Chapter 2

~ EVANGELINE

“Divorce? You've got to be kidding me,” Bella scoffed at my words.

I sat down at the edge of my bed before I responded. “I am serious, Bella. I mean it. I am leaving Alexander,” I repeated.

My best friend paused for a tiny beat before she spoke again.

“But why? You guys haven't been married for that long. You can't just walk away just because you guys got into a fight,” she stated.

A sad smile crept on my lips at her words.

“Nothing happened between us, Bella. There was no fight,” I said.

“Then tell me what's wrong. What is going on, Evangeline?” Bella asked.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Alexander is in love with Margaret.”

Bella gasped, the sound echoing through the phone.

“What?! That…that can't be true, right?” she exclaimed.

A bitter scoff slipped past my lips. “I don't have any reason to come up with a lie like that. It's not a lie, Bee. He is in love with his brother's wife.”

“But…how can you be so sure?” Bella asked hesitantly.

A memory surfaced at her words but I pushed it away.

“Listen to me, I know what I am talking about. Even if he had marked me immediately after we got married, Alexander would rather fight Haze — the werewolf mating period — alone rather than touch me,” I paused, and took a deep breath before I dropped another bombshell.

“He would rather masturbate to a picture of Margaret rather than sleep with me,” I concluded.

The silence that drifted from the other end of the phone made my hands curled into fists. Bella was probably feeling pity for me right now, and I hated how this entire situation was making me feel.

“I am so sorry, Eva. Really. I'll be over in a couple of hours with the divorce papers,” she said quietly.

“Thank you,” I whispered and hung up.

The memory I pushed away earlier surged to the surface of my mind again, and this time, I let it flow into my head.

Closing my eyes, I relived the memory.

~~

That was the day I should have known that Alexander was obsessed with his brother's wife.

Not long after we got married, I remained a virgin. A part of me had wondered why my husband hadn't made a move on me, and well, I felt like I had to do something.

At least to prove that he wasn't impotent.

I made my way to his study that faithful day. We were both in Haze, and I figured that should make things easier if we were to have sex.

Only for me to walk in on my husband, masturbating to a photo album. He was pissed to see me standing at the doorway, and he rudely asked me to leave.

Seeing how aroused he was, I couldn't leave. So I closed the door and walked towards him for a kiss.

Alexander pushed me away. “I don't want to touch you,” he snapped.

“But we are married. We should…” I started to say but he cut me off.

“No we don't. We don't have to do anything,” he quipped at me, turned around, and walked out of the secret door we both knew was in his study.

The door led to the back of the house and into the forest. With my heart in my throat, I watched as my husband transformed into his wolf form.

“Alex…” I called out to him again as I walked after him. He ignored me, and without thinking, I shifted into my wolf form too.

Our wolves stared each other down, and even though he was larger than me, my wolf didn't back down.

‘Please. Please, Alex, don't push me away,’ my wolf said as I padded closer to him.

‘Stand down,’ he growled.

‘But I want you,’ I said desperately.

He glared at me, and his wolf's snout flared with anger and disgust at my words. Without bothering to respond, Alexander stepped around me and sprinted into the forest, leaving me behind.

Disappointed, I turned back into my human form and walked back into the study. My eyes fell on the photo album. The woman smiling at the camera was Margaret, but I didn't pay heed to it as I shut the door and walked out of the study.

~~

The memory dissolved as I blinked my eyes open.

I had been so foolish. That was clearly a sign, and I had blinded myself to it.

Sadness pressed down on my chest, and I blinked back tears.

Alexander had been obsessed with Margaret right from the start, probably even before he married me.

I was never his wife. I had been nothing but a placeholder to him.

And the realisation only strengthened my resolve to leave. Without thinking about what I was about to do, I stood up and walked out of my room, making my way to his study.

Alex wasn't back from the funeral yet, and I could hear the voices of Margaret and her son as they conversed.

I pushed away the wave of anger that slammed into me at the sound of them talking. They didn't deserve my anger. Alex was the one I was disappointed in.

Pushing the study door open, I made my way to his large mahogany desk. And just like it was years ago, the photo album was sitting prettily on his desk.

I flipped through it, and rows after rows of Margaret's pictures stared right at me. She looked gorgeous, and I could see the mark of my husband's obsession from how worn the album was.

How long had he been touching himself to her pictures?

Tears sprang into my eyes again.

If I hadn't been foolish back then, if I had been smart enough to connect the dots, would I have stayed in the marriage?

Or would I have pretended that I didn't see anything and go on like nothing was going on?

I sighed as I closed the album. I had seen the truth, but I had been too afraid to face it.

Not anymore.

