Chapter 2Love Repositioned

“Then I’ll be the one to ask,” I said, placing the signed divorce papers into his hand. I clutched the precious, reassembled letter and walked towards the door.

“Nelly!”

He called after me. “You walk out that door, and you’ll never set foot in this house again. Think about it. What do you have without me?”

I didn’t stop. My abdomen clenched with a wave of pain, but I kept walking. Suddenly, he was there, slamming the door shut. He let out a long sigh, his voice softening. “Fine. I’m willing to give you another child.”

“But you can’t raise it,” he continued, the words a fresh series of blows. “A child of mine must have the best education in the world.”

Every sentence was a calculated jab at my origins, a sneer at my lack of a diploma.

Ten years ago, after his parents were murdered and his inheritance was stolen by his uncles, he’d come to my village. He’d heard whispers of my grandmother, a woman with the Sight, a true mystic. He begged her to place a curse on his relatives, to help him reclaim what was his. Such dark magic always came at a cost, extracting a heavy price from the caster. But I had already fallen for him, for the fire in his eyes. To grant me the marriage I so desperately wanted, my grandmother paid with her life.

At her funeral, Caleb knelt beside me before her coffin. His voice was raw with emotion as he swore an oath: Nelly would be his only wife, for all his life. If he ever broke his vow, may his skin split and his heart shatter, and may his soul be damned for eternity.

One by one, his uncles met with bizarre and untimely ends. Caleb slowly, methodically, reclaimed the entire Thorne empire. But his world whispered that a simple country girl was not worthy of the Thorne name. I saw the shame on his face then, the first time one of his new, wealthy friends looked down on me. That look of contempt had never truly left his eyes.

I pushed his hand away and walked downstairs. Luna was waiting at the bottom of the staircase, a smug, triumphant look on her face.

“Finally got thrown out by my brother, huh?” she sneered. “Serves you right. How dare you live in our house and still try to tell me what to do.”

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. All I’d done was try to stop her from getting involved with some local punk, and she’d reacted as if I’d declared war on her.

“Luna, darling, your sister-in-law probably meant well,” a smooth voice purred. “Coming from the country, she just doesn’t understand our ways.”

“She’s not my sister-in-law, Vivian!” Luna cooed, linking her arm with the newcomer. “My brother is embarrassed by her. He always takes you to his events, never her.”

So that explained the cloying, unfamiliar perfume that clung to Caleb’s suits on the nights he came home drunk. I knew his life was hard, but he never shared his struggles with me. He just assumed I wouldn’t understand. Over time, the silence between us grew into a chasm.

“Then I’ll have to trouble you to take care of Caleb from now on, Miss Vivian,” I said, extending a hand. Unsurprisingly, she left it hanging in the air.

A third voice, sharp and condescending, cut in. “My Vivian isn’t like you. She won’t be a wife who acts like a glorified housekeeper,” said Vivian’s mother, stepping into the light. “Vivian is an international scholar. She’s fluent in two languages. She can make Caleb millions in minutes. You? You can wash clothes and cook. A maid can do that.”

Vivian basked in her mother’s praise, a cascade of perfect waves falling over her shoulder as she looked down her nose at me.

“Nelly,” she said, her voice dripping with false sympathy. “I know you were with Caleb through the hard times. But let’s be honest, he’s provided you with a very comfortable life these past few years. A live-in maid makes what, fifty thousand a year? That coat you’re wearing is worth more than that. Without Caleb, you’d still be stuck in that backwoods town, you never would have seen the world.”

“Vivi,” Luna interrupted with a giggle. “Don’t use big words. She won’t understand.”

They both burst into laughter, a sound like shattering glass.

Luna had forgotten. After her family’s tragedy, she’d missed two years of school. When she finally went back, she was hopelessly behind. I was the one who worked shifts waiting tables during the day so I could come home and tutor her at night. I was strict with her, yes, but only because she was the one who had come to me, clutching a failed test, her eyes fierce with a child’s promise.

“I’ll make you and Caleb proud, Nelly,” she’d sworn. “I’ll shut up all those relatives who made him kneel!”

Luna hadn’t changed. Caleb hadn’t changed. They had simply returned to the lives they were always meant to live.

The only one who had changed was me. I had dared to dream a dream that was never mine.

“Enough!” Caleb’s voice boomed from the top of the stairs, silencing everyone.