Return of the Billionaire's Ex-wife.

Channel

I stared at him, my eyes getting misty, my heart hitting hard against my rib cage as my trembling hands gripped the lying pictures.

The glossy edges of the photographs dug into my skin, but I couldn't let go. It felt like if I did, everything would become real-final. My breathing turned uneven and shallow, like the air in the room had suddenly thinned.

"Do you believe I did this?" I asked, my voice coming out in a whisper.

The words barely left my lips, fragile and broken, like they didn't even have the strength to exist.

Rowan gave me no reply as he stared back at me, his eyes red, his face hardened.

His silence was louder than any scream. It crushed me more than any accusation ever could.

"Isn't the evidence so obvious? Why wouldn't he believe it?" Rachel, Rowan's sister, answered for him.

Her voice cut through the room like poison, smooth yet deadly.

"Face it, Channel, you have been caught. I have always known that you are a whore, but I didn't expect you to keep chasing after men after being married to a man that loves you and accepts your problem."

She scowled, eyeing me disdainfully, her lips curling in satisfaction as though this moment was everything she had been waiting for.

"For Christ sake! This isn't me! I didn't cheat on my husband," I screamed in a shrill voice filled with despair.

My chest tightened painfully as my voice echoed across the room.

"Rowan, I can't cheat on you; I don't take your love for granted." I cried out in dismay.

Something wasn't right. Something was terribly wrong.

My fingers trembled as I lifted one of the pictures again, forcing my blurred vision to focus.

There I was.

In bed.

With another man.

"No..." I whispered, shaking my head slowly as if denial could rewrite reality.

"This can't be me. I don't know this man!" I said, frantically switching my gaze from Rowan back to his sister and then back to Rowan.

My mind raced wildly, searching for something-anything-that could explain this nightmare.

Walking towards Rowan, I raised my hands to hold his arms, desperate for him to feel me, to feel the truth in my touch-

But his cold warning made me flinch.

"Don't you dare touch me." He growled, his voice sharp like the blade of a sword.

It sliced my heart open.

The coldness of his voice cut through my heart down to my soul, and unable to handle the pain, I crashed down onto my knees, sobbing softly as the tears that I was trying to push back now escaped my eyes.

The man I loved... the man who once held me like I was his entire world... now looked at me like I was nothing.

"Sign those divorce papers and leave my house in less than thirty minutes." Rowan commanded.

Without sparing me a glance, he walked unhurriedly, his fists clenched tightly at his sides, towards the elevator.

Each step he took felt like a countdown to the end of my life.

"Believe me. I didn't cheat on you." I cried out, clapping my hands together in a frenzy while calling out to my husband-my husband who was walking away from the sitting room and, obviously, away from my life.

The event unfolding before my eyes felt unreal.

Like a cruel dream I couldn't wake up from.

This wasn't how I planned this evening to be.

I had come back home from the hospital with hope blooming in my chest, my heart light for the first time in years.

I was finally pregnant.

After almost four years of silent prayers, painful treatments, and endless disappointment...

I was carrying his child.

I had imagined his reaction a thousand times.

The way his eyes would light up.

The way he would lift me into his arms.

The way he would call me his miracle.

But instead...

I was standing here, accused, broken, and unwanted.

"Sign those papers before he gets down; otherwise, you wouldn't like the state you will find yourself in if he should come back and meet you in his mansion." Rachel said before taking a slow gulp of the alcohol by her side.

Her calmness was terrifying.

Looking at her happy face, it was obvious.

She had planned this.

Every single bit of it.

She had done something-something twisted and unforgivable-that resulted in me being in bed with another man.

But how?

I still couldn't understand.

I had never gone out with her. Rachel and I were far from being friends.

She hated me like I was a plague.

She found nothing good in me, and she never wasted any moment reminding me that I was a good-for-nothing being.

Her brother, Rowan-my husband-had always been different.

He was constantly against her behavior toward me.

He was my support.

My devoted, loving husband.

My backbone.

He was everything I could ever wish for.

But this evening...

He was a stranger.

A sharp sting of pain stabbed my heart, and I gripped my chest, howling out softly.

What was I to do?

How was I going to free myself from this accusation?

I had done nothing to deserve this.

Nothing.

All I ever did was love Rowan... and hope that one day I would give him a child.

That one day had finally come.

I was carrying his baby.

His child.

And he didn't even know.

Still weeping on the soft rug with my head bowed, the calm but heavy footsteps of Rowan made me raise my head.

Hope flickered weakly in my chest.

Maybe...

Maybe he had come back to listen.

Maybe he had realized-

But the look on his face shattered that fragile hope instantly.

I gazed at his towering figure with teary, pitiful eyes, hoping that he could see through me...

See the truth...

Believe me.

But my hopes were dashed when he marched towards me, grabbed me harshly by the hair, and forced my face down to the rug.

My breath hitched painfully as my eyes were forced to stare at the divorce papers lying before me.

"Sign this now!" He thundered.

"No," I refused, shaking my head under his grip.

"You have to listen to me; I didn't do-"

Crack!

The sound echoed sharply.

A stinging slap landed on my face, sending my vision spinning, blinding me for a few seconds.

Pain exploded across my cheek.

But it was nothing compared to what broke inside me.

"If you make me ask you to sign these papers again," Rowan said coldly, pulling my head backward so I was forced to meet his furious gaze,

"I promise you, I'll snuff life out of you."

His words weren't empty.

They carried weight.

Danger.

Finality.

Torrents of tears flowed down from my eyes-not from the pain of the slap, but from the pain of knowing that it was him.

My Rowan.

The man who had never raised his voice at me.

The man who treated me like I was made of glass.

For three years, I had been the apple of his eye.

The woman he loved above all others.

He once saw me as a priceless jewel whose beauty couldn't fade and whose glow couldn't die.

So what changed?

What did I do to deserve this?

I screamed the questions in my head, but no answers came.

Only silence.

And heartbreak.

He shoved a pen into my hands.

His grip tightened around my neck-not enough to kill, but enough to remind me that he could.

And in that moment...

I broke.

My hands trembled violently as I lowered the pen.

Tears blurred my vision as I signed.

Each stroke felt like carving my own heart open.

"We are done," Rowan said immediately.

His voice was void of emotion.

"There's nothing between us again, not in this life, never in the afterlife."

Each word struck like a hammer.

"I regret the day I met you... and I regret not listening to my mother."

I flinched.

"I wish you could just die."

The world went silent.

Completely silent.

Before I could even process his words, I was dragged out-my luggage thrown after me-and then-

The gates slammed shut.

Cold.

Final.

Cruel.

"Get ready to see my lawyer." Rowan's voice came from behind the gate, sharp and filled with venom.

"Because I am going to make sure I take everything-every fucking thing you have, including your life, as compensation for betraying and cheating on me."

I stood there, frozen.

Broken.

Alone.

With one hand slowly moving to my stomach.

Tears streamed endlessly down my face as I whispered, barely audible-

"I didn't cheat on you..."

Then, with a final and terrifying promise, Rowan's voice echoed one last time:

"Get ready for your death in my hands."