The Wife He Replaced

Chapter 1:

I blinked.

Once.

Twice.

But the scene in front of me refused to disappear.Was I seeing right? Has my mind been playing tricks on me ? My doubts faded But the longer I stared…The more real it became.

The excitement that had carried me all the way to the top floor slowly drained out of my body. My fingers slackened, and the papers in my hand slipped slightly at my side.

“Congratulations. You’re pregnant.”

The doctor’s voice echoed faintly in my head.distant, meaningless, drowned out by the violent pounding of my heart.

Because right in front of me…

My husband was holding another woman.

Her..The redhead I knew all too well.

The same woman who had humiliated him… abandoned him at the altar… and disappeared without a trace.

And yet..There she was. Pressed against his chest like she had never left.And there he was.Holding her like I had never existed.

I stood frozen outside the glass door of his office, forced to witness everything in painful clarity. There was no curtain, no shadow,nothing to soften the blow.

Every detail was sharp.Cruel.Unforgiving.

I should have known.Victor Vale was not a man who loved.He was a man who chose.

And he had just chosen her.

Again.

My chest tightened painfully, but I forced myself to breathe. Forced the tears burning in my eyes to stay where they were.Not here.Not in front of them.

With trembling fingers, I pushed the door open.The sound made them turn.But neither of them looked guilty.Not even slightly.Of course they didn’t.Why would they?

To Victor, this marriage was nothing more than a contract.And contracts… could be broken.

“What on earth is going on here?” I demanded, my voice steady despite the storm raging inside me.

“Ah, Rita,” Victor said casually, as if I had merely interrupted a meeting. “I was going to speak to you about this.”

I stared at him, waiting. Hoping foolishly that there was some explanation.Some justification.Something that would make this hurt less.

“I want a divorce.” The words landed like a gunshot.For a second, I thought I had misheard him.

“A… divorce?” I repeated, my voice barely above a whisper.My gaze flickered to the woman still clinging to his arm.

Kate.The one he was supposed to hate.

After everything she had done to him… after the scandal that forced him into this marriage… after the humiliation.And yet here she was.Standing beside him like she had always belonged there.

“Kate and I are back together,” Victor continued smoothly. “She explained everything. I’ve decided to forgive her.”

A faint, smug smile tugged at her lips.My stomach twisted.“But… we’re married,” I said, the words sounding hollow even to my own ears. He scoffed. “Only because you trapped me into it.”

The accusation hit harder than I expected.

“I didn’t” I stopped myself, swallowing the defense that rose to my lips.It didn’t matter.He had already made up his mind.

“Victor, please,” I tried again, clutching the papers tightly in my hand. “You need to reconsider. Don’t make a decision like this so quickly. I have something important to tell you, but” my eyes flickered to Kate“

I’d prefer to say it in private.”

He waved his hand dismissively.“Whatever it is, you can say it here.” My heart sank.

This wasn’t the man I had come to know over the past six months. The man I had fallen in love with.

The man I had married not just out of obligation, but because somewhere along the line… it had become real to me.

But maybe… It had never been real to him.My grip tightened around the papers.

The truth sat right there in my hands.

His child.

Our child.

For a brief moment, I considered telling him anyway.But then I looked at Kate. At the satisfaction in her eyes. At the way she leaned into him like she had already won.

And I knew.I would never give her that power.Not over this. “On second thought…” I said quietly, lowering my hand. “It’s nothing.”

“Good,” Victor replied without hesitation. “Then we’re done here.”The finality in his tone made something inside me crack.

“You should move out by tomorrow,” he continued coldly. “The settlement will be transferred to your account. The divorce papers will be sent within a few days.”

A transaction.That’s all this was to him.

Six months of marriage… reduced to numbers and signatures.

“Victor, please…” My voice broke despite my effort to control it. “You can’t do this. Not like this.”Kate stepped forward, her voice dripping with mock sympathy.

“You heard him,” she said. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. You’ve already trapped him once don’t try it again. He’s finally free.”

Free.The word echoed bitterly in my mind.

I stared at Victor one last time.

Waiting.Hoping.For anything.But there was nothing.No hesitation.No regret.No trace of the man I thought I knew.

So I nodded.

Slowly.

Silently.

And turned away.I wouldn’t beg again.Not for a man who had already let me go.As I walked out of the office, my vision blurred but I refused to let the tears fall.Not yet.Not where they could see.

What was supposed to be the happiest day of my life had turned into my worst nightmare.I had come here to tell my husband we were having a child.

Instead…I was leaving him.With nothing but the life growing inside me.My hand drifted to my stomach as I stepped into the elevator, my heart shattering with every passing second.

“This is all I have left,” I whispered softly.And I would protect it.No matter what.

As the elevator doors slid shut, Kate’s cold, calculating gaze followed me.

…and something in her expression promised this wasn’t the end.