The letter.

Nadia's pov.

Elijah slid the papers across the table and looked at me like I was already a stranger.

“Sign it, Nadia.”

I stared at him.

Seven years. Seven whole years of my life and he said my name like it meant nothing. Like I meant nothing. I sat there, staring like a fool who didn't know her right.

Seven years of my life was flushed down the drain like it was nothing.

Despite everything I have for this man, he still chose my school bully over me.

Elijah and I have been married for seven years. But started dating when we were in high school, after high school we decided to become exclusive as he proposed to me.

Oh, how foolish was I? My mother warned me against it, but I didn't listen. Instead, I ran away with him to his grandmother's farm house.

He wanted to go to college so bad that I had to give up my dreams of getting into medical school to raise his college fund. He told me that it was just going to be for a little time, and when he's done with college, he's going to get a good job, marry me and get me into the best medical school in the country.

That was the plan. That was the dream.

But he didn't get the job like he planned. So I had to abandoned my dream completely, still marry him and work on the farm to survive.

I sacrificed everything.

I worked that farm like it was my own blood. I kept the books, managed the accounts, woke up before the sun and went to bed after it.

And finally my hardwork paid off.

The farm became a successful business. We started getting the attention of international companies. We became millionaires. I made him a millionaire.

And just when I thought we were finally going to start living our best lives, he brought my school bully as his lover, and the whole family supported him.

His excuse — I wasn't educated enough or pretty enough to stand by his side. A side that I made.

Then he declared an open marriage, I accepted it, hoping he would change his mind. He didn't. Instead he decided to get rid of me.

He transferred all his assets — built on my hard work — to his mother’s name so I’d get nothing in the settlement.

I didn’t need a cent.

He sat across from me in a designer suit with a pen in his hand and divorce papers between us.

“Are you going to sign or not?”

The voice came from my left.

Ivy.

She stood there with her hand resting on her stomach. Her very round, very obvious stomach. She looked at me the same way she had looked at me in secondary school. Like I was something small. Something beneath her. Like no amount of time had changed the fact that she thought she was better than me.

Maybe she had always been right about that. Because somehow she had won.

“You should just sign it.” She smiled. It didn't reach her eyes. “You and Elijah were never meant to be together. Everyone could see that. Even though you knew it deep down.”

She rubbed her belly slowly.

I looked away from her.

Then I looked around the room and my chest caved in.

His mother was there. The same woman who I stayed with when she was sick. The same woman who I had sacrificed a kidney to save her ass.

She sat with her arms folded and her eyes sharp, looking at me like I was the problem in the room.

His sisters were there too. All three of them. The same ones I cooked birthday cakes for. The same ones I lent money to without asking for it back. They stood together and they looked at me with that same cold expression and I realised that this had been planned. All of them had known. They had all sat with this secret and smiled in my face and let me keep giving and giving until there was nothing left to take.

“Just sign the papers.” One of the sisters said. "Stop dragging this out."

“You were never good enough for him anyway.” Another one said.

My mother's hand found mine under the table.

I had almost forgotten she was beside me.

She stood up slowly and when she spoke her voice was shaking with something that wasn't sadness. But close to that. “Elijah.” She said his name like a warning. “How could you do this to my daughter? After everything she gave you. After everything she walked away from you. How could you sit there and do this.”

Elijah laughed. He actually laughed.

He leaned back in his chair like he was completely comfortable. “I never loved Nadia. She was just a convenient. She was there and she was willing and I needed someone to hold things together while I built my life.” He shrugged. “That's all it ever was. But I have a name now. I have money and a reputation and I need a woman who fits that. Nadia doesn't fit that. She never did.”

My mother opened her mouth, her fists clenched. She was one second away from committing murder.

“Mum.” My voice came out quietly. “Stop.”

“Nadia—”

“Please.” I squeezed her hand. “Sit down.”

She sat down slowly. I could feel her trembling beside me.

I picked up the pen, holding it firmly between my fingers.

I refused to shake. I refused to show them weakness.

I looked at the line at the bottom of the page and I signed my name in one clean stroke and I pushed the papers back across the table without a word.

Everyone exhaled at the same time.

Elijah straightened up and reached inside his jacket. He pulled out a cheque and slid it across the table toward me with two fingers.

“For your troubles.” He said. “One thousand dollars.”

I looked at it.

One thousand dollars. Seven years of my life. My dreams. My dignity. My mornings and my nights and every single thing I had poured into that man and his family and his land.

One thousand dollars.

I picked it up.

I tore it straight down the middle. Then I tore it again. And again. Until the pieces were small enough to mean what I needed them to mean. I leaned forward and I let them fall across the table in front of him.

I stood up.

“You're going to regret this, Elijah.” I said it quietly. Not angry. Just certain. "Not today. But you will."

I picked up my bag.

I walked out the door and I did not look back.