HIS GREATEST MISTAKE: the wife that became untouchable

Chapter three

Leilani

I had never thought to question my knowledge of pain. It was that feeling I had when I hit my toe hard against a table’s edge when I wasn’t looking. The feeling I got after failing a quiz after studying so hard. It was that feeling when I had fallen so hard for Caspian Illinois for the first time, only to see him confessing his undying love to my twin sister and thanking her for saving him.

And now, I realized sickly what I knew hadn’t been enough. This was pain. The sight of my husband pining for another woman. The knowledge that he would never love me like he loved her.

A heavy sense of emptiness spread inside me as I watched him walk in after her, holding her hands like they were long lost lovers. 

Caspian had found her and brought her back. In the end, I had been nothing but a place holder. The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Had I meant nothing to him at all?

“Caspian…” I said jerkily under my breath. “What is going on?”

He didn’t look surprised or guilty. He just watched me calmly as I asked him.

“She’ll be staying here,” he responded coldly. Just like that. It was like a blow to the heart, and I almost swayed at the devastating pain of it. She’ll be staying here. Like I was nothing.

“Staying… here?”

“Yes.”

I looked from him to her. She just stood there, watching me with that sick satisfied smile on her face. It had always been that way. She got what she wanted, always got what was hers. Even if it was mine first. I looked from her back to him and his blank face.

“I hate you.” The words were torn out of me in a jagged whisper, and I meant it. I wished there was something worse I could say, but I was just so broken I couldn’t think of anything else.

He clenched and unclenched his fists as he watched me but he said nothing in return. Lilac pouted, whining about being tired, he looked away from me to her and led her to the room. Our room. 

I watched them, and I couldn’t even cry. Moving mechanically, I focused on getting out of this space that made me want to retire to a mad house. I stayed in character throughout the ride, feverish in my desire not to let myself think. When I stopped, I was at my parents’ house. I greeted the children in the family house smiling even as I was dying on the inside.

I just wanted respite from the abnormalcy that was my life. To my surprise, my parents welcomed me with open arms and prepared my favourite meal. No one said anything about my coming home, but I just assumed it was one of the perks of being married to a billionaire, so I enjoyed it while it lasted.

Sleep didn’t come that night, and I went downstairs to get a drink, that was the moment I realized I had been fooling myself.

Halfway down the stairs, their hushed voices drifted to me, and I listened, white-faced, as they discussed me. My father sounded grim and my mother sounded pissed. 

“We can’t leave this house, of course,” my father spoke. “Caspian bought it for us, and he might take it back if—”

“We’ve been poor before,” my mother interrupted valiantly. “I can never go back to that. I can never allow it. Even if it means removing Leila. Lilac would do much better.”

I tiptoed back up the stairs, not wanting them to realize I overheard them. I got to my room and finally broke apart. They knew! They knew Lilac was back and wanted to get rid of me?! 

My inadequacies and weakness tore at me, and I pressed my hands harder against my mouth. All my life, I had always been second. Although Lilac and I were twins, we were treated so differently. I thought I might have redeemed myself by being so obedient and present to their needs these past two years, but I had been delusional. The tears that came were hard and ugly. Just like my life.

I don’t remember how I got back home. Home? I didn’t know if it could be called home. It now felt unfamiliar and empty. I walked in slowly, dragging my steps not knowing what to expect. 

My heart stuttered painfully as I entered to find Caspian at the table, I could not bear the sight of him eating with her and I was going to avert my gaze, but he called out.

“Leilani.” I paused on my steps, not turning. “Let’s talk,” his voice was calm.

Hope. Foolish, desperate hope brimmed in my chest as I turned to look at him and came to the sight of him sitting alone at the table. Lilac was nowhere in sight. For a moment… relief washed over me. Yet, something in me felt reluctant about ‘talking’. 

“I… can we talk later?” I asked softly.

“No,” he replied. “Come now.”

My hands trembled as I made my way to him, sitting in one of the empty chairs. Something didn’t feel right, but I pushed the thought away.

His unreadable gaze lingered on me for a second and my fingers twisted together underneath the table in anxiety.

“You said you wanted to talk…”

He took a sip from his tea before he spoke.

“Lilac told me everything.” 

My breathing stopped. Everything? The truth? What did she tell him?

“What… do you mean?” I asked, confused. I expected an explanation, anything at all. But I never would have expected what he said next.

“I’m sorry,” 

The words stunned me.

“I’m sorry for the past years,” he continued, “I was wrong to blame you.”

I froze. Caspian was… apologizing? My heart clenched painfully as I watched him in silence. He held my gaze with a softness I wasn’t used to seeing. It looked like…pity, and I hated it. 

“You’ve suffered because of me,” he continued. “I can’t give you back the wasted years but, I’ll compensate you.”

I was too shocked to say anything in return and the silence persisted for a while before he moved, reaching  down and pulling something up from beside the table. It was a briefcase. He placed it in front of me.

“You can take it.”

My brows furrowed in confusion as I slowly reached forward and opened it. My eyes widened at the stacks of money inside. My hands started to shake.

“What… is this?” I asked faintly, an ominous feeling warning me.

“Your compensation,” he said calmly.

The word hit me like a punch to the stomach. Compensation? For all the things he did to me, he was going to pay me off? While I tried to make sense of what was happening, he slid another document across the table. It stopped right in front of me. My eyes dropped to it and my world stopped rotating.

Divorce Agreement.

My vision blurred instantly. The ominous feeling was now at its peak.

“No…” I whispered.

My fingers trembled as I picked it up, my heart pounding violently in my chest.

“No… this isn’t…”

“This is the best solution,” he said.

I looked up at him, my entire body shaking.

“Solution?” My voice broke. “You just said you were going to compensate me–!”

“I was,” he replied.

“Then why are you doing this?” I cried. “Why are you giving me this?!”

“This marriage was never meant to happen, Leilani,” he said finally. “I’m setting you free.”