My wife and I had been married for three years. After desperately trying, we finally learned we were expecting twins. Overjoyed, I was about to share the news when I found an appointment slip for an abortion clinic hidden in her drawer. Confronted, she broke down crying and confessed: Mr. Shaw, an uncle-like figure, was dying of cancer, and his only wish was for his son Tristan to continue the family line. I pleaded with her not to end the pregnancy. Even friends and family tried to reason with her. But she stubbornly insisted, asking if I could let an old man die with regrets. She accused me of controlling her body and reminded me how her family had supported me all these years. Seeing her self-righteous expression, my heart broke. The face I once loved now felt cold and strange. As a last compromise, I offered to let her keep our twins and later be a surrogate for Tristan through IVF. In response, she removed her wedding ring, dropped it on the table, and said she owed Tristan—who’d once saved her life—too much to let his family die out. She stated she wasn’t asking for my permission, only informing me. My fists slowly unclenched, my palms marked with bloody crescents from my nails. In that moment, all my love for her vanished. I looked her in the eye and said, “I want a divorce.” 1 The entire room froze. Serena stopped dead in the doorway. She turned around slowly, her eyes wide with absolute disbelief. "What did you just say? Divorce?" Before I could even open my mouth to reply, my father stormed across the room. He raised his hand and delivered a stinging slap across my jaw. "Can't you talk things out like an adult? Throwing the word divorce around like that, are you even a man?" The relatives rushed forward to hold back my furious father. A swarm of buzzing voices filled my ears, everyone telling me to calm down and compromise. Serena frowned, looking at me with pure irritation. "Rowan, you are thirty two years old. Why are you acting like a petulant child?" "Tristan is six years younger than you, yet he thinks about the bigger picture. This IVF decision was made after careful consideration." "Tristan already promised. Once he fulfills his father's dying wish, he will give the child to us. You can be the father. Tristan is perfectly willing to help us raise this baby without any complaints." Serena listed her reasons with absolute entitlement, her tone dripping with disappointment at my supposed narrow mindedness. Her words hit me like a tidal wave of pure agony. So I didn't deserve my own flesh and blood. Raising another man's child was supposed to be a gracious charity bestowed upon me. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Ten years ago, I was the target of vicious bullying in college. Serena, our class president, was the one who stood up for me. She stood at the podium, fiercely ripping into those rich kids, exposing their fake generational wealth. After that, she used study groups and tutoring sessions as an excuse to slip me generous amounts of cash to help me survive. Back then, she was the sun breaking through my dark clouds. She was the only reason I managed to graduate. I thought we were just intersecting lines, destined to drift apart after college. But the year we graduated, the Lockwood family was hit with a massive smuggling scandal. All their assets were frozen, and Serena's father died mysteriously in prison. Serena was left with a mountain of debt, chased and beaten by loan sharks. Without a second thought, I abandoned my corporate job offer at a Fortune 500 company to stay by her side. We spent three grueling years digging up evidence to prove a corrupt vice president had framed her father. We spent another seven years rebuilding Lockwood Enterprises from the ground up. I swallowed my pride. I begged former tech leads to return. I drank myself into the hospital at business dinners just to secure the contracts that kept her company afloat. Back when the loan sharks cornered us in an alley, I used my own body as a human shield for her. They broke three of my ribs and delivered a brutal beating that permanently damaged my fertility. When the doctors delivered the devastating news, Serena held me and wept bitterly. She swore she would never leave me. I refused to give up. Once the company stabilized, I underwent years of agonizing medical treatments. Three years ago, the doctors finally told me my condition had improved. We started trying for a baby. The day we found out she was pregnant with twins, I stayed awake all night, holding her in my arms, crying tears of absolute joy. Now, looking at the cold determination in her eyes, my gaze drifted down to her stomach. The memories of our happiest moments twisted into a poisoned blade, plunging directly into the softest part of my heart. I opened my mouth to speak, only realizing then that my face was drenched in tears. My voice came out as a broken rasp. "Serena, I waited ten years for those babies. How can you be so utterly heartless?" Seeing my