4.

The sound of the slap echoed through the living room, leaving everyone too shocked to speak.

Charlotte's head had turned to the side from the force of the blow, and for a moment, she remained exactly where she was, one hand hanging by her side as she slowly felt the sting spreading across her cheek. Her ears rang, and she could feel the eyes of everyone in the room fixed on her, but what hurt her most was not the slap itself. It was the fact that Sean, the man she had spent her entire marriage trying to please, had finally raised his hand against her in front of their families.

"Sean!" Margaret cried out, rising from the sofa so quickly that the silk handkerchief slipped from her lap. "What have you done?"

Even Bianca looked taken aback, her lips parting slightly as she stared at her son. Vanessa, who had been enjoying every moment of Charlotte's humiliation just a few minutes ago, had stopped smirking. None of them had expected Sean to go that far, no matter how angry he was with his wife.

But Sean showed no sign of regret. Instead, he stood in front of Charlotte with his chest rising and falling, his face twisted with anger as though she were the one who had just done something unforgivable.

"Look at what you've made me do!" he shouted, pointing a finger at her. "You stand there talking to me as if you've forgotten your place, and you expect me to sit back and let you disrespect me in my own home?"

Charlotte slowly turned her face back toward him. Her cheek was already burning, and she could feel her eyes watering from the pain, but she refused to let a single tear fall. She had cried enough over this man. She had cried in their bedroom, in the bathroom when she could no longer bear his words, and in the silence of the night when she wondered what she had done to deserve a husband who seemed to hate everything about her.

"Charlotte, oh my sweet girl..." Margaret hurried over, her eyes swimming with tears as she reached out to gently touch her daughter's bruised cheek. "Please. Just... just apologize to him. Look at what's happening. You can't fight him like this. For the sake of the family, for the peace of this house... just tell him you're sorry. Let's fix this quietly."

Charlotte looked down at her mother's trembling fingers.

For a moment, Charlotte wanted to believe that her mother was only asking her to calm things down before they became worse. Perhaps Margaret would speak to Sean privately afterward, perhaps she would finally tell him that he had gone too far, and perhaps she would stand by her daughter instead of asking her to endure another humiliation for the sake of keeping everyone happy.

But as Charlotte looked at the fear in her mother's eyes, she slowly realized that Margaret was not asking Sean to make things right. She was asking Charlotte to pretend that nothing had happened.

"Mum," she whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "He just slapped me."

"I know, darling. I know." Margaret nodded quickly, tears slipping down her cheeks as she held Charlotte's hand. "But you know Sean. You know how he gets when he's angry. Please, just let this go for now. We can talk about it later, when everyone has calmed down."

Charlotte stared at her mother, searching her face for some sign that she understood how much she was hurting her, but Margaret only tightened her grip on her hand and glanced nervously at Sean.

"Did you hear what I said?" Sean demanded, his anger rising again when Charlotte failed to respond to him. "Your mother is trying to help you, yet you still stand there looking at me as if I'm the villain. Is this what you want? Do you want everyone in this house to turn against you?"

Charlotte slowly withdrew her hand from Margaret's grasp.

"No, Sean," she replied, finally lifting her eyes to meet his. "I think everyone in this house has already decided whose side they're on."

"Charlotte!" Margaret gasped, looking around as though her daughter had said something shameful.

"What? Am I lying?" Charlotte asked, her gaze moving from her mother to Bianca, who stood beside the sofa with a displeased expression, and then to Vanessa, who had remained unusually quiet since the slap. "He hits me, and instead of asking him why he did it, you are all asking me to apologize. What exactly am I supposed to apologize for? For answering him? For refusing to let him insult me anymore? Or for finally standing up for myself?"

"Don't you dare speak to your mother like that!" Bianca snapped. "She is only trying to prevent you from making a terrible mistake. A good wife knows when to keep quiet instead of turning every disagreement into a battle. Sean has a lot on his shoulders, and the last thing he needs is a wife who challenges him at every opportunity."

Charlotte let out a quiet, disbelieving laugh.

"A good wife?" she repeated. "Is that what you think I have failed to be, Bianca? Because if being a good wife means allowing my husband to humiliate me in public, ignore me in private, and now slap me in front of our families without expecting any consequences, then perhaps I have never been the wife you wanted me to be.”

Bianca's face tightened. "You are twisting everything to make yourself look like a victim."

"I'm not trying to look like anything. I'm simply telling you what happened."

"Charlotte, please." Olivia finally stepped forward, her red eyes moving between her sister and Sean. "Nobody wants things to get this bad. We are all upset, and I know Sean shouldn't have hit you, but you have to understand that you've been pushing him too far. Just apologize, and we can put all of this behind us."

Charlotte turned to look at her twin sister, watching as Olivia reached for her hand with the same sweet expression she had worn countless times before whenever she wanted Charlotte to do something for her.

"Don't touch me, Olivia."

Her sister stopped, surprise flashing across her face. "Char, I'm only trying to help you."

"Then stop trying to help me by asking me to accept things I shouldn't have to accept."

Charlotte's voice grew colder as she stared at the hand Olivia had extended toward her. "And don't ever touch me again unless I give you permission. I have tolerated enough from you already."

Olivia slowly lowered her hand, her expression changing as she looked at Charlotte. For a moment, she seemed unsure of what to say, and Charlotte could see the discomfort behind her sister's carefully maintained expression. Olivia was used to Charlotte giving in, even when she was hurt, and she certainly wasn't accustomed to being spoken to like this in front of the family.

