Chapter 1: One minute

The day Nathaniel took the one thing she could never replace, Skyler Vance made a vow, to ruin him, his empire, his happiness, everything he had spent a lifetime building. Until he falls to his knees, crawling back to her, begging for forgiveness he'd never get.

It wasn't her life he took, it was her purpose of living, her baby, and it all started from the night he shattered her completely.

****

“ I don't think I can keep doing this anymore.” Her voice came out smaller than she intended.

For a beat, silence hung heavily between Skyler and her husband, her throat felt dry as her fingers twisted tightly together.

“ I know you think I'm dramatic, but I'm trying, okay?” She continued. “ I wake up every morning telling myself today will be different. That maybe you'll look at me. Maybe you'll talk to me. Maybe you'll remember that I'm your wife.”

She swallowed, but he remained quiet.

“ Do you know what hurts the most?” She asked, but once again, got no response or reaction.

“ It's not that you don't love me.” Her eyes burned. “ It's that you don't even seem to care that I know you don't.”

She laughed weakly, her heart tightening as she remembered what she overheard him say to his friend last night.

"Sometimes I sit alone and wonder what I did wrong. I replay every conversation, every mistake, every argument. I keep looking for the moment you stopped wanting me because if I can find it, maybe I can fix it."

Her voice cracked.

"I just... I just want to know why I'm never enough for you."

Finally, Nathaniel looked up from his phone, his eyes sharp and cold, filled with no emotions, no sympathy, no guilt, nothing.

He sighed, checked his wristwatch, and then spoke.

"You have one minute."

Skyler blinked. “ What?”

"One minute." He repeated, tone- calm and detached, “ Whatever it is you're trying to say, say it within the next sixty seconds.”

Her lips dropped, color drained from her face. It felt like a slap across the face, like a punch in her chest that hurts more than anything else.

As if her pain had become a business presentation.

As if her marriage was a meeting he needed to wrap up before the next appointment.

"As of now," he continued, glancing at the time again, "you've already wasted twelve seconds. I have somewhere I need to be, Skyler.”

She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. And for the first time since she married him, she realized something terrifying. That the man she loves wasn't heartless because he hated her.

He was heartless because her tears meant absolutely nothing to him.

“Never mind, I have nothing more to say.” She lied between her teeth, batting her eyes as her hand subconsciously moved to her stomach.

“ Good. Have a nice day.” He grabbed his bag and walked out of the room.

She inhaled shakily the moment she was left alone in the room, glancing down at her stomach.

She had just found out about her pregnancy yesterday, told by the doctor that she was four weeks in.

Her fingers curled against her skin.

She has been married to Nathaniel for two years, but they've only had sex once, and that one time was a mistake because he was drunk.

Yet, for the first time in two years, Skyler was happy, returning from the hospital yesterday, she was so excited to inform him about it, not until she walked into the house to overheard what he was saying to his friend who came visiting.

“My marriage was a mistake, I don't know how much longer I can keep pretending that she doesn't disgust me.”

Her fingers curled against the test result in her hand upon hearing this, her hands trembled but she managed to keep it cool.

Just that she could never get used to the pain his words inflicted on her.

And whenever she lets him know how much his words are hurting her, he would either say;

"Are you done?"

"Can we not do this tonight?"

"You're exhausting."

"I don't have time for another emotional breakdown."

The last time she told him she wasn't happy, that she wasn't feeling loved, his response was.

"What exactly are you unhappy about? You live in a mansion, you had nothing when I married you and now you have everything.”

But she could not blame him, she was merely an employee in his company where they met and fell in love. She was an ordinary lady with no family, with nobody as everyone believed.

Nathaniel was once a loving man, caring and very affectionate, but the moment they got married, he changed to a man she could barely recognize.

He would publicly humiliate her, not by screaming, but by something colder, like a time at a dinner gathering where everyone was talking about a particular business, and then he said.

“ My wife cannot understand, let's discuss something else that's…maybe a little less intelligent.”

She would never forget that night, how everyone laughed at it like it wasn't a statement that cuts.

When she complains, he'd say, “You're too sensitive.”

When she's hurt, he'd say, “ You're overreacting.” And when she's crying, he would either grunt or say. “ Here we go again.”

“ I guess this is it,” Skyler mumbled to herself, a bitter smile nudging at her lips. She had made up her mind to finally leave the marriage and that's what she had planned to tell him that morning.

For weeks she had waited for a reason to stay.

For one sign that he wants her.

One that he never gives, especially after what she heard last night.

She looked down at her stomach and said to her baby. “ I hope you would forgive, but I need to do this.”

She's going to leave, pack her things, and vanish from his world without even letting him know about the baby, not because she wants revenge on how he maltreated her, or because she hates him.

But because she refuses to bring a child into a home where one parent is tolerated instead of loved.

She walked and dragged out her traveling box to begin packing.

While at it, she found Nathaniel’s blood pressure medicine, one he must never miss.

“ Oh my God.” Her eyes shot up, her head immediately played a scenario whereby he had an attack.

She quickly grabbed her phone to call him but as always, he didn't pick her call.

“ Oh, God.” She bit her lower lip, eyes batting in panic, and without having any other choice, she rushed out of the house to take it to him.

If only she knew that leaving the house that day, going to him, would cost her more than blood.