After the Fairytale Ends

At 28, Victor wrapped his arms around me, his voice a low, sweet murmur in my ear.

Aria, my love, will you have my baby?

At 35, while I was fighting for my life in a hospital bed, Victor was caught by the paparazzi having a tryst with his young secretary in the hospital's underground parking garage.

Afterward, Victor was silent for a long time. He lit a cigarette, and through the veil of smoke, his voice was flat, detached.

"Aria, don't go after her. She's young, she doesn't know any better."

"I'll make it up to you."

I stared at the miscarriage report on my phone, a numb smile twisting my lips.

"Don't bother, Victor."

"Let's... get a divorce."

The hand holding his cigarette paused mid-air.

"Aria, you're not a child anymore."

"You need to think about the consequences before you act."

Consequences?

Oh, I'd thought about them very, very clearly.

1.

I placed the divorce papers on the table, wanting nothing more to do with him. I turned to leave.

Victor stubbed out his cigarette and grabbed my arm.

"Aria, it was just a baby."

"If you want one, we can always have another."

"Don't throw the word 'divorce' around every time we have a problem."

A bitter sting filled my nose. I blinked hard, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall.

"Victor, he was eight months old. He was a fully formed person!"

Victor sighed, a sound heavy with impatience.

"Until it's born, it's just an embryo. Can you please stop being so emotional?"

I swallowed the bile rising in my throat.

"Is that what you were thinking when you were sleeping with Tessa, Victor?"

His grip on my wrist tightened, his eyes narrowing.

"What man doesn't do this?"

"It was a one-time thing. It's not a big deal. I promise you, you will never see Tessa again."

"Aria, we don't have to go down this road."

Looking at his smug, self-assured face, I closed my eyes. The bitterness was a physical ache in my chest.

A one-time thing?

Victor thought he'd hidden it so well.

The truth was, I had known for a long time.

He had told me he was on a business trip, but he was really in Bali with Tessa, watching the sunset she'd always dreamed of seeing. The girl was brazen, sending me a photo as a taunt.

Her message read: Mrs. Marsden, the sunset is beautiful. Mr. Marsden is just a little rough, though.

In the photo, against the fiery backdrop of the setting sun, Victor was kissing her passionately, the golden light bathing them in a lover's glow.

The pain was so intense I couldn't breathe.

I called him. He answered almost immediately, his voice husky with desire.

"What is it, Ari?"

I fought to keep my own voice steady.

"What are you doing?"

There was a muffled groan on his end, followed by a faint, sticky, wet sound that made my stomach churn. The phone in my hand began to tremble.

I prayed, I begged the universe for him to tell me Tessa was lying.

"Working out," he said.

"Listen, sweetheart, I'm busy. I'll call you back when I'm done."

The line went dead.

My heart turned to ice. With his actions, Victor had confirmed everything. He really was cheating on me with Tessa.

My lungs seized. I couldn't get enough air. My hands twisted together, my entire body going numb.

I was rushed to the hospital.

There, the doctor told me I was pregnant.

I clutched the positive test and cried for hours.

When Victor finally came home, I didn't even have the courage to confront him.

A tear escaped and traced a path down my cheek. Victor gently wiped it away with his thumb.

"Aria, can't you just turn a blind eye this once?"

My voice trembled with rage.

"The only option for us is divorce, Victor! There is nothing else!"

His chest rose and fell in a frustrated rhythm. He took a few deep breaths, trying to rein in his anger.

"I am not divorcing you, Aria."

"So you can just get that idea out of your head."

"Calm down and think about what you're doing."

He snatched the divorce agreement and threw it in the trash, then slammed the door to his study with a force that shook the entire house.

2.

The snow was coming down hard outside.

Victor's words kept replaying in my mind.

He'd said, "It's just an embryo."

He'd said, "Aria, are you completely blameless in this?"

A sharp, cramping pain shot through my lower abdomen. Tears splattered onto the steering wheel.

I couldn't tell if I felt more sorrow or more hatred.

There was a time when I was the center of Victor's universe.

Once, just because I told him I missed him, he dropped everything, flew halfway across the country, and showed up at my door in the middle of the night with a bouquet of my favorite flowers.