devastation, a brief flicker of guilt crossed her face. "I am sorry, Rowan. But I have to do this for Tristan. I can't let him live with this regret forever." "Besides, your genetics aren't exactly perfect anymore. Even if I carried these twins to term, they might have health issues." "Tristan is young and athletic. If I give birth to a highly intelligent, healthy baby, you will get to raise a superior son." I let out a hollow, agonizing laugh. "Serena. So in your eyes, I am just a cripple. And my children would just be cripples too." "If this was really just about giving him a child, we could have paid a surrogate. Why did you have to kill my babies? Are you deliberately trying to humiliate me?" Serena's face flushed crimson. Her voice pitched into a defensive shriek. "Rowan, how can you say something so disgusting? Tristan's child isn't something just anyone is worthy of carrying!" "I told you, this is strictly a favor for Tristan! When I am on that operating table, I will be thinking of you!" The relatives in the room awkwardly turned their heads, coughing into their hands. One by one, they muttered weak excuses and shuffled out the front door. "Rowan, I know you are upset, but Serena is thinking about the future. A superior baby will eventually take over Lockwood Enterprises. Just think it over." With that final piece of unsolicited advice, the door clicked shut. I collapsed onto the sofa, letting the suffocating darkness swallow me whole. Later that afternoon, a mutual friend texted me an update. Serena had gone to the clinic. Tristan was tenderly supporting her as she walked out of the recovery room. He was spoon feeding her hot chicken soup. Serena leaned happily against his chest, her face pale but glowing with contentment as she sipped from the spoon. The attached photo of the finalized abortion paperwork burned my eyes. My heart plummeted into an absolute, freezing void. I had endured years of mockery and swallowed endless suffering to protect her, but in the end, I couldn't even protect my own unborn children. My soul felt entirely hollow. I pulled out my phone and made a single call. "Mr. Caldwell. I accept your offer to head the overseas expansion. I am leaving, and I am never coming back." I packed a single suitcase, printed the divorce papers, and drove straight to the hospital. When I pushed the door open, Tristan was lounging on the hospital bed, holding Serena in his arms. Their bright smiles instantly vanished. I felt no rage. I felt no need to scream. I simply walked over and handed the divorce agreement to Serena. "Sign it." Serena's hands trembled. She stared at the bold letters at the top of the page, her eyes slowly pooling with tears. "Rowan, are you actually serious?" Her shock quickly melted into defensive anger. "We built an empire together over the last ten years, and you are throwing it away like a joke? Why can't you just try to understand me?" She ripped the papers into shreds and threw the confetti violently into my face. I watched with dead eyes as the tears spilled down her cheeks. She buried her face into Tristan's chest, sobbing like she was the victim. "You have no conscience, Rowan! I elevated you from a penniless loser to the Vice President of my company. I gave you all my love, and you want to abandon me?" "Am I really less important to you than a fetus? Was everything you ever promised me a lie?" I looked at her and smiled a cold, chilling smile. The principled, bright girl I fell in love with was completely gone. I noticed her eyes constantly darting toward me. I knew exactly what she was doing. She was waiting for me to cave. She was waiting for me to comfort her. In the past, the second she frowned, I would blame myself for failing to protect her and do whatever it took to make her smile again. This time, I just calmly reached into my briefcase, pulled out a second copy of the divorce agreement, and placed it on her lap. "Sign it." Serena completely lost her mind. Tears streamed down her face as she screamed. "You bastard! Are you trying to drive me to my death?!" Before I could react, Tristan lunged off the bed. He swung his fist, catching me right on the cheekbone. "You piece of trash! How dare you treat Serena like this? You are a pathetic cripple living off her charity. You have no right to demand a divorce!" "Serena fed you, clothed you, and gave you a life of luxury. You ungrateful parasite!" I crashed hard onto the linoleum floor. Tristan scrambled on top of me, grabbing my hair and delivering vicious slaps across my face. He pounded his fists into my skull. Blood poured from my nose and mouth. My vision swam with a violent red haze. Through the blinding pain, my hand brushed against the leg of a metal stool. I grabbed it and swung it blindly into Tristan's head. He let out a pathetic yelp, clutching his bleeding scalp as he rolled onto the floor. I forced myself up, preparing to kick him away. Suddenly, a heavy metal food tray slammed directly into the side of my head. The world