2

Kiara

“What is this, Jake?” I asked, staring at him.

Jake went silent. A cold, painful, shattering silence.

“Answer me, Jake.” I said, slamming the folder down on the desk.

He walked around the desk, putting distance between us, facing me head-on. The desk was the only thing separating us, but it felt like an endless gap.

“This is a joke, right?”

“It’s not,” he said quickly, without looking away. He looked even more serious than before.

My heart clenched in my chest, and nausea hit me. Not from the pregnancy, from the situation.

“So you’re telling me you want a divorce?” I smiled weakly, hoping it was a joke.

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

My mouth opened to speak, but no words came out. A storm of emotions crashed through me. I looked at my husband —the man I loved— but he wasn’t looking at me with love anymore. Not at all.

What happened? What changed?

“I want an explanation, Jake.”

“Do you really want one?” he raised his eyebrows.

“I don’t understand anything. Does this have to do with the fight we had the other night? Jake, it was just an argument because we’d spent a month apart for work, but that’s no reason to end our marriage.”

Instinctively, I touched my stomach, as if protecting our children from the argument. He had no idea about them. No idea that I might be sick.

“We can’t get divorced. I’m your Luna. The Moon Goddess chose us. You can’t do this to us.”

“I don’t care what the Moon Goddess wants for us. I won’t sleep next to my enemy.”

I frowned.

I was about to ask what he meant when he pulled some photos from his jacket and dropped them on the desk.

“Do you have anything to say about these?”

I picked one up. In the picture, I was kissing a man. Not just any man. Thomas. His brother.

“This... I don’t know where you got these, but they’re not real, Jake! I would never do something like that! I’d never betray you!” I cried, tears streaming down my face in helpless frustration.

Jake didn’t believe me. I could see it in his eyes. He despised me for something I hadn’t done, but he looked completely convinced that I had.

I moved around the desk and tried to take his hands, but he stepped back as if I were poison.

“Jake... please,” I begged.

“I don’t want your excuses. Irina told me everything.”

“My sister?”

“Yes. I ran into her on the plane a week ago, and she confessed it all. She said you’re having an affair with Thomas.”

I couldn’t believe it. My own sister told Jake that? She lied!

“That’s not true, Jake! I swear it! There’s nothing between me and Thomas!”

“Those photos say otherwise!” he shouted, throwing the glass pen against the wall.

I flinched at the sound, closing my eyes as tears poured out.

“Jake, I’m begging you. Please listen to me!”

“Why would Irina lie to me? She’s your sister. Why would she lie?” he narrowed his eyes, his chest rising and falling unevenly, consumed by rage.

“I don’t know... I really don’t know why she did it, but you have to believe me!”

“The other night, you told me you didn’t want to be with a man who’s always working! You said you’d find someone else if I didn’t change! And you did!”

Damn it.

Yes, I said that, but I didn’t mean it. I said it out of anger. I’d never actually do something like that. Especially not with Thomas, his younger brother.

“I know what I said, but I said it when I was mad. I didn’t mean it.”

“Sounded real enough to me.”

“Jake...” I pleaded softly.

“Sign the papers,” he grabbed a pen and slammed it on the desk.

“I don’t want to divorce you, especially not over a lie.”

“I don’t want your explanations, Kiara. I want the divorce.”

“So you’re throwing away two years of marriage over something my sister said? I swear I’ll kill her! I don’t understand why she did this to me.”

But when I stopped to think... it all made sense.

Irina had always been in love with my husband. She met him first, but he never cared for her. When I met him, it was love at first sight. Irina always claimed she accepted our relationship and didn’t have real feelings for Jake. But it was all a lie. Irina planned this. She created fake photos to destroy my marriage. And worst of all, it was working.

“I don’t want to spend another day married to you. You’re a traitor. I’ll make your life hell for betraying me with my own brother,” he threatened.

I broke down in sobs.

The man in front of me was a stranger. And Jake felt the same about me.

“Call Thomas! He’ll tell you the truth!”

“My brother’s dead to me. Just like you.”

“Jake, please, love.” I clasped my hands together.

“I want you to sign the papers.”

“I won’t!”

“You will!” he shouted, punching the wall. His hand bled, droplets hitting the floor, but the wound closed almost instantly.

I was terrified. Jake wouldn’t listen to reason.

I saw it in his eyes. I’d lost him.

“I love you, Jake.”

“Sign,” he ordered again.

My hands were shaking. Jake kept staring at me with hatred and pain. My chin trembled, and my throat couldn’t hold back my sobs. I picked up the pen. The papers lay in front of me, waiting for my signature.

“Are you sure this is what you want, Jake?” I looked up at him.

“It’s what I want,” he nodded. I’ll call you tomorrow to arrange the breaking of our bond. Starting tomorrow, you’ll no longer be my Luna.

What would happen to me? To our children?

I couldn’t tell him the truth. He wouldn’t listen. And honestly, I was afraid he’d say he didn’t care.

I signed the papers, my heart in pieces.

Jake snatched the documents away and signed without hesitation. He closed the folder.

“It’s done. You’re officially my ex-wife.”