The New Year’s Proposal That Broke Us

On New Year's Eve, I signed for a package containing a diamond ring.

After triple-checking that the recipient's name was indeed my husband's, I called out to the delivery driver, confused.

Are you sure this is right? Maybe it's someone with the same name. I'm already married...

At that exact moment, my husband's call came through.

"Honey," he started, his voice hesitant. "Did a package arrive by any chance?"

Sensing the caution in his tone, I played along.

"No, nothing. Were you expecting something?"

He let out a visible sigh of relief over the phone.

"No, no, I must have been mistaken. Listen, honey, I'm so sorry I have to be out of the country on New Year's Eve. I promise I'll make it up to you when I get back!"

I hung up.

The delivery guy, having double-checked the address on his device, smiled apologetically.

"My apologies, ma'am. This is for the apartment upstairs. I delivered it to the wrong floor."

I shook my head, taking the small box from his hand as I stepped into the elevator.

"No problem. My friend lives up there. I can take it up for you."

"Hello, you have a package."

My hand was trembling as I pressed the doorbell.

A moment later, the door swung open.

"Finally, it's here..."

A middle-aged woman smiled as she reached for the box, but her expression froze the instant she looked up and saw my face.

"Alice?"

Her gasp was drowned out by a wave of cheers and laughter from inside the apartment.

I was just as stunned as she was.

This was my mother-in-law, the one who was always too sick to visit, who insisted she needed to rest quietly in her hometown.

An elegantly dressed woman emerged from the apartment, looking at me curiously.

"And who is this?"

My mother-in-law was frozen, completely at a loss for words. The other woman sized me up with a thoughtful gaze, then offered a polite smile.

"You must be one of Nathan's friends. Please, come in!"

I glanced at his mother before stepping inside, my face a mask of calm.

The apartment was filled with Nathaniel's closest friends and family, all of them busy setting up for a marriage proposal.

It was warm, romantic, and decorated with the high-end silk draperies I had custom-ordered for our own home.

I took a deep breath and walked further into the room. My mother-in-law, frantic, tried to rush ahead of me to warn the others, but the music was too loud, the younger crowd too caught up in their own excitement to notice her.

My eyes swept across the living room, and my heart began to sink like a stone.

The carpet was the one I'd had imported from Italy.

The limited-edition designer handbags scattered on the coffee table were from my own collection.

Even the three-hundred-thousand-dollar watch on the other woman's wrist was mine.

The value of these items alone was enough to warrant a grand larceny charge.

My gaze settled on her, and my voice was low and dangerous when I spoke. "I've seen you before. You're the woman in our building who drives the Rolls-Royce."

A flicker of feminine intuition crossed her face. She studied me for a moment, her eyes glancing toward the celebrating group inside.

"And you are... which of Nathan's friends?" she asked, her tone polite but probing.

I offered a thin smile. "He must love you very much."

A shy blush colored her cheeks as she nodded, and once the topic of their love was broached, she couldn't stop herself.

"We've been together for ten years, ever since high school. And now, this proposal. No matter how busy he is, he comes home to me every single night. He even hand-washes my lingerie."

"His mother feels so sorry for me since my parents passed away. She treats me like her own daughter, coming all the way from her hometown for holidays just so we can be together."

She gestured toward a heart-shaped lunchbox on the kitchen counter.

"He says takeout is unhealthy, so he prepares my breakfast for me every morning before he leaves. It's always waiting for me when I wake up."

The sight of that familiar lunchbox made my world tilt.

Nathaniel had a sensitive stomach. I was the one who woke up an hour early every single day to make him a healthy breakfast to take to the office.

All this time, he had been giving it to her, passing my love off as his own.

Our eight-year relationship also started in high school. When my family's company was investigated and my life fell apart, he was the one who stood by me without hesitation. He was the one who skipped gatherings with his friends because he wanted to rush home to me. He bought me everything I ever wanted, planned countless romantic surprises.

He washed my lingerie by hand, too.

Only now did I realize I wasn't the only one.

POP!

A volley of confetti cannons exploded by the door, showering the room in glittering paper.

The woman snapped out of her reverie and gave me an embarrassed smile.

"Oh! Nathan's changed. He's coming out! He's going to propose!"

I followed numbly behind her.

Through the shimmering cloud of confetti, I saw him. He was wearing the bespoke suit I had bought him, and he took a velvet ring box from his mother's hand. Completely oblivious to her frantic, warning glances, he turned and walked straight toward the other woman, Isabelle.

"Isabelle," he said, his voice full of emotion. "Will you marry me?"

Tears of joy filled her eyes as she threw herself into his arms.