In our second year together, I fell gravely ill. Victor, a man born with a silver spoon who had never believed in anything he couldn't see, crawled up the hundreds of stone steps to the old chapel on his knees, his skin raw and bleeding, just to pray for my recovery.

From priceless jewels to his constant presence, Victor spoiled me rotten. He truly cherished me.

When we first married, the other wives in his social circle looked down on me. I was younger, and they whispered behind my back that I was a nobody from a working-class family who didn't belong. I became so self-conscious that I refused to attend any important events with him.

When Victor found out why, he made them all pay.

A man who rarely showed his emotions, he called a press conference just to publicly defend my honor.

After that, no one ever dared to disrespect me to my face again.

Everyone in our circle envied me for marrying a man who loved me so deeply.

I felt like the luckiest woman in the world.

Until Tessa appeared.

She was an undergrad at his alma mater. A sophomore.

At first, he just started mentioning her more and more.

I got jealous. "Are you falling for her?" I asked.

He would kiss me. "Sweetheart, why are you always so jealous? She's just a kid, with a terrible temper at that. Why would I ever like her?"

Perhaps, even then, his heart was already leaning toward her.

He just hadn't realized it himself.

Our fights about Tessa became more frequent, our love worn down with each argument.

The tender embraces were replaced by weary sighs.

"Aria, she's a child. Why are you getting so worked up over her?"

"I'm exhausted. Can you please just be mature about this?"

And then came Tessa's blatant provocations, one after another.

The man who once loved me so fiercely was now allowing the new object of his affection to hurt me whenever she pleased.

3.

I returned to our villa. The nursery, which I had spent months preparing, was quiet and still. The small, empty crib rocked gently with a push.

I stared at it for a long time, and then the dam of my emotions broke.

An eight-month-old child. How was that different from a newborn?

The doctor had said my due date was just next month.

I had planned everything. I'd read dozens of parenting books. I'd bought him a silver locket for protection, hand-stitched a quilt for him, and even worked with a designer to custom-build his crib, sanding every edge myself...

I had waited for his arrival with so much joy. I wanted to give him all my love, to ensure he would be happy for his entire life.

We were so close.

So, so close...

4.

Tessa came to find me because Victor was trying to break things off with her.

He had told her, "Tessa, I'll give you a generous settlement. After that, I want you to leave Port Sterling and never come back."

She refused.

Crying, she asked him if he had ever loved her.

Victor kissed away her tears.

"Tessa, if I had met you first, I would have loved you. But I already have Aria."

"Don't cry, Tessa. It hurts me to see you cry."

After that, he refused to see her.

Driven by desperation, she somehow found her way to me.

The moment she walked in, she pointed at my stomach.

"You think having a baby can trap him?!"

"Let me tell you, you're dreaming!"

"The person Victor loves is me! Me!"

I clutched my belly and backed away, trying to calm her down. But Tessa, blinded by rage, was beyond reason.

I called for our housekeeper, hoping she could escort Tessa out. Tessa shoved the older woman to the ground and lunged at me.

"Aria Marsden! Why don't you just die?!"

"If you were dead, Victor would be all mine!"

I couldn't dodge in time. She pushed me hard, and my stomach slammed into the sharp corner of a table.

A searing pain shot through me, and I broke out in a cold sweat.

Tessa was like a wild animal. Her stiletto heel kicked my belly, again and again.

She was screaming for me to die.

I felt a warm gush of blood run down my thighs. Panic seized me. The housekeeper scrambled to her feet, pulled Tessa off me, and called the police, then an ambulance.

As I drifted in and out of consciousness, I dreamed of a small child waving at me from a distance.

No matter how hard I reached, I couldn't touch him.

When I woke up, a doctor was looking at me with pity in his eyes.

I opened my mouth, clinging to one last sliver of hope.

"Doctor, my baby..."

The doctor sighed.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Marsden. We couldn't save him."

I had expected it.

But hearing the words out loud, I shattered.

My tears soaked the pillow.

The doctor tried to console me.

The next day, a gossip site published the story: Victor Marsden, caught in a tryst with his young secretary in the hospital's underground parking garage.