Chapter Three

Serena Pov

My hands quivered as I set the breakfast table, the weight of fatigue under me as I tried to hold it all together.

I had no more strength or will to stand without leaning over the counter, yet here I was - pretending to smile—flipping Theodore's pancakes quite the way he liked them.

The sound of footsteps descending the stairs immediately sent a shiver down my spine, my eyes glancing up at the figure approaching my direction.

Not again…

I turned to face him completely, my throat dry from last night's sobbing as I somehow expected him to ask how I was feeling after last night—after he had woken me up in the middle of the night to prepare herbal soup for his mistress; the woman I had watched from the shadows as she snuggled in my husband's arms, sneezing from the cold while I burned with fever in our bedroom, alone.

But there was no concern in Killian’s dark eyes. No trace of remorse. Only a cold detachment as he walked towards the dining table with a briefcase.

He threw his face away from my glare and curled his fingers around the coffee mug I just handed to him, and swallowed for a long time.

I had to force myself not to worry, swallowing down all the blood-hot emotions steaming up in me as I watched him pretend everything was fine.

“Erm…can we talk? About… everything? "What did I do wrong—or what went wrong in the first place? "Last night…you kept saying you have a surprise for me, Killian…” I whispered, fidgeting with the edge of my apron as I took his silence as a good sign to continue. “What’s that about?”

The silence stretched for another minute as he took another sip, his expressions unreadable and darker than before. And then, as if suddenly remembering something very important, he took out a bunch of papers from his briefcase and tossed them in front of me.

“Sign them.”

My heart stopped for a moment as my eyes glued to the contents of the papers, the bold black letters at the top piercing deep into my mind.

DIVORCE AGREEMENT

The silence was back again, but this time, it was a sharp, dreadful one that filled the room with an uncomfortable tension as we both stood there with the documents scattered in my front.

I swallowed hard and dashed closer to him, looking up at him, “Who’s this for? It couldn’t be us, right? "You weren’t actually serious about making her your wife, right?!” My voice was barely a whisper, cracking with hurt and disbelief.

As if expecting my outburst, Killian didn’t spare me a glance and simply took another sip of his coffee, not bothering to explain himself or talk this through. “It’s over, Serena. It always has been.”

The words sliced through me, forcing me to take a painful inhale of air.

“Over?” I repeated, numbness taking over as my hazy mind was still struggling to process the situation before me. “Our anniversary was just yesterday!”

He clenched slightly at my question, but his voice remained indifferent as he spat out, “Well, happy anniversary honey!” I staggered back a bit from the outburst, but he didn’t care less and continued, “Samantha is the woman I should have been with all along. I just waited for the right time to end, whatever this was. I stopped loving you from the third year of our marriage, Serena. Heck, I threw all the signs all over the place, but you continued to make everything even more infuriating for me!”

My stomach twitched in knots as I stared at him with an empty gaze. “The right time?” I snapped. “And you decided that time was now? After I spent years loving you, taking care of you, raising our son.

Killian slammed his coffee down, the sound piercing through the atmosphere like a gunshot, “Don’t make this any more difficult, Serena!” His gaze finally met mine. Something I’d been eager for this morning, but they weren’t what I expected; they were sharp, unyielding…loveless. “You and I both know this marriage was a mistake. You were never enough for me. I was never enough for you. So, don't make this any more difficult than it is.”

I flinched.

I had expected this moment for months, felt it in the way he looked at me—in the way he avoided my touch—I just kept telling myself that I could hold on a bit longer and wait for him to prove me wrong. But hearing him say it to my face? Hearing him confirm that I really meant nothing to him?

It shattered something inside me.

“And Theodore?” I whispered, gripping the chair beside me to steady myself. “What about our son, Killian?”

He lowered his darkened eyes. “He’s better off with Samantha.”

I snorted, shaking my head at how ridiculous he sounded. “You think that woman can be a mother to my child? You really think she could make a motherly figure?”

Killian shrugged, his nonchalance a blade slicing deeper. “I mean, she already is.”

And then, as if the universe wanted to rip away the last bit of my composure, the echoing of small familiar footsteps filled the hallway around us.

I turned just in time to see Theodore, my little boy, walk into the kitchen. His golden hair was slightly messy from sleep, his blue eyes blinking up at us. He looked like me—like the person Killian was desperate to replace—and that was what ached the most.

“Mommy?” he called in a sleepy voice, rubbing his eyes.

A wave of relief and hope flooded through me hearing that small title leave his lips. I reached for him, needing to hold him, to feel the warmth of my child before me.

Theodore frowned and took a step back, his action forcing me to flash him a helpless and confused look.

And then, he turned to Killian with a pout, “Is it done, Daddy?”

The floor tilted beneath me. “Done what? "What did he tell you?” I whispered, my chest tight with pain.

Theodore frowned at me with so much coldness and disgust that I had never been there before. “You’re leaving, right?” His voice was small but too firm for a boy of his age. “Daddy said you were never really my mommy and that you’re the reason my real mummy isn’t here.”

I felt my heart physically crack as an audible gasp escaped from my lips.

“Theodore!—”

“Ah! "Don’t touch me!” he shouted, running behind Killian as if I was a stranger trying to abduct him. “Just go already! You’re a bad woman!”

“No, no, no. "You’re all I have left!” I exclaimed as my legs gave out under my weight, my knees collapsing right there on the kitchen floor as I cried my eyes out for my baby. “Baby, please don't do this to me! Not you too!!!

“Sign the papers, Serena, or God, so help me, you won’t like the other option available.”

Killian’s voice was final and growing with a frustration that indicated that any minute from now he was going to do something that he was probably going to regret.

I looked up at him, my entire world crumbling before him as he glared down at me with a bitterness that had me wondering what I ever did wrong.

B-but…it says here that…that my company.

“Yes, exactly, Serena. 70% of your Enterprise goes to Samantha and me.” He filled in for me, nonchalantly shoving the section where he had already given the company that I had built with sweat, tears, and blood, to his lover and all that was left was nothing—absolutely nothing. I ran my fingers through my hair, tugging at the strands as the love I had for him suddenly turned into hatred and something much darker. Samantha gets to have 70% of MY Company?! The company I built from scratch for years! I knew I never should’ve made him the manager, nor given him the power to access the ownership!

But what was left to lose when everything was already gone?

With trembling fingers, I reached out for the pen, watching as the ink and droplets of my tears melted onto the paper with finality as I signed my name underneath my title.

Ex-wife: Formerly Mrs. Blackwood.

The name of a woman who no longer existed in his world.

And as I lifted my head to glare at the man in front of me, I made a silent vow to myself: I was going to make them all regret crossing Serena Calloway.

Killian was going to pay for taking advantage of me.