"Yes! I'm willing!"

Everyone's attention was on them. The room erupted in whistles and thunderous applause.

"Congratulations, Nathan!"

"Congrats, man! Eight years of hardship finally paid off! You got the girl and the career!"

Hiding behind a large potted plant, I watched as he slid the ringmy ringonto Isabelle's finger. The beautiful dream he had built for me shattered into a million irreparable pieces.

One of his friends pulled him aside, whispering, "Hey man, what about the woman downstairs?"

Nathaniel blew out a stream of smoke, his voice casual and dismissive.

"She trusts me completely. She'll never know."

"And even if she finds out," he added with a smirk, "what's a lonely orphan going to do about it?"

He turned then, and his eyes met mine.

"Al... Alice?"

The music screeched to a halt.

Friends and family exchanged nervous glances, frozen in place. The smile on Isabelle's face slowly dissolved as her eyes darted between me and Nathan.

"Nathan, who is she?" she asked, tightening her grip on his arm, a clear act of staking her claim.

Nathaniel's lips trembled, but no words came out.

My eyes were locked on his.

"Go on. Tell her who I am."

"If you won't, then I will. I'm"

Panic finally seized him. He grabbed my arm, practically dragging me out of the apartment and back to our front door.

Inside, he stared at me, his voice tight with tension. "Honey, don't misunderstand. I can explain."

"Isabelle and I grew up together. She dropped out of school and worked multiple jobs just so I could go to college."

"That was just a teenage crush, not love. You're the one I love. But... she developed cancer from all the years of overwork. I couldn't just abandon her."

When I remained silent, he grew more desperate, nearly falling to his knees.

"Alice, what I feel for her is just obligation, a debt. I only hid it from you because I didn't want you to worry."

Seeing the pathetic guilt on his face felt like a cruel joke.

I raised my hand and slapped him across the face.

He didn't move, didn't even flinch, just took the full force of the blow.

"You didn't want me to worry?" I spat. "What about you stealing my things to give to her? I'm calling the police!"

Just then, the front door burst open. My mother-in-law stormed in and slapped me just as hard.

"How dare you hit my son, you barren hen!" she shrieked. "What man doesn't have someone on the side these days? He had the decency not to bring her into your home. Didn't your mother teach you anything? You should be prepared for this!"

"My son's company is successful now. You should be grateful he only has one. Even if he had five others, you'd have to learn to live with it! At the end of the day, you only married him for our money, you shameless gold-digger!"

The sting on my cheek was white-hot.

I said nothing. I just stared at Nathaniel. To protect his pride, I had handed over the management of my family's company to him after we got married. Without me, he'd still be a nobody working a nine-to-five job.

And the reason we couldn't conceive wasn't me. It was his low sperm count.

Unsettled by my glare, he shoved his mother out of the room.

"Mom, can you please stay out of our business?"

He locked the door again.

He pulled me into a tight embrace, his voice pleading. "Honey, I was wrong. Hit me, scream at me, do whatever you want."

"I'm just begging you, please don't hurt Isabelle. She's in the final stages of cancer. Today's proposal was just an act, a way to let her go without any regrets."

The thought of his arms having just held her made my stomach turn. I pushed him away with a surge of revulsion, shoving him toward the door.

"Don't touch me! Get out!"

Leaning against the closed door, the sobs I had been holding back finally broke free, racking my body in huge, shuddering waves.

The day my company was sabotaged, the day my parents were driven to suicide... the coroners had needed help carrying their bodies down six flights of stairs. He had driven through a blizzard, crossing half the state overnight to be there. He had risked his entire career, dealing with the authorities, fighting the legal battles, and arranging their funeral.

And during the pandemic, when I had a raging fever, he drove to the next town in the middle of the night just to find me medicine. When I recovered, he got sick. Terrified of infecting me, hea man obsessed with cleanlinesschecked himself into a cheap hotel.

Those two acts had been his armor, his immunity from any wrong in my eyes.

But what happened today was a betrayal so deep it shattered everything.

My mind was a chaotic storm. I wanted to scream, but no sound would come out.

Wiping away my tears, I called my lawyer and instructed him to start digging into our finances.

His initial response shocked me.

"Ms. Shenford, I'm not seeing any transfers from Nathaniel to an Isabelle. Are you sure you're not mistaken?"

I wouldn't give up.

"Mr. Peterson, I need you to do a full asset check. Property, bank accounts, vehicles, commercial real estate, investmentseverything in his name. Report it all back to me."

I didn't sleep a wink. The moment dawn broke, I opened the door.

