I hummed softly to myself as my chauffeur pulled up the curved driveway to the beautiful manor Alex and I called home. My face was absolutely glowing with the joyful news I had to share.
After months of having horrible mood swings that had bewildered us both, the doctor's diagnosis had finally provided the answer - I was pregnant! I could scarcely believe my dream of becoming a mother was finally coming true. Alex had wanted a child for so long, and my temperamental outbursts suddenly made perfect sense. I couldn't wait to see the look of elation and wonder on his face when I told him.
Eagerly pushing open the door, my smile gradually faded at the sight of luggage scattered randomly around the front hallway. What was going on? Where was Alex?
"Alex?" I called out, panic creeping into my voice as I moved further inside. "Alex, I have wonderful ne-"
The words caught in my throat as I entered the living room. There stood my husband, radiating fury and disdain as he gripped a manila envelope. And hovering at his shoulder like a snake was Marcus, his weaselly brother, wearing a sneer of smug satisfaction.
"What's...what's going on?" I stammered, suddenly afraid. "Those bags...you're not...leaving, are you?"
Alex's eyes, once warm ocean blue eyes when gazing at me, now bored into me with an icy hatred that stopped my heart.
"Leaving?" he spat with mockingly. "Oh no, Isabella. You're the one who's leaving. For good."
He flung the envelope at my feet, its contents spilling out in a damning listing of photographs. Photographs of someone who seemed to be me in a tight embrace with another man, kissing him passionately.
"No!" I cried, clutching my still-flat abdomen. "Alex, how could you think I would ever..."
But my desperate pleas fell on deaf ears as disgust and loathing contorted his chiseled features into a mask of cold rage.
"Now everything makes sense," Alex said through gritted teeth, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "Your uncontrollable temper tantrums... it was because I wasn't your real lover!"
He let out a choked yell, anguish and rage distorting his handsome features as he raked his hand through his lush jet-black hair. "How could you do this to me, Isabella? To us? I loved you with every fiber of my being!"
"Alex, please, you have to believe me," I pleaded desperately. "Those photos, they're not what they seem. I would never betray you like that!"
"Oh, really?" Alex hissed, "Thinking that they were playing tricks on me I went to a photo expert myself Bella! These photos aren't photoshopped! They are real." Alexa said, making me shocked.
I had never cheated on Alexa before!
"I have never cheated on you before, Alex, please you have to believe me!" I pleaded once again.
Marcus laughed evilly. "Told you she'd deny it. The lying little whore has been making a fool of you this whole time."
Fury blazed within me, temporarily displacing my panic. "You smug, wretched snake!" I lashed out at my weaselly brother-in-law. "This is one of your twisted schemes, isn't it?"
"Oh, this goes far beyond anything I could concoct," Marcus said with a smile. He turned towards the hallway. "You can come out now."
To my utter shock and dismay, the very man from the incriminating photographs stepped into the room, regarding me with eyes full of hurt and accusation.
"Isabella," he said, shaking his head sadly. "How could you betray my trust like this?"
The strange man reached out to take my hand, his expression a nauseating mixture of pity and self-righteousness. I recoiled from his touch as if it were a branding iron.
"Don't you dare!" I snarled, slapping his hand away with rage burning in my eyes. "How much did that wretched snake Marcus pay you, huh? To come in here and spew these lies?"
I turned to my despicable brother-in-law, hands clenched into trembling fists. "This is a new low, even for you. Trying to destroy my marriage out of petty jealousy!"
"Alex, you know your brother has always hated us being together! How can you let him trick you like this?" I held onto my husband's hand.
I could see conflicting emotions in his eyes.
Marcus clucked his tongue in mock sympathy. "Such denial. But I suppose I can't blame you for being defensive, given the lurid evidence against you."
"Evidence?" I practically spat the word. "Those photos are clearly faked. Doctored to make me look unfaithful!"
"Faked?" The stranger's eyebrows rose in insulted disdain. "You think I'd debase myself by helping to manufacture lies against you for money?"