spun. Through the ringing in my ears, I heard Serena's furious scream. "Rowan! You are a monster! How could you hit him?!" I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. Serena shoved me aside. Completely ignoring her own post operative weakness, she dropped to her knees and pulled Tristan into her arms. "Tristan, are you okay? Are you dizzy? Let me get the doctor." She helped him up and practically carried him out the door. She didn't look back at me once. I swayed on my feet before my vision faded to black. I woke up to the sharp sting of a needle. An emergency room doctor was injecting local anesthesia into my scalp. "Sir, you took a severe beating to the head. I am stitching the lacerations now, but you need an immediate CT scan." I shook my head, refusing the scan. The doctor immediately lost his temper. "You are too young to be throwing your life away. You have five deep lacerations on your skull. If you have internal bleeding, you will be dead before you can regret it." He shoved the imaging requisition forms into my hand. Defeated, I took the papers and walked toward the radiology department. Just as I reached the waiting area, Serena walked out of the double doors, holding Tristan up. The moment she saw me, her face contorted with rage. She marched over and slapped me across the face. "Rowan, you make me sick." "I just had surgery, and you show up to my room demanding a divorce. Tristan was just trying to protect me, and you smashed a stool into his head." "As my husband, you refused to take care of me, and you tried to murder the man who did. Do you want me to die?!" The patients and family members waiting in the hallway immediately turned their attention to us. Hearing Serena's dramatic accusations, the crowd began whispering fiercely, shooting me looks of pure disgust. "Wow, what a piece of work. Refusing to take care of his wife after a miscarriage, and throwing a tantrum when someone else does. If he was my husband, I would put him in the ground." "He deserves worse. Beating people up in a hospital? Call the cops. Throw this psycho behind bars." Tristan leaned heavily against Serena's shoulder, playing the frail victim perfectly. "Serena, I feel dizzy. Please don't be mad at him on my account." "He just wanted to use those babies to secure his control over Lockwood Enterprises. That's the only reason he cared so much about those defective kids." My blood boiled over. I threw my medical papers aside and drove my fist straight into Tristan's chest. "You son of a bitch. Say the word defective one more time." My heart physically ached. Those poor, innocent babies I had prayed for every single night. They were gone. And they were never defective. Tristan collapsed onto the floor, his eyes rolling back into his head. Serena let out a bloodcurdling scream. "Tristan! What is happening?! Don't scare me!" She glared up at me, her eyes bloodshot with hatred. "Rowan! If he dies, I swear to God I will end you!" The crowd was fully riled up now. "This is assault! He is completely unhinged!" "Call the police right now! Keep this animal away from society!" A flicker of hesitation crossed Serena's eyes as she looked down at Tristan. Right on cue, Tristan dramatically fluttered his eyes open. He let out a weak, theatrical cough. "Serena, you just had surgery. Please don't stress yourself out. I can take a few punches." He looked up at me with fake terror. "Rowan, it is all my fault. I apologize. Please, just promise you won't beat me every time you see me." "If you kill me, it will ruin Serena's reputation." Serena's expression hardened into absolute stone. She gritted her teeth. "Rowan, I have spoiled you for far too long. I let you forget your place. It is time you learned a lesson." She pulled out her phone and dialed the police. The cops arrived in minutes. Tristan was still clinging to Serena, gasping for air. "We got a call about a public assault. Who is the aggressor?" Serena straightened her back, pointing an accusing finger right at my chest. "Officers, it is him. He brutally attacked my friend unprovoked. Please arrest him." She looked like a righteous hero fighting against absolute evil. The crowd eagerly chimed in, serving as her witnesses. "We saw everything! His wife lost her baby, and he showed up to cause a scene and put her friend in the hospital." "Lock him up, officer! Men like that are a danger to society." I had no defense. My words meant nothing against a dozen witnesses. I just stared at Serena with hollow, dead eyes as the officer locked the cold steel cuffs around my wrists. An hour later, we were sitting in an interrogation room at the precinct. I calmly explained the entire situation to the detective. I told him Tristan threw the first punch. The detective looked at me with deep sympathy, but he sighed heavily. "I hear you, man. But regardless of the history, you hitting him in the hallway is caught on camera. Abortion and infidelity are moral issues. Assault is a felony." Tristan sat across the