Nathaniel was standing outside, shivering, holding a bag of fresh breakfast. The snow dusting his shoulders was a cruel echo of the night he had rushed to my side.

For a moment, I was lost in the memory.

He saw me and spoke timidly. "Honey, I waited outside all night. I just went to get your favorite..."

I glanced at the bag in his hands. The aroma that usually made my mouth water now just made me feel sick.

I ignored him and drove straight to the hospital.

An hour later, I walked out with a pregnancy report in my hand.

Seeing a young family laughing on the sidewalk, I instinctively touched my flat stomach. I couldn't bring myself to be ruthless.

Isabelle had late-stage cancer, anyway. I could wait.

Back at our building, I ran into her at the elevator.

Her eyes were red and swollen. The moment she saw me, she quickly hid a trash bag behind her back. But not before I saw a familiar breakfast bag inside.

My direct stare made her blush with shame.

"He met with me last night," she said, her voice strained. "We talked all night. It was the first time I learned he was married."

"Don't worry," she continued, "I'm moving out today. I would never be the third party who destroys your marriage."

She turned away, wiping a tear from her eye, a bitter smile on her lips.

"The breakfast from that shop is my favorite. He insisted on buying it for me when we got back this morning."

"But I didn't eat it," she added quickly. "You don't have to worry."

It was clear she was desperately trying to cling to the last shreds of her pride.

A question escaped my lips before I could stop it. "Your illness..."

She looked at me, baffled. "What illness?"

The world seemed to stop. A lump formed in my throat, and hot tears spilled over, scalding the back of my hand.

I went to the building's security office. I watched the footage from last night: Nathaniel and Isabelle, locked in a passionate kiss right below our apartment.

Despair washed over me.

The head of security was one of Nathan's friends. It wasn't long before my phone rang. Nathan's voice was frantic, distorted with panic.

"Alice, don't do anything rash! Whatever you do, don't hurt Isabelle"

I hung up, a dull ringing in my ears.

When I got home, my vision swam. The world around me blurred.

I don't know when I passed out.

When I woke up, I heard the front door open. I recognized Nathan's footsteps, and someone else's.

My head was spinning. I couldn't bear to hear another one of his lies. I stumbled toward the bedroom.

Suddenly, Nathaniel lunged at me, his hands closing around my neck. His face was twisted with a terrifying rage.

"Alice Shenford," he snarled. "You hurt Isabelle. Now you're going to pay."

I was stunned, clawing weakly at his hands.

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything!"

SLAP!

Veins bulged on his forehead as he struck me, the sound echoing in the silent apartment.

"You called the cops and reported her for theft! You had her dragged away in front of the entire building!"

He raked a hand through his hair, his face contorting in fury. He grabbed my shoulders and shook me violently, his voice rising to a roar.

"So I cheated! So what?"

"She was already leaving! Why did you have to post last night's security footage online? It went viral, it's the number one trending topic! How is a woman with her pride supposed to handle that?"

"She tried to kill herself! Are you happy now? She's pregnant with my child!"

I froze.

I was sure I had seen a used sanitary pad in her trash bag this morning.

"That's impossible, I"

He didn't give me a chance to explain. He shot a look at the strange men standing behind him.

They swarmed me, tying my hands and feet, gagging me with a cloth. They began tearing at my clothes.

I struggled, a scream of pure terror trapped in my throat, but it was useless.

What shattered me completely was Nathaniel, standing there, ignoring my desperate, muffled pleas, coldly filming the entire thing on his phone.

"Alice, you owe this to Isabelle," he said, his voice flat and detached. "I'm going to use these pictures to bury her scandal online."

"You're going to stay home for a while. We both need some time to cool off."

He glanced at me one last time, a flicker of conflict in his eyes, before throwing a blanket over my exposed body and leaving.

I curled into a ball, my gaze vacant, feeling myself splintering apart. I fought to control the violent shaking of my body, to suppress the agony that threatened to swallow me whole.

Just then, my phone buzzed. It was the full financial report from my lawyer.

I opened it, and a single glance was enough to break my heart completely.

All of my company's shares had been legally transferred to Nathaniel. For years, under the guise of helping Isabelle start her own business, he had been funneling tens of millions of dollars to her every month through fake corporate transactions.

In disbelief, I called Mr. Peterson, my hands trembling.

"Ms. Shenford, there's no mistake. The share transfer agreement was signed by you. It was during that period when you were ill, right after you lost your parents."

I slumped to the floor, a wave of regret so powerful I wanted to strangle myself. During that dark time, I had no will to manage the company. I had signed every document Nathaniel put in front of me without even reading it.

Suddenly, a breaking news alert popped up on my phone.

