Elena
The rain was coming down in sheets, blurring the city lights into a hazy glow, but Marcus's hand in mine was all the clarity I needed. We were standing on the balcony of our old apartment, the same one where we'd promised each other forever. His fingers were warm despite the chill in the air, and the way he looked at me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered still made my heart stumble.
"I could stay like this forever," I whispered, though my voice barely rose above the sound of the rain.
Marcus's lips curved into a smile, one of those rare, unguarded ones that only I ever got to see. He pulled me closer, his hands sliding up to cup my face, his touch as familiar as the air I breathed. "Forever sounds perfect," he said, his deep voice low and intimate.
His kiss tasted like rain and promises, and for a fleeting moment, I believed him. I believed in us.
It was in moments like this, when the rest of the world faded away, that I remembered why I had fallen in love with Marcus Sinclair. He was magnetic, impossible to resist a man whose ambition matched mine, whose intensity left me breathless. When we first met, it had felt like the universe had bent itself to ensure we collided, and I'd been powerless against the force of him.
And now, here we were, married for three years, still so tangled up in each other that sometimes it felt like there was no beginning or end to us.
"You're staring," Marcus teased, brushing a strand of damp hair from my cheek. "What's going on in that brilliant head of yours?"
I smiled, resting my forehead against his chest, inhaling the faint scent of his cologne. It was a comforting mix of cedar wood and something uniquely him. "I was just thinking about how much I love you," I admitted softly.
He laughed, the sound rich and warm. "Careful, Mrs. Sinclair. You'll spoil me."
"Maybe you deserve to be spoiled," I shot back, playful but sincere.
His expression shifted then, softening into something deeper, more serious. "You know I don't deserve you, right?"
I frowned at that. Marcus could be so self-assured, so invincible, that it always caught me off guard when he let that vulnerability slip through. "Don't say that," I murmured, pressing a kiss to the edge of his jaw. "You're everything I've ever wanted."
He didn't respond right away, his gaze dropping to where his thumb traced slow circles against the back of my hand. I thought he might say something, but instead, he kissed me again, deeper this time, as though he needed to memorize the way I felt against him.
We didn't know it yet, but that night would be the last time things felt simple.
It was the little things that first began to shift between us. Marcus was working later and later, his mind always somewhere else. I'd catch him staring off into the distance, his jaw tight, his shoulders tense, and when I'd ask what was wrong, he'd give me that practiced smile of his and say, "Nothing you need to worry about, love."
I wanted to believe him.
But the doubts began to creep in, small and insidious, until they became impossible to ignore. I started to notice the lingering scent of someone else's perfume on his clothes. The way his phone was always turned face-down when we were together. The nights he came home smelling like whiskey and regret.
Even then, I told myself there had to be an explanation. Marcus was my husband, the man who had kissed me in the rain and made me believe in forever. He wouldn't betray me. He couldn't.
But the truth has a way of finding you, no matter how tightly you close your eyes.
It was late past midnight when I found the papers. I wasn't looking for them, wasn't snooping through his things. I'd been searching for a charger in the bottom drawer of his desk, but what I found instead was a manila folder with my name on it.
My name, and the word "Divorce."
My hands trembled as I flipped through the documents, each page a knife twisting deeper into my chest. His signature was already there, bold and decisive, as if leaving me was just another business transaction.
My breath hitched as I sank into his chair, the weight of the betrayal pressing down on me until it was hard to breathe.
"Elena?"
His voice startled me, and I looked up to see him standing in the doorway, his tie loose around his neck, his hair slightly disheveled. He looked tired, older somehow, but when his gaze fell on the folder in my hands, his expression hardened.
"You weren't supposed to see that," he said, his voice as cold as I'd ever heard it.
I stood, the papers slipping from my hands to scatter across the floor. "What the hell is this, Marcus?"
He sighed, stepping into the room and running a hand through his hair. "It's what it looks like."
I shook my head, tears blurring my vision. "You're leaving me? After everything" My voice broke, and I took a shaky breath, trying to hold myself together. "Why? Is there someone else?"
His silence was answer enough.
That night was a blur of anger and heartbreak, of questions that Marcus refused to answer and truths I wasn't ready to face. He left before sunrise, taking his suitcase and leaving the rest of our life in shambles.
I found out later about the other woman. About the child. And as if that wasn't enough, I learned of his involvement in the scandal that had destroyed my father's company, the very betrayal that had driven my father to his death.
Marcus didn't just leave me. He left me with nothing.
But as I stood at the ruins of my father's estate, holding the first ultrasound of the child Marcus would never meet, I made a promise to myself:
I would rebuild. And one day, I would make him pay for everything he'd taken from me.
Six Years Later
"Welcome to Val crest, ma'am."
The cab driver's voice pulled me from my thoughts as we crossed the bridge into the city. The skyline stretched out before me, glittering in the twilight, but all I could feel was the weight of the past pressing down on my chest.
I glanced at the rear view mirror, catching Daniel's reflection as he dozed in the backseat, his head leaning against the window. He was the only thing that had kept me going all these years, the reason I'd fought so hard to become the woman I was now.
But I wasn't here just for him.
I was here to confront the man who had destroyed me.
Marcus Sinclair may have walked away from me once, but this time, he wouldn't get the chance.
This time, I held all the cards.
And I wasn't leaving until I saw him brought to his knees.