"You don't need to care about her attitude! This is my home. A house I bought. My family. No one here will dare treat you or Orion unfairly." His voice softened as he brushed a hand over her trembling frame. "Be good, don't overthink. The baby in your belly doesn't want to see his mother sad either."
Every word sliced through me like a blade, cutting so deep I could barely breathe.
Of course. Every brick and tile in this house belonged to Charles; what did any of it have to do with me?
I let out a bitter laugh, the taste of irony sharp on my tongue.
After Eleanor and her son left, I pulled out the divorce papers I had prepared long ago and placed them before him.
"Sign them."
Charles barely spared them a glance before grabbing his coat, brushing past me as if I were nothing more than an afterthought.
"Natalie, you're not young anymore. Next year, you'll be forty. Stop joking around."
"We've been married for twenty years. If we divorce now, what do you think the media and business world will say about me?"
I scoffed. So that was what our marriage had become, just another carefully managed public image.
Everything had changed the moment success found us.