Nathaniel was standing in front of my company's building with a newly discharged Isabelle.

"I've called this press conference today to make one thing clear," he announced to the swarm of reporters. "Isabelle is not the third party who destroyed my marriage!"

"She is the love of my life, and this company is my wedding gift to her!"

With that, he played the obscene video of me on a large screen for all the world to see.

The media erupted. Cameras flashed, microphones were shoved forward.

Within ten minutes, the video of my assault had completely eclipsed Isabelle's scandal.

Seeing his opportunity, Nathaniel produced a divorce certificate.

"The truth is, Alice Shenford has been living a promiscuous life for years. We were divorced three years ago."

"My love for Isabelle is honest and true. It is Alice who has been unable to let go!"

Isabelle looked at him, her eyes brimming with manufactured tears of gratitude.

Overnight, my name was dragged through the mud.

Isabelle stopped talking about leaving and moved back into the apartment upstairs with him.

I stared at the divorce certificate on the screen, my mind a complete blank. To prove his sincerity when we first married, he had burned our marriage license in front of my parents' graves.

The divorce certificate was a fake.

And the company was mine. How dare he give it away?

Losing control, I stormed upstairs and found Isabelle just as she was leaving her apartment.

"Isabelle, you've been lied to! Nathaniel and I were never divorced!"

"The company belongs to my family! He's nothing but a leech, a social climber who married up!"

She listened quietly, then leaned against her doorframe with a cold smirk.

"I know," she said. "But I have his heart. That's all that matters."

"You're the fool here, Ms. Shenford."

A cold dread washed over me.

"That year he drove through a blizzard to be by your side," she continued, her voice dripping with poison. "You must have been so moved."

"The truth is, he was just horny. I wasn't around, and he figured the highway tolls were cheaper than hiring a prostitute."

She glanced toward the elevator, a malicious glint in her eye.

"And that year during the pandemic, while you were delirious with fever? He and I were upstairs, tangled in the sheets."

"The medicine he brought you was an expired box from my cabinet. He was never sick. Do I need to go on?"

The blood drained from my face.

She smiled a strange, cruel smile, then suddenly clutched her stomach and collapsed.

"My stomach! Help me, it hurts!"

Nathaniel appeared like a whirlwind.

Veins bulged on his forehead as he ran toward us and kicked me squarely in the abdomen.

"Alice! You've disappointed me for the last time! If anything happens to Isabelle's baby, I'll kill you!"

One kick wasn't enough. He kicked me again and again.

His mother ran over, carrying bags of supplements. Seeing Isabelle's pale face, she started stomping her feet in a panic.

"She pushed my grandson! Beat her! Beat her to death!"

The sharp, twisting pain in my belly made me break out in a cold sweat. I curled into a ball on the floor, my voice a weak, desperate plea.

"Nathaniel... I'm pregnant..."

He froze for a second, then kicked me again with even more force.

"Impossible. I have a low sperm count. It took Isabelle ten years to conceive this one baby. There's no way you're pregnant too."

His mother overheard and shrieked. "What? Son, you have a low sperm count? Then we absolutely can't let anything happen to Isabelle's baby!"

Isabelle shot a venomous look at my stomach, her face a mask of wounded innocence.

"Nathan, I think I should just leave. You got here in time today, but what about next time? I can't live in constant fear."

Nathaniel's brow furrowed in conflict.

He made a single phone call.

They had me committed to a psychiatric hospital.

My world shattered. I beat against the barred window, desperate and helpless, the lower half of my body soaked in blood.

"Nathaniel, let me out!"

"You'll regret this! My family won't let you get away with this!"

He stood outside the window, glancing impatiently at his watch.

"Alice, all your relatives are dead. Do you still think you're the precious Shenford heiress?"

"Isabelle is pregnant now. That's my first child. I have to be responsible for her."

"I'm about to transfer half of the company's shares to her, to give her some security."

His tone softened slightly, his expression complex.

"I'm sorry you have to stay here until she gives birth. I'll make it up to you later."

"And don't mention the 'Shenford Corporation' again. The company is mine now. The Shenford family is finished."

I watched until his back disappeared from view.

I couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed to the floor.

Nurses rushed in, and seeing the blood, they screamed in terror.

"Oh my God! We have an emergency!"

In the chaos, I pulled out my phone and made a call.

"Come back," I whispered, my voice hoarse. "I was wrong."

There was a pause on the other end, then two cold words.

"Just wait."

I hung up and smiled, letting the darkness consume me.

My signature alone wasn't enough to transfer the Shenford family shares. It required his signature, too.

Nathaniel, I've just invited your worst nightmare back into your life.