His Farewell, My Sorrow

Three years after walking out of the iron gates, I ran into Lucas at a high-end patisserie.
He was there, dripping wet from the rain, picking up a custom cake for his pregnant wife. I was there to pick up a DoorDash order.
The shock of seeing each other froze us both for a second.
But love and hate had long since burned to ash. I broke the silence first.
He asked how I was doing. I told him everything was fine.
We stood there, strangers with a lifetime of history. Just as I turned to leave, his voice stopped me.
"Scarlett, if things get hard... you can always call me."
My delivery app pinged, a harsh reminder of reality. I stepped forward to hassle the barista for the order, ignoring him completely.
Life's hardships were just the price I paid to keep my belly full.
But getting close to him? That would bring a hell I could no longer survive.
I was scared. I was tired. And I had stopped loving him a long time ago.

1
The barista was frantically packing the order.
All I cared about was grabbing the bag and beating the delivery timer.
Lucas seemed to sense that I had no desire to speak, so he stayed silent.
That is, until the clerk handed him a pristine, ribbon-wrapped box. Her voice dripped with envy.
"Mr. McKenzie, I truly envy your wife. Driving across the city in this storm just to get her favorite cake?"
Lucas took the box, a soft, indulgent smile playing on his lips.
"My wife... her cravings have been impossible since she got pregnant. She only eats from here."
I pretended not to hear. My order slid across the counter. I grabbed it and bolted out the door.
I was just about to kick-start my beat-up electric scooter when Lucas rushed out and grabbed my arm.
"Do you have a minute? We need to talk."
I ripped my arm from his grip, shoving my phone screen in his face. The timer was ticking down red.
"No time. Customers waiting."
"Why didn't you contact me when you got out?"
He stared at me, his voice low, commanding.
I strapped my helmet tight and revved the engine.
"Didn't see the point. I don't want anything to do with you people ever again."
I twisted the throttle and merged into the heavy traffic, drowning out whatever he said next.
I didn't hear him. I didn't care.
In the rush to deliver the final order, I took a corner too fast. The scooter skidded. My jeans tore against the asphalt, exposing the skin beneath.
It wasn't smooth skin. It was a roadmap of grotesque, burn-like scars.
They snaked from my calf all the way up my body.
Staring at the jagged marks, it hit me. It had been nine years since I last truly saw Lucas.
Six years in prison. Three years out.
My life was a pile of rubble. His was a golden tower.
The only mercy was that I felt nothing. No flutter in my heart. No pain.
I limped back to the crumbling apartment complex in the darker side of the city. Downstairs, I saw Miamy cellmate turned roommateholding my daughter, Annies, hand.
Before I could even park, Annie launched herself into my arms, babbling about how much she missed me.
Holding her soft little body, the exhaustion melted away.
Then, I noticed what she was holding. A dirty, old teddy bear.
Mia saw me staring at it.
"Hey," she said softly. "Annie dug this out of your old suitcase today."
She pulled out a faded piece of paper, folded into a heart shape.
"There was a letter stuffed inside the bear. I figured it was something you saved on purpose, so I kept it safe."
I took the paper. The past rushed back like a tidal wave.
I unfolded it. Lucass sharp, confident handwriting stared back at me.
Mia leaned in, trying to lighten the mood. "Ooh, let me see. Which ex wrote this? The heartbreaker?"
Annie, curious, stood on her tiptoes to look.
The signature at the bottom read: Forever loving my Scarlett, Lucas McKenzie.
Mias jaw dropped.
"Lucas McKenzie?"
"The tech mogul? The richest guy in the state?"
She looked at me, eyes wide with disbelief. "Girl, you never told me your ex was a billionaire."
I picked up my daughter, tore the letter into confetti, and let the pieces fall into the gutter.
"Im Lucas McKenzies ex-wife."
The ex-wife who tried to kill his mistress. The ex-wife he personally sent to prison.

2
Annie looked like Lucas. Especially when she slept.
Watching her chest rise and fall, the memories I tried to bury began to claw their way out.
I met Lucas in high school.
He was the schools golden boya genius on a scholarship, an orphan with nothing to his name.
Education was his only ladder out of the gutter.
I was young, na?ve, and dazzled by his brilliance. I envied how easily he solved math problems that made my brain hurt. I pitted him when I saw him shivering in a thin sweater in the dead of winter.
So, I convinced my fathera nouveau riche developerto sponsor him.
He started coming over. We grew close.
He tutored me. He walked me home every night after study hall.
I stopped letting my driver pick me up just to walk with him.
Teenage affection is a dangerous thing. It grows quietly, like weeds.
With my dads money, Lucas never went hungry again.
When the SAT results came out, he was top of the state.
My parents, however, had plans for me to study abroad in London.
The night before I was supposed to leave, Lucas grabbed my hand. His eyes were red, desperate.
"Scarlett, don't go. After my parents died, I thought my life was over. But then you showed up."
"You are the only light I have. I love you. Please, don't leave me."
I listened to his clumsy, desperate confession, and my heart sank right into his hands.
I lied to my parents. A massive, unforgivable lie.
I took my passport and suitcase and followed him to his university town.
My parents thought I was struggling to adjust in London. In reality, I was in a 200-square-foot studio apartment, learning to cook cheap pasta for a boy who promised me forever.
I threw away my future to drown in Lucass love.
When the lie finally collapsed, Lucas knelt before my parents.
"I will spend my life making sure Scarlett never suffers. I will die before I betray her!"
My parents were moved. We got married the year he graduated.
Lucas was a genius, a shark in a suit. He didn't break his promise about the money.
He took my fathers investment and turned it into an empire. Within three years, he was the new King of New York.
But when a man sees the world from the top of a skyscraper, the view changes. And so do the temptations.
First, it was the smell of perfume on his shirts.
Then, lipstick on the collar.
He would hug me and say, "Honey, it's just business. Showmanship. You don't understand the corporate world. My heart is yours."
I believed him. I was a high school graduate who had spent years playing house. My world was him.
So when the truth hit me, it didn't just hurt. It destroyed me.
Her name was Jasmine. The daughter of a real estate tycoon.
It was a winter night. He had missed his own birthday.
I had spent all day baking a cake. I wanted to surprise him at the office.
The main floor was dark. But a sliver of light bled from under his office door.
My heart hammered against my ribs.
I pushed the door open.
He was naked. Jasmine was straddling him on the leather couch.
They were entangled, moving with a primal rhythm.
The Lucas who was always so gentle with me was rough with her. He was whispering filthy things, words I didn't know he knew.
His eyes weren't full of love. They were full of hunger. Of satisfaction.
That, I realized, was the real Lucas.

