The Lies Behind Her Marriage novel Chapter 2

Dianna’s Visit.

“You can keep the house.”

“You can keep working here as the Director for Clinical Research.”

Serena stared blankly at the divorce papers in her hands while Nathaniel explained the agreement.

“You can keep the money in our joint account.”

Nathaniel calmly resumed, “My mother did not want to leave you any alimony, but I have prepared a separate check for the sake of our six-year relationship. My mother doesn’t have to know.”

“Don’t contest the divorce. I don’t have time to deal with it,” he firmly warned. “I will have my lawyers file them tomorrow, and after the cooling-off period, we can get our certificates together.”

She did not say a word, but reached out for the check, her hands shaking. She looked down at it, thinking, ‘So all those lies, the six years we had built together, the deception, were worth nothing more than five million dollars.’

The Thornes were now worth twenty billion dollars. Kline BioSolutions was worth ten billion dollars, but she was only worth five million dollars in Nathaniel’s eyes.

Serena couldn’t stop herself from looking at Nathaniel again.

He sat there, calm and distant, his strong jaw clenched, and the faint stubble on his face made him look even colder. His gray-blue eyes, once warm and gentle, now looked sharp and unfeeling. Even his perfectly shaped features, the straight nose, the firm lips, felt unfamiliar, like he had become someone else entirely.

She still couldn’t believe this was the same man she fell in love with, the same one who had doted on her for six long years. Every bit of love she once saw in him was gone, replaced by an emptiness that made her chest hurt.

Her heart broke, but anger began to rise with it. How could he look at her like that, as if she meant nothing at all?

“Sign it,” he said. “And you can leave after. I will give you another week of bereavement leave, but no more than that. You have been out of work much longer than you were supposed to.”

Serena, “???”

Still, she said nothing, but inside, she was burning with rage.

She signed every page of the divorce papers, her hands cold and sweating. After that, she stood up, took her copy of the agreement, and glanced at the man she had loved for so long.

He didn’t look at her. He was simply unbothered.

Serena turned on her heel with the check in hand. But just as she made it halfway through his office, the control she’d been clinging to finally broke.

Her hands clenched on the check. She walked back to Nathaniel, tore the check into pieces, and threw them into his face! She said, “You can keep your mother’s pity!”

She saw him startled, stunned by her sudden courage, but she did not give him a chance to speak. Instead, she slapped him hard!

“I hate you!” she shouted. “If I’d known you’d only use me, I would have wished I was never born!”

Finally, she walked away.

“Serena?”

“Serena! Get back here!”

She heard him, but there was nothing else left to say.

What for?

***

“That asshole! That scumbag! That jerk!” Alice screamed. “How could he be so heartless?”

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