1

Jessica Hemsworth

They say time heals all wounds. But they never said what to do when you’re forced to live inside the very wound that keeps bleeding.

After my sister Anna died in a tragic car accident eight years ago, our whole family fell into chaos. I was only twenty-two then—grieving, lost, and suddenly caught in something I didn’t understand.

And then Aunt Lucy came to me with her plan.

Cold. Calculated. Ruthless.

"Marry Viktor," she said... For Anna's son. For the Hemsworth name. For duty."

I said no. Over and over again. But Aunt Lucy wasn't asking—she was commanding. She reminded me that Rachel’s son, Jeremy needed stability. That Viktor needed a respectable woman by his side, and that I was the only one who could keep the family from falling apart.

"Eight years," my aunt said. "Marry him, raise Jeremy as your own for eight years, and then you can divorce him."

And because I wanted to repay my aunt for raising me. I said yes.

So I became my sister’s shadow.

I wore her ring. Slept in her bed. Raised her son.

Became wife to the man she once loved.

But Viktor never loved me.

And his son Jeremy never accepted me.

To them, I was a ghost pretending to be someone I could never be.

And now, after eight long, soul-crushing years, I was done pretending.

******

"My marriage with Viktor will end in two days, aunt. I want to get a divorce.” I pressed my phone hard to my ear, barely holding myself together as tears gathered in my eyes. Finally! The day that I had been waiting for was finally here.

“Jess, are you sure about divorcing Viktor? Do you want to take some time to think about it? We could renew the contract.” Her voice was firm, void of empathy as if she had no idea the pain that I had been through.

My grip around the phone tightened, my heart tightened in my chest as I stared at my messed up reflection in the mirror. The remnant icing from my birthday cake was still plastering my forehead. My once perfect makeup was smudged.

“Yes, aunt. I want to divorce Viktor.” I exhaled deeply, lowering my gaze.

Aunt Lucy went silent for a few seconds, then she spoke again.

“Alright. I will grant you the divorce then. I will get back to you about it.” And with that, the call ended with a beep, and my hand dropped beside me as I gazed at my reflection in the mirror.

My lips trembled, and my vision went blurry as tears gathered in my eyes. My birthday, which was supposed to be a special day in my life, turned out to be the most humiliating day of my life.

My thoughts spiraled to an hour ago, and my jaws clenched tightly as everything replayed in my head. How Jeremy, my thirteen-year-old nephew smashed my birthday cake right on my face, in the presence of everyone. How he insulted me, accusing me of killing his mom when I knew nothing about the woman's death. And the worst part, how his father, my so-called husband stood there like nothing happened. The way he looked me straight in the eyes and told me that it wasn't a big deal and that the boy was just a kid.

The door to my room swung open, and I snapped my head in the direction. Jeremy was standing at the doorpost, his brown eyes blazing with fury as they glared disgustingly at me.

“Why are you here? Are you angry because of what I did?” He huffed, rolling his eyes as he walked inside gracefully, his hands tucked inside the pants of his white suit.

He halted in front of me. “I was just playing around with you. How could you storm off like that? This is why I hate you.” He spat, glaring hard at me.

I bit hard into my lip, clutching my phone tightly, trying to compose myself.

‘You don't have to do anything, Jess. It'll soon be over. Everything will be over in just a few hours’

I told myself, swallowing nothing.

I ignored and walked past past him in a bid to leave the room, but a sharp pain suddenly tore through the back of my head, followed by the sound of a glass cup clattering on the floor.

I halted abruptly, my eyes spinning for a split second before it stopped.

I winced, lifting my hand to my head, and a gasp tore through my throat when I felt the pain there.

“Oh my! Is there blood?!” Jeremy shrieked, his hands flying to cover his mouth and his eyes shot open.

“Did I hurt you? I didn't mean to do that to you. I was only joking around.” His lips curled up in a smirk as he placed his hands on his waist. Of course, he wasn't remorseful about his action.

“You are not mad at me, are you? You are not so petty to tell dad about this, right? Not that there is blood there after all” He pouted his lips, giggling.

“Jeremy!” I snapped, grabbing him by his arm, but I quickly let go of him as memories of the past clawed back into my mind. I could remember how furious Viktor got the first and only time that I scolded Jeremy when he was rude to me. How Viktor slapped and warned me to never hurt his child for any reason.

“Right. It'll be over soon.” I muttered, and with that, I turned on my heels and walked out of the room, going to get ice from the kitchen to massage my head.

I barely got to the kitchen when a loud shattering sound from upstairs tore through my ears, forcing me to halt abruptly.

“What is that?” I muttered, and without wasting another second, headed back upstairs, going straight to my room.

However, as I stormed inside my room, I was brought to an abrupt halt by the sight that welcomed me. My jaw dropping to the ground and my heart sank into my stomach.

The floor was littered with the broken pieces of the urn where my late mom's ashes were kept, with the ashes on the floor.

For a moment, cold seeped through my body as I stood there with my lips trembling, my heart pounding hard in my chest as I clenched my fingers tightly.

I lifted my gaze to Jeremy who was standing with a smirk tugged at the corner of his chubby face, as if this was no big deal.

He shrugged casually, “Sorry. I was only playing around with it. I didn't know it was going to break."

I shrieked, my body trembling as I looked back to the floor, tears gathering in my eyes.

This was the only memory of my mom that I've been holding on to since she died in an accident twenty-two years ago when I was just ten years old. For years, her ashes has been following me everywhere I went, and thankfully, Viktor allowed me to bring it here with me when we got married.

I dropped to my knees, gathering the ashes together with my trembling hands as tears poured down my cheeks.

“I should get the vacuum to help clea—”

“Get away from me!” I pushed Jeremy off as he tried to get close to the ashes. However, at that moment, Viktor walked inside, and Jeremy burst into tears.

“Daddy…” he cried, rushing to hug Viktor.

“What the hell did you do to my son?” I lifted my gaze to meet Viktor's. His brown eyes were dripping with disdain and disgust.

“Look what your son did! He broke my—”

“He is just a kid. How could you beat him because he broke an ordinary urn?” He snapped at me, and I froze on the spot, my heart tightening in my chest as I grabbed a piece of the broken urn, clenching my fingers tightly around it. For a split second, I wanted to rip his face off with the piece, but I resisted it.

“Ordinary urn?" I scoffed as I shot to my feet. "This urn contains my mother's ashes!” I added, raising my voice at him.

“It's just ashes, Jess. Not that it's going to bring your mom back. What is the big—”

I cut him off with a hot slap across his cheek, and his eyes widened.

“Did you… did you just slap me?” His face froze. It was the first time I would ever fight for myself. I always allowed him and his son to bully me, but I've had enough, and wasn't ready to keep up with this.

“Jessica!” He snapped, raising his hand to slap me.

“Lay your filthy hands on me, and I'm going to fight you with everything I have, Viktor!” I yelled at the top of my voice, leaving his hand hanging in the air, his face flashed with shock.

Viktor stared at me without saying a word, his eyes were still filled with shock, and Jeremy's too.

“Let's go, Jeremy.” He held Jeremy's hand as they both walked out of the room, slamming the door hard behind them.

My legs weakened, and I dropped to the floor as I burst into tears…