"Have you completely lost your mind?" Sean demanded, stepping forward again. "First, you disappear all night without telling anyone where you are, then you come back here and insult everyone in this house, and now you're threatening your own sister? What exactly do you think you're doing?"

Charlotte looked at him for a long moment, her fingers curling slightly at her sides. "I'm done, Sean."

His brows drew together. "What did you say?"

"I'm done." This time, her voice was clearer, and she did not look away from him. "I'm done apologizing for things I didn't do. I'm done begging you to treat me with respect, and I'm done pretending that this marriage is something worth saving when I'm the only one who has been trying to save it."

A strange silence settled over the room, and Charlotte could feel everyone watching her as she continued.

"You wanted me to leave the gala, so I left. You wanted me to stay away from you, and I did exactly that. But when I came home, you decided that I had somehow wronged you, and now you've hit me because I refused to let you speak to me however you wanted. Tell me, Sean, what else do you expect me to do? Should I kneel before you and beg for your forgiveness? Should I thank you for reminding me of my place?"

"Watch your mouth!" he roared.

"No." Charlotte shook her head, and the movement made her cheek ache, but she barely noticed it anymore. "I've watched my mouth for five years. I've spent this entire marriage trying to be the kind of wife you wanted, even when you made it clear that nothing I did was ever good enough. I kept telling myself that if I loved you enough, if I gave you enough time, and if I stopped complaining about the way you treated me, you would eventually change."

Her voice faltered for a moment, but she forced herself to continue.

"You never did, Sean. And I can't keep doing this to myself."

Margaret began crying harder. "Charlotte, please don't say things you might regret. You are upset right now, and I understand that, but marriage is not something you throw away because of one terrible argument. You and Sean have been together for years. You have built a life together, and you cannot just walk away because things have become difficult."

Charlotte turned toward her mother, and the hurt in her eyes was impossible to hide.

"One terrible argument?" she repeated. "Mum, this isn't about one argument. It has never been about one argument. You know how unhappy I've been. You've seen the way he treats me, and you've watched me cry over this marriage more times than I can count. Yet every time I come to you, you tell me to be patient, to be understanding, and to remember that I'm his wife. When exactly am I allowed to remember that I'm your daughter too?"

Margaret opened her mouth, but no words came out.

For the first time, Charlotte did not wait for her mother to find an excuse. She had spent years hoping Margaret would eventually understand, but standing there with her cheek burning and her family watching her as though she were the one destroying their home, she realized that she could no longer depend on anyone else to defend her.

She had to do it herself.

Charlotte turned back to Sean, who was still staring at her with barely contained fury.

"I want a divorce."

The words fell into the room with such finality that even Olivia looked up sharply.

Sean stared at her, his anger giving way to disbelief before his expression hardened again.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me. I want a divorce, Sean."

He let out a short, mocking laugh, shaking his head as though he could not believe she had dared to say such a thing to him. "You want a divorce? You think you can threaten me with divorce because I slapped you? Do you even understand what you're saying?"

"I'm not threatening you. I'm telling you what I want."

"And what exactly do you think will happen when you leave this marriage?" Sean demanded, moving closer to her. "Where will you go? What will you do? In case you've forgotten, your entire family lives here and you have nowhere else to go. Do you think you can walk away from me as though you have everything figured out?"

Charlotte stared at him, hardly believing that even now, after everything he had done, Sean still thought the only thing keeping her in this marriage was the fact that she had nowhere else to live.

"This is my father's house, Sean," she reminded him quietly. "You seem to have forgotten that."

His expression immediately darkened. "Don't you dare bring your father into this."

"Why not? You have no problem reminding me of everything you think you've done for me, so why shouldn't I remind you of the man who gave you everything you have today?"

"Charlotte!" Margaret cried, looking between them in panic. "Please, don't make this worse!"

But Charlotte barely heard her. For years, she had watched Sean grow more comfortable in a position he had never been given the chance to occupy without her father's support. She had watched him take over the company, make decisions as though he had built it with his own hands, and slowly begin to treat her as though she were nothing more than an unwanted burden in his life. She had said nothing because she loved him, and she had convinced herself that the success of the company and the peace of their marriage mattered more than her pride.

Now, she could no longer understand why she had sacrificed so much for a man who had never appreciated any of it.

Sean stepped closer, his voice dropping into a dangerous warning. "You better be careful about what you say next. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

"Then perhaps you should stop assuming that I know nothing."

For a moment, he simply stared at her, his eyes narrowing as he tried to understand where this sudden defiance was coming from. The Charlotte he knew would have been crying by now. She would have been apologizing, begging him to forgive her, and promising that she would never speak to him that way again. Instead, she stood before him with a burning cheek and a steady gaze, making it clear that she had no intention of taking back a single word.

"You will regret this," he finally said. "I swear, Charlotte, you will regret the day you decided to turn against me."

"Maybe," she replied. "But at least I'll have no one to blame but myself."

Charlotte gave him a bitter smile before turning her gaze to Olivia.

"Well, I suppose you can finally stop hiding in the shadows, Olivia. Now that I'm out of the picture, you can have my husband all to yourself and stop pretending that he's only your brother-in-law."

Olivia's smile vanished, and Sean went completely still.

"Charlotte, what the hell are you talking about?" he demanded.

"Surely you didn't think I'd remain oblivious forever, did you?" Charlotte let out a bitter laugh, looking between them with nothing but disgust. "Or were you waiting until you'd started popping out my husband's bastards before you finally admitted what you've been doing behind my back?"