"I don't even know who you are!" My voice had risen to a near hysterical pitch as I gestured wildly at the bewildering scene playing out.
The man's face hardened, and he straightened to his full height in an expression of moral outrage. "My name is Daniel Westbrook. And until today, I thought of you as my lover."
My heart plummeted sickeningly. A lover? What fresh hell was this?
"Isabella, stop." The anguished timber of Alex's voice made me flinch. I turned to see his once luminous eyes now dull and lifeless, streaked with desolate anguish as he shockingly flashes me off.
"Just...stop," he repeated dully. "I don't know why you insist on compounding the lies, but I can't keep listening to this."
"Alex, I'm not lying!" I tried reaching out once again, but he violently shrugged off my hand.
"Don't touch me!" he bit out. "Not after...after what you've done."
The devastated slump of his shoulders, the flatness in his voice - it was as if the vibrant, passionate man I'd married had been drained from him in an instant, leaving naught but an empty husk. I'd never seen him look so...broken.
That's when it finally hit me with a sickening dread - he believed those heinous photographs were real. My innocent, loving husband had been utterly taken in by this vile deception.
"Alex, please, you have to listen to me!" I pleaded desperately.
I drew a steadying breath, ready to unveil the truth that would surely break through this nightmare. I would tell him the reason for my mood swings but before I could get the words out, Daniel spoke in that insufferably smug tone.
"Isabella and I have been seeing each other for over a year now. We've actually discussed starting a family together."
The air was sucked from my lungs as Alex violently recoiled, his face drained of all color. Daniel's calculated words had seized the opportunity of my deepest hopes, only to defile them with his vile insinuations.
I opened my mouth, the revelation of my pregnancy burning on my tongue. But Alex had already turned away, devastation etched in the deep lines of his face.
"Enough of these lies, Isabella," he rasped out in a dull monotone. "You've made your point, Marcus."
"That I have, brother." The snake agreed as he scooped up the envelope of damning photos. He pressed them into Alex's shaking hands. "More than enough proof to be rid of your faithless wife."
But my pleas fell on deaf ears. Alex simply stared through me, eyes hollow and lifeless. He said nothing as his brother Marcus approached, holding out an envelope.
I eyed it warily, dread coiling in the pit of my stomach.
What fresh torment did it contain?
"What's this?" I asked in a small voice, somehow knowing I didn't want the answer.
"The divorce papers," Alex stated in a flat, emotionless rasp. "Our marriage is over."
He snatched the envelope from Marcus's hands and thrust it towards me. I stepped back as if being offered a venomous viper.
"No...Alex, please..." I begged, tears streaming down my cheeks.
With an impatient gesture, he upended the envelope, allowing its contents to spill out. I watched in numb shock as crisp divorce papers fluttered to the floor between us, the stark words glaring accusingly up at me.
This couldn't be happening. Not to us. After everything we'd been through, all we'd overcome through the strength of our love.
"Sign them," Alex ordered, each syllable dripping with acid contempt. "I want you out of my life. Out of my home. Out of my sight."
I opened my mouth, desperate pleas forming on my lips, but he silences me with a cold, dismissive wave.
What choice did I have? No matter what I said, he would never believe me - not with Marcus's deceptions thoroughly poisoning his mind. The man I loved and had pledged forever to was utterly lost to me now.
So, with a cracked, guttural sob tearing from my very soul, I crumpled to the floor and scooped up the divorce papers with shaking hands. Renouncing my life, my love, my entire world with a few strokes of a pen.
The papers slipped from my numb fingers as twin spots of moisture darkened the document - the first of what I feared would be many, many tears to come.
All fight, all defiance had drained from me, leaving hollowed desolation in its wake. I could only watch through a bleary haze as Alex turned his back on me.
My sanctuary, my home, was now where all my dreams and hopes buried. And the man I loved had been utterly cremated by hatred and vicious deceit.
I watched as my luggage's was thrown out; Marcus pushed me out the door as Daniel followed.
I held my stomach in my hands.
I guess it was just me and my baby.