room, holding an ice pack to his head. "Officer, let us just drop it. A verbal warning is fine. I don't want to press charges." Serena immediately slammed her hand on the table. "Absolutely not! Officer, you must press charges. He needs to serve jail time. If he doesn't learn his lesson, he will only get more violent." The detective looked at Serena, clearly bewildered by her venom. "Ms. Lockwood. Rowan is your legal husband. If you push this, he will go to prison. He will have a permanent criminal record. It will ruin his life. Are you absolutely certain?" Serena kept her chin high, her eyes freezing cold. "I am certain. Unless he gets on his knees, apologizes to Tristan, and swears he will never lay a hand on him again." I looked at her unwavering conviction and actually let out a laugh. "Serena. You want me to get on my knees and apologize to the man sleeping with my wife?" Serena slammed the table again. "Watch your mouth! Tristan is not a homewrecker! You are projecting your own filthy thoughts onto innocent people. He is my savior's son. He is family." I kept smiling, a cold, bitter smile. "Stop pretending, Serena. I am not an idiot. The way you look at him says it all." "I am not apologizing. I did not betray our marriage. You did." Serena went dead silent for a moment. "Fine. Then enjoy your time in a prison cell." A younger officer grabbed my arm and pulled me out into the hallway. "Mr. Davies. I worked security at your charity gala last year. I know you are a good man, and I know you are getting screwed here. But you can't let your pride ruin your life. If you don't settle this, you are going to federal prison." He leaned in closer, dropping his voice to a whisper. "Listen to me. That pretty boy in there has connections. If you go inside, he will make sure you don't come out breathing. Think about it." A chill ran down my spine. Tristan was absolutely capable of arranging an accident behind bars. And with Serena protecting him, no one would ever investigate my death. I took a deep breath, swallowed the last shred of my dignity, and walked back into the room. I lowered my head. Before I could even speak, Serena crossed her arms. "If you want to prove you are actually sorry, kneel. Bow your head and swear that if you ever target Tristan again, you will die a miserable death." A physical pain sliced through my chest. I stared at her, completely stunned. For the sake of another man, she was forcing her husband to kneel and curse his own life. Time seemed to stand still. Tristan leaned against Serena's shoulder, shooting me a look of triumphant mockery. The sympathetic officer nudged my shoulder. "A real man knows when to bow his head. Just say it." Gritting my teeth until I tasted blood, I forced the words out, syllable by syllable. "I am sorry. It was my fault. I swear I will never lay a hand on Tristan Shaw again. If I break this promise, may I die a miserable death." A satisfied smile spread across Serena's face. "Rowan, I knew you wouldn't make things difficult. Realizing your mistakes is the first step." "Go back to the office. I am taking Tristan to get a full MRI. I will be staying at the hospital for a few days to monitor his concussion. Handle any corporate emergencies while I am gone." She linked her arm through Tristan's and confidently walked out the door. Once I was outside the precinct, my phone vibrated. "Mr. Davies. The tickets to Munich are booked. We fly out tonight." "Good. Have the car pick me up at eight. I have one condition. I am taking my entire tech team with me." "Done. I will arrange a larger private jet. You dictate their salaries. Whatever they need, give it to them." Before leaving the city, I stopped by the hospital. Tristan was standing guard outside the VIP suite, refusing to let me in. I calmly handed him a manila folder containing the divorce papers. "Tristan. Tell her it is an urgent corporate contract. I know you will make sure she signs it." Tristan gave me a sly grin. "Wait at the end of the hall." Ten minutes later, he strutted down the corridor, aggressively tossing the folder into my chest. "Rowan, now that you are legally dumped, stay the hell away from her. I don't share. If you ever try to contact Serena again, I have a hundred ways to make you disappear." He glanced down at my battered knees with absolute contempt. I just smiled faintly. I opened the folder and saw Serena's elegant signature on the dotted line. Just as I suspected. Tristan held so much power over her that my three years of begging for a divorce was eclipsed by ten minutes of his manipulation. An hour later, I had the expedited divorce certificate in my hand. I left her copy on the coffee table in our empty mansion. At exactly eight o'clock, I boarded a private jet with my loyal engineers, leaving the country behind. As the city lights faded beneath the clouds, I looked out the window. Serena. Every debt I owed you is paid in full. We will never see each other again.
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