I never realized how fast love could turn into punishment until the day Marco made me watch a ticking clock attached to our children’s chests.
I used to believe that getting rid of her—the woman who slipped into our marriage like poison—would bring back the peace I’d been clawing for. I sent her away, thinking distance could fix everything. Instead, it ignited the fuse that destroyed everything we built.
The message came first—a video call that lit up my phone in the middle of the night. Marco’s face was emotionless, all sharp lines and shadows. He slid his phone toward the camera, revealing the worst sight I’d ever seen: Sofia and Mateo, bound to chairs, bombs strapped to their small bodies, a red digital timer blinking between them.
“Forty-nine minutes, Isabella,” he said evenly, his voice almost soothing. “Where is Natalia?”
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. Natalia—the woman who turned my husband into a stranger. The woman who whispered her way into our lives until Marco started looking at me like a lie he wanted to erase.
He’d asked me that question before. The first time, it was a warning. The second time, a threat. But this time—this time it was war.
“Marco, please,” I whispered, my throat dry, hands trembling. “They’re your children—our children.”
He let out a small, humorless laugh. “No, your children,” he hissed. “Natalia told me everything. She told me about Milan. About the man who came before me. You tricked me into raising someone else’s blood.”
“That’s not true,” I said, desperate. “You held them, Marco. You taught Mateo how to fight. You sang Sofia to sleep. You know they’re yours.”
He leaned in close, the edges of his voice cracking. “Then tell me where she is, Isabella. You’ve got thirty-two minutes before I let one of those bombs do its job.”
Something inside me broke that night. Because the man standing in front of me wasn’t my husband anymore. Whatever love we once had—whatever warmth existed—was long gone. All that was left was something cold, shaped in her image.
---
There was a time I used to think Marco Cortez was untouchable. He was the kind of man people crossed the street to avoid—the son of the Cortez empire, heir to everything ruthless and corrupt in the city. Power followed him like a shadow. His name was a threat disguised as a prayer.
And somehow, he chose me.
I was nobody. A quiet girl from a forgotten town, born into a family that never had enough. But he made it feel like that didn’t matter. He courted me the way legends are written—grand, ridiculous, unforgettable.
The night he proposed, the sky above the city exploded in fireworks spelling out my name. G, marry me. People cheered. Cars stopped. For that one night, I was his entire world.
I thought I was living a fairytale. The kind you grow up dreaming about—the one where love conquers everything. But fairy tales born in the underworld always end in ash.
When I told him we couldn’t work, that I wasn’t made for his kind of darkness, he didn’t argue. He just waited—day after day, rain or shine, outside my building. The most feared man in the city waiting for a nobody like me.
When I finally said yes, I thought the storm was over. I thought I’d found peace.
Then I got pregnant. He cried when he first touched my belly. “They’re ours,” he whispered. “You, me, them. That’s all I’ll ever need.”
I believed him. God, I really did.
But then came her.
---
The first time I heard the name Natalia Jenner, it was in passing. Luca, Marco’s right hand, mentioned her at a party—a woman who’d made a scene at one of their auctions. She’d tripped in front of Marco, claimed her heel broke. Everyone laughed about it later.
I didn’t. Something about her name stuck.
A week later, I heard it again—this time from Marco’s lips.
We were together—his breath warm against my neck, the world silent around us. Then he whispered her name.
Natalia.
It was so soft I thought I imagined it. But when I confronted him the next morning, he didn’t even flinch. He just pulled me into his arms like nothing was wrong.
“She doesn’t mean anything,” he said, voice low, too calm. “Every man in our world has someone. But I come home to you, Isabella. You’re the wife. That’s what matters.”
And I was supposed to accept that. Pretend it didn’t hurt. Pretend it wasn’t killing me from the inside.
But it didn’t stop there. He stopped pretending. He brought her into the open. Let her haunt every corner of our lives until there was no space left for me to breathe.
So I did the only thing I could think of. I made her disappear.
I sent Natalia away—far from the city, far from us. I thought if she vanished, maybe we’d find our way back. Maybe he’d see me again.
Instead, I set fire to everything.
---
When Marco strapped bombs to our children, I knew the man I loved no longer existed. Natalia had hollowed him out and left a monster behind.
And that night, as the timer ticked down and his rage filled the room, I realized I wasn’t just fighting for my children.
I was fighting for the last piece of my soul that still remembered what love felt like.
