The morning sky was heavy with gray clouds, as though even the heavens were mourning.
I stood at the edge of the small cemetery, clutching the wilted flowers I had bought from a street vendor. Aunt Melanie’s coffin was already lowered into the ground. Her daughter sobbed quietly, her shoulders trembling.
“She loved you like her own, Diana,” she whispered when she noticed me. “She always said you were the only good thing in her life.”
My throat tightened as I knelt before the grave, tears spilling freely. Aunt Melanie had been my shelter when everyone else turned their backs on me. She had brushed my hair when my mother refused to, cooked warm meals when I was left hungry, and whispered comfort when my brothers mocked me for being different.
Now she was gone.
“I don’t know how to go on without you,” I whispered, my tears wetting the freshly turned soil. “But I promise… I’ll visit whenever I can.”
It felt like burying not just Aunt Melanie, but also the last fragment of warmth in my life.
…
By the time I returned to the mansion, the sun had already dipped behind the horizon. The house was unusually quiet, but as I walked upstairs, muffled sounds drifted from the master bedroom.
I froze mid-step. My heart clenched painfully as I edged closer.
The door was ajar. Through the crack, I saw what I had feared all along—two bodies entwined on the bed.
Kylie’s soft moans filled the room as Arthur kissed her neck, his hands caressing her as if she were his most precious treasure.
“Arthur…” she whispered breathlessly. “Shouldn’t you take off your ring?”
“No,” he murmured, pressing his lips against her shoulder. “It’s hotter this way. Forbidden love. If only Diana were half as enticing as you.”
My vision blurred, my chest constricting so tightly I could barely breathe. My husband—my Arthur—was making love