Too Late For Us, Mr Ashford

Elena's POV

“You know what they call women like you? Barren! Worthless and a waste of wife.” He finally dropped the bomb that had refused to offload since he set foot in the house.

The words that hit me harder than a slap would have.

“Elena,” he said, not looking at me. “I can’t keep doing this. I’m tired.”

I stood at the edge of the living room, my arms wrapped around myself, trying to hold the tremor in my chest.

“It's been five years,” he continued, finally turning his golden brown eyes at me with disgust. “Five years of nothing and all you continue to do is to tell me how to partake in some stupid IVF cycle that doesn't even work!”

My hands shook as I tried to steady my breath. “Marcus…I told you it wasn't my fault. I have seen a specialist, I've..”

“Oh, I know,” he spat, cutting me off. “I know you've seen doctors, shed tears and prayed to whatever God you believe in. But none of that changes the fact that I am a man! A fucking man who needs an heir, Elena. My family needs one. And all you've given me is embarrassment.”

Tears clouded my face. “But…but I…

He stepped closer, towering over me with his expensive Woody cologne suffocating me. 

“You helped my sister,” he sneered. “Is that not your fucking excuse? All the damn time. You gave her your egg like some charity project. You were willing to do that for her but you can't even give me a child?”

My eyes turned. “Your sister was dying, Marcus. You said that yourself . You begged me. You begged me to do this for you…”

He scoffed, nudging my words off and picking the one significant to him. “She needed an egg donor, Elena. Not you playing saviour. You could have said no. Go against my wish but no, you didn't. And now look what your kindness has cost us. We're the laughing stock of every dinner party, every board meeting with the name tag — Marcus and his barren wife.”

He was blaming me now?

If someone would have told me, a day like this would come and Marcus would turn his back against me and act as though he had no hand in his sister's help or he didn't know about the doctor's warning. Maybe, just maybe I wouldn't have done anything. Maybe we would still be lovers that can't do without each other.

But look now?

Marcus Ashford, the husband of my youth, had changed into something I don't even know.

Marcus even hardly comes home anymore. Whenever there is a dinner at his family's place, he just puts through a call and asks me to get dressed. 

Whenever he comes back home, he doesn't sleep in our matrimonial bedroom anymore.

My breath caught when he walked back to his desk, opened the drawer, and nonchallantly tossed a set of papers across the counter. They slid to a stop at my feet and just looking at the cover of the file.

Divorce papers 

My world stopped and I started to see blurry things.

“I've already spoken to my lawyer,” he said with a dead calm that made me shake. “I'll have my assistant finalize everything. We're done, Elena. Done with all this bullshit.”

Right that instant, something inside me snapped in a heartbreaking way and the tears I had tried to restrain, fell out of control.

I bent down slowly, my fingers brushing the cold papers. My name was boldly written on it. 

“Marcus…” My voice cracked. “Please. We can try again. I’m doing treatments. I ..”

“I don’t want to try.” He said, jerking off my hands away from his shoulder, causing me to flinch. 

I watched as he leaned against the desk, his arms crossed and his face blank then I used the opportunity to bring out the pregnancy strip test I had just done before he came in.

However, as Marcus took it, he checked with disgust and threw it right back at my face, sending jolts into my soul.

“What do you take me for, Elena? After trying lots of IVF, you sent me a pregnancy test with one line?”

I shook my head in disagreement, trying to make him understand that this one might be a miracle, but he cut me off.

“No long talks, Elena. I've met someone else,” he said.

My heart dropped a heartbeat. 

“Yes…she's refreshing,” he added, almost smiling. “You know her, actually. My secretary.”

I don't know how it happened, but hot tears blurred my vision. I didn't want to cry. God, not here. Not like this.

What was my offense?

Giving out my eggs stupidly to help his sister which completely ruined me and my chances of getting pregnant.

“I don't understand? You..you've been cheating on me?”

“Don't make this dramatic,” he said with a sigh. “This marriage has been dead for years. We just didn't want to admit it, or you just chose not to get my signs.

He stepped closer, and my body froze out of habit, years of swallowing tears and bending myself into shapes to make him stay.

“Elena,” he said softly, “you will be okay. You're strong. You'll find someone who doesn't care about children. Someone who accepts a woman like you.”

A woman like you— as if I was defective, as if I was returning to the store shelf for sale again.

“I…Marcus, we can still…”

“No! Don't you get it, Lena? I'm done! Nothing can make me stay. Not even a baby from you anymore. You drained me. I'm the mayor and it is expected of me to have a son.”

I drained him?

His words made my soul burn with hurt.

The way he had begged me that night to save his sister kept revebrating in my brain.

“Don’t waste more time, Elena. Be fast about this.”

He handed me the papers like he was in a hurry and my fingers tightened around the papers.

Fine. If he wanted me gone, I would walk away with whatever dignity I had left.

“Where do I sign?” I asked, my voice almost firm.

I watched as he blinked, surprised by how quickly I stopped begging. He cleared his throat, handing me a pen.

“Elena Martinez.”

When I pushed the papers back toward him, something inside of me went numb.

“This is for the best,” Marcus said, already dismissing me and reaching for his phone. “My lawyer will contact you for your settlement. You should pack before the rain gets worse. I do not want excuses or having to bear some kind of loss.”

And just like that, I was no longer his wife. I was no longer the girl he loved five years ago. I was no longer the apple of his eyes.

He left the room, leaving behind a loud thud and the flashing of my pregnancy test.

I squinted my eyes to notice the little changes that had now covered it.

“Two freaking lines!”