Avery's POV
“It was just to make her mother happy? Then why take it so seriously?” I snapped.
Darlene’s eyes were red as she nodded pitifully. “I only wanted my mom to leave this world feeling at peace. I remember listing my home address on it, but somehow the photos ended up being delivered here, to Mr. Haynes’s house instead. Please don’t be angry. It wasn’t his fault…”
Her voice trembled, weak and tearful, dripping with grievance. Standing across from her, I looked like the unreasonable one, like I was just picking a fight.
I snapped. “You graduated from a top university, and you can’t even write down your own address correctly? What’s in your head, nothing but water? Fine. If neither of you can bear to deal with this, I will.”
I spun around, grabbed a pair of scissors, and slashed through the wedding posters and albums. One by one, I smashed the framed photos and displays against the floor, cutting the images to shreds.
“No! Avery, please! I can take these with me!”
Barehanded, Darlene tried to shield the photos, but my scissors caught her hand, leaving a long cut across her palm.
Her sharp cry sliced through the air, snapping Stanley out of his drunken haze.
He rushed forward, fury burning in his eyes, and shoved me aside. As a result, I lost my balance and fell back, and my hand landed in shards of broken glass.
“Avery! Enough!” he shouted. “You're always throwing things, smashing things, and hurting someone! Do you even know how to act like a woman?”
Then came the dagger.
“Darlene’s mother just passed away. You’ve lost your mother, too. Can’t you show her a little compassion?”
His words pierced straight through me.
My mother’s death was the greatest regret of my life.
Back then, Stanley and I were still studying overseas. Travel restrictions meant we couldn’t make it home in time, so I had to say goodbye to her through a screen only.
To this day, I still wake in the middle of the night, sobbing from dreams of her.
And Stanley knew that. Yet now he used her death against me, all for Darlene.
Without looking back, he carried her away in his arms.
I stared at the bloody cut in my palm, bitterness spreading through me like poison.
“Mom, the man you chose for me is rotten. I don’t want him anymore.”
The living room was silent. Of course, no one answered.
My mother had adored Stanley. She and his mother had been best friends, so when we were little, they had arranged our engagement. For me and Stanley, being together was always meant to be.
That was why, when it came time for his family to select their heir, my father gambled everything, his money, his influence, to help Stanley win.
At just twenty years old, Stanley stood on my family’s shoulders and secured a hundred million in financing.
When my mother passed, he had knelt in front of the camera during the funeral livestream and sworn, word by word, “Mrs. Bush, don’t worry. I’ll give Avery the happiest marriage.”
After we finished our studies abroad, we returned and found out that our wedding was already scheduled.
Until the beginning of this year, when Darlene joined the company as an intern.
That was when the story changed tracks entirely.
As his secretary, she called him late at night, messaged him at all hours. Once, even while we were in bed together, her call came through, and Stanley didn’t even pull his pants up before answering.
I grew suspicious, so I checked his phone. But there was nothing to see.
The first time I saw Darlene face-to-face was in Stanley’s passenger seat.
That day was supposed to be the day we got our marriage license. But before we even reached the county clerk's office, she called. And just like that, he drove off to find her.
I waited at the office until the doors closed, never knowing why he left me there.
When he finally came back to pick me up, she was in the car. The moment she saw me, she immediately slipped out of the passenger seat and into the back with all smiles and politeness.
