YOUR ASSETS FOR YOUR LIFE

Her head felt like splitting when her breath began to seep into her body.

Her jaws felt ten times heavier than usual.

She held her head in her hand and gradually lifted herself off the ground. The hand that held her felt sticky and wet.

Tears stung her eyes as she realized what it was.

Blood!

Her eyes adjusted slowly to her environment. She was still inside her house, still in the living room.

Karen was holding a vase that was stained with blood while Alfred and her father held her.

“You killed my grandchild! You killed my baby!” she was shouting, pointing a finger at her.

Mary felt so lightheaded that she pushed herself off the floor.

Taking a few staggering steps, her eyes began to spin, and the ground on which she stood felt like a pillow. A sudden force tilted her backward, and falling down seemed like a relief to her.

Her father rushed to her and held her before she hit her head on the floor again.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

Mary stared at him, her mouth too heavy to speak.

He looked weary. Was that a look of pity in his eyes?

“Is she alright? She killed my grandchild, our grandchild, and you ask her if she is alright?” Karen screamed.

She fell to the ground and began to sob heavily.

Her sob was heart-wrecking.

“Mary, I'm afraid you have to leave this house, for your safety and ours. I won't press charges against you, but you have to leave. Selena will soon return, and seeing you here would only agitate her more,” Alfred said, his eyes downcast.

Mary looked at her now ex-husband and managed to force her mouth open.

“But this is my house. You should be the ones leaving, not me,” she whispered.

A wild, dark smirk spread through Alfred’s face.

“You are really something, Mary. How callous can you be? You killed my child, and you still feel you have a right to a fight? How about I take you to court right now and charge you for murder? How about that?”

Mary sat silent as tears ran down her eyes.

Was she really going to lose everything?

“We didn't sign a prenup, so that makes everything even better. You will not have to appear in court at all, so that saves you from going to prison. I am willing to let everything go by as payment for everything you have ever done for me—the company, the house, my mother’s liver… I am willing to forgive you this once,” he said.

“Where will I go? How will I leave?” she asked.

She wasn't expecting any mercy from him. She just wanted to hear him drive the final nail into her heart.

She wanted to be sure she had nothing to live for, nothing to change her mind on the decision she was planning to take.

“I don't care… you are a free woman, but the guilt of the child you killed will always be a dent in your life that will drive you to your grave. Now get up and get out,” he ordered.

Mario, Kart, and Bruce—the bodyguards whom she had rescued from an orphanage and employed, paying them and their siblings—stood by the door, ushering her to leave.

She smiled.

“I will just grab my clothes and bag, then. I guess I don't have any choice,” she said.

Alfred nodded.

He gave her a look… she couldn't understand what was behind that look, but it didn't seem like he wanted her to leave or stay.

It looked like he was just being influenced by the situation at the moment.

But he had made his decision… he had chosen to condemn her.

She walked into their room… her room, and began to throw her clothes and jewelry into her bag.

Would she even need them anymore?

Was there even any need to pack clothes she wasn't going to wear ever again?

“Leave the jewelry… that's the tradition. The new wife gets them, you know,” Alfred said, leaning on the doorpost.

“But these were bought with my money. They are mine.”

“Our money… Mary. When we got married, we became one, which means your money became mine and mine became yours. So you bought them with our money, and my new wife gets them now.”

She laughed.

Oh! She had been a fool.

What had she been thinking when she picked a wretched grape farmer boy and dusted him, dressed him to become a CEO of a company she had sold almost half her soul to build?

What had she expected?

She looked into the mirror and winced.

Who was this haggard old woman that stared back at her?

How had she been reduced to this?

How?

“I have transferred all your assets and cars to Selena. It's right that she has them all since you made her lose the most precious thing in her life. The doctors said she wouldn't be able to conceive again… all thanks to whatever it is you gave her.”

“What do you mean all my assets?” Mary snapped, her voice not so soft anymore.

“So typical of you to think of yourself alone. You didn't hear the part that she couldn't have her babies anymore? Anyways… the divorce papers you signed gave the authorization, so yeah! Selena gets all your shares in the company, the money in your accounts, and your cars. I mean, I was your next of kin in everything, so I could give them all to her,” he replied with a nonchalant attitude.

“But you can't have all those things except I am dead, Alfred. I am very much alive,” she was getting apprehensive.

Was he going to beat her to her plan?

“That's why you have to sign these papers transferring everything legally to me. Of course, I can't kill you, 'cause for a while, I did love you…” he paused, “but not anymore. Sign the papers and disappear from our lives forever, and I promise that not even Karen will take you to court for the murder of an unborn child or threat to life.”

“Threat to life? What do you mean?”

“Karen and her daughter have all the evidence they need to put you behind bars for the rest of your life. I don't know how they did it, but it's bad. I know I shouldn't, but I'm trying to help you,” he said, looking almost kind.

“You are ripping me off everything I labored for and you call it ‘help’? How convenient,” she said, shaking in rage.

“This is your only way out, Mary… I can't say I didn't try. I should hate you, I should be the one dragging you to prison, but I am offering a hand of mercy. Sign the papers and leave our lives.”