words left her mouth, tugging at a thread I couldn't quite place. In my past life, she hadn't announced anything this early. If anything, this felt like it was happening faster than it should have, and my mind scrambled to make sense of it.Maybe my choices this time around had shifted things. I had done so much differently already: I filed for a divorce, pushed back against Caden instead of folding, refused to play the docile wife and collected evidence of Caden’s affair with Rory too.Perhaps all of that had rippled outward and changed the timeline in ways I couldn't predict.But then the memory hit me like a car slamming into a barrier, and my stomach twisted so hard I almost doubled over right there in the driveway.Rory had been pregnant before too. In my past life, around the same time. And she had lost the baby.I remembered it clearly now, the way it had all unfolded. A burly man covered in tattoos