3
I did what any woman would do.
I screamed. I charged in. I grabbed her hair.
The cake I spent hours making smashed onto the floor, a perfect metaphor for my marriage.
That was the first time he hit me.
A slap, hard and fast, across my face. He shoved me back and pulled Jasmine into his arms, covering her with his jacket.
"Scarlett! Have you lost your mind?"
"Do you know who she is? If you touch her again, I can't protect you!"
I looked at him, and I saw a stranger.
"Lucas... how could you?"
He stared at me, cold and detached. "I told you, you don't understand business. Jasmine doesn't affect us. Shes just... necessary."
Jasmine smirked from the safety of his chest.
"Scarlett, let's be real. What do you bring to the table?"
"Your family is just new money trash. Lucas is building an empire. Do you think your dads little investment is enough to make him King of the city?"
"You have a high school diploma. Youre useless. You rely on him for the air you breathe. What right do you have to question him?"
"We are a power couple. I can take his company to the next level. You? You're just a pet."
I fled.
After that, Lucas stopped coming home.
I was in my twenties, watching my fairy tale burn down. I went mad.
I hired a PI. I got photos.
Him holding her hand on his old campus. Kissing her in the crowd.
Him and her in hotel beds, tangled in sheets.
Jasmine beat me in every categorymoney, education, looks. For the first time, I felt small. Inferior.
Jealousy is a poison. I drank it all.
I crashed his companys product launch.
I knew how much work he put into it. I wanted to burn it all down. I thought if he failed, he would come back to me.
In front of the city's elite, I put the sex tape on the big screen.
I expected outrage. Instead, the room looked at me with pity. With disgust.
Lucas looked at me, shaking his head.
"Scarlett... you really disappoint me."
"You could have come to me. But ruining this? Hundreds of people worked for six months on this project. Youre so selfish. When will you grow up?"
Security dragged me out.
The media didn't side with me. They painted me as the ungrateful, uneducated housewife trying to sabotage the brilliant genius and his "business partner."
I became the citys laughingstock.
I locked myself in the house.
One night, in a fit of despair, I lit a match.
The fire took everything. I was pulled out, burned and broken.
When I woke up in the hospital, Lucas was there. He had come from Jasmines prenatal checkup.
He stood over my bandages, looking annoyed.
"Scarlett, can you just stop?"
"Trying to kill yourself just to get my attention? Are you crazy?"
"Your dads company is bleeding money. Im the one keeping it afloat. Without me, you starve. Do you want to lose me that badly?"
"I told you, you are my only wife. Jasmine agreed. As long as you behave, we won't divorce."
Jasmine stood by the door, protecting her small bump, looking at me like I was a cockroach.
I looked at Lucas. For the first time, I didn't cry.

4
He took me home.
He brushed my hair, avoiding the scars on my neck.
"Scarlett, I made mistakes. But I did it for us. For a better life."
"Your parents are old. Do you want to worry them?"
"Just be good. Jasmine won't threaten your position. I promise."
I was a wasteland.
My parents had signed everything over to him years ago. He held the leash.
I submitted. I became a ghost in my own home.
He came home three times a month. The rest of the time, he was with Jasmine.
He gave her everything. He learned to cook for her cravings. He took maternity photos and posted them, captioning them with hearts.
"My love, Jasmine."
I gave up everything for him. He gave up everything for her.
I thought if I stayed quiet, my parents would be safe.
But Jasmine wasn't done. She invited my parents back from Europe for her baby shower.
She humiliated them in front of everyone.
Her father laughed. "Mr. and Mrs. Reed, you have to be selfish to be happy. Your daughter has the grace to let her husband breed with a better class of woman. You should be proud."
My parents didn't know. I had sent them away to shield them.
The room laughed. My father clutched his chest and collapsed.
When I got to the hospital, he was gasping for air.
"Sorry... baby girl... I was too soft... I shouldn't have let you jump into the fire..."
He flatlined before he finished.
I snapped.
I grabbed a fruit knife and went to the venue.
Jasmine was toasting with champagnesparkling water, actually, because Lucas was so careful with her.
I didn't see people. I saw red.
I lunged. I aimed for the belly.
Jasmine lost the baby.
Lucas looked at me like he wanted to rip my throat out.
I got six years for aggravated assault. He testified against me.
One month into my sentence, I found out I was pregnant.
Two years in, my mother died of grief.
Because of Lucas, I lost my home, my family, my humanity.
I woke up from the nightmare with a start. The sky was turning gray.
Mia had already dressed Annie.
"Go back to sleep, Scarlett. I'll drop her at school."
I hugged Annie. She smelled like milk and cheap soap. My lifeline.
Then, a knock at the door.
Mia opened it.
It was Lucas.
He was panting, his shirt soaked with sweat, chest heaving. He had run here.
His eyes locked onto Annie in my arms.
I remembered what he had yelled yesterday as I drove away.

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