My phone buzzed in my hand. Bella had arrived.

I made my way downstairs, and stood at the bottom of the stairs as the housekeeper ushered her in. My best friend smiled at me.

“Hey, Eva. You okay?” she asked.

I nodded and said nothing. Margaret and her son were in the kitchen, and I didn't want either of them to overhear anything.

Before I could lead Bella to my room though, the housekeeper ran over to me.

“Ma'am. The family photo you placed on the mantle. That…that boy just tore it up.”

I froze.

Margaret's son just tore up the only picture I had left of my parents?

What the hell?

I rushed over, my heart flipping in my chest as anger slithered in my veins. Maybe the housekeeper was referring to another photo.

It couldn't possibly be…

My steps faltered. I stopped before the mantle and took in the scene before me.

Margaret's son was holding two pieces of a photo that was whole a few minutes ago.

I erupted.

“What…did you just do?!” I quipped as I stalked towards him and yanked the pieces of the ruined pictures from him.

My wolf started to howl in my head, and my hands curled into fists at the unapologetic look on the boy's face.

“You need to apologise. Right now,” I snapped. And to my utmost disbelief, the four year old folded his arms across his chest and said: “No.”

“What?!”

He shrugged.

“My mummy say that those people in the picture are dead anyway, so it doesn't matter if I tear the photo or not. I was just playing with it.”

I could not believe my ears. I turned to face Margaret, who was staring at me with a bored expression on her face.

“You told him to tear it up because my parents are dead anyway? What the hell is wrong with you?!” I snapped at her.

My vision turned red with fury, and it was taking all of my willpower to hold my wolf back from taking over and making them pay.

Margaret smirked. “He asked. I told him the truth. Should I have lied?” she rolled her eyes.

I took a step closer, ready to unleash hell. But the boy stepped before his mother and held his hands out.

“Don't talk to my mother like that!”

I would have let the entire thing go if he had apologised. Dead or not, my parents meant the whole world to me.

And they had always thought me to be patient with kids. But this boy was rude.

And my wolf had had enough.

I crouched down and held his gaze. “You know what? Fine. I'll stop talking to your mum. But if you touch anything, anything, in this house again, I am going to cut off your hands,” I threatened.

Then I let my wolf growl at him for effect

Margaret snatched him away from my gaze.

“What the fuck? How dare you threaten my son? Stop acting like a petty teenager and forget about it!”

I scoffed angrily at her words. Bella stepped forward and placed a hand on my arm.

“Come on, Eva. Let's go,” she said softly. I glared at the boy once more but said nothing else as I walked away.

*

Hours later, Alexander burst into my bedroom.

“How dare you threaten to cut off that boy's arm? He's just a kid. How could you have been so childish?” he snapped.

I stood up and faced him.

Then I held up the torn pieces of my parents picture. Alexander's went pale as he took in what I was holding.

“He went to the mantle and destroyed this. Then he said and I quote: ‘They are dead anyway.’”

My husband ran a hand through his hair and turned away from me. Even if he hated me, he knew how much that picture meant to me.

“I…I had no idea. She didn't tell me what he did,” he stuttered.

“That is quite alright. Now please, if you don't mind, I'll like you to leave my room,” I deadpanned.

“Evangeline. At least let me apologize,” he stated. I smiled and shook my head at him.

“I don't want an apology, Alexander. I don't want anything. Just please, leave me alone,” I insisted.

My husband ran a hand through his hair again but did as I said.

As soon as the door closed behind him, I sagged back in my bed. He had rushed in here to blame me without even knowing what happened.

Typical.

Staring at the divorce papers Bella had dropped before leaving, a part of me hesitated.

Alex wasn't going to sign the papers. I needed him to sign them without knowing what they were, but I didn't know how to do that.

Knowing my husband, he wasn't going to let me go easily.

Subconsciously, I reached up, my fingers grazing my mark.

I quickly snatched my hand away. I couldn’t afford to think about that.

All I had to do was find a way to convince my husband to sign the divorce papers. I would be pone step closer to freedom.

But that was going to be very hard to do. Because despite the fact that Alex hadn't touched me sexually for three years, I was still marked by him.

I was his Luna, and even if he eventually signed those divorce papers, the only way to be really, truly free from him was for him to unmarke me.

Knowing my husband though, he wasn't going to remove the mark just because I wanted him to.

Which left me with only one option.

I had to dissolve the marriage first. That way, everyone would know that the divorce wasn't my fault, and that he was the one who had fallen short of his duties as an Alpha — the duty had fallen to him now that his brother was dead — to me, his Luna.

So my goal was to make him sign the divorce papers, dissolve the marriage, and get unmarked.

That way, I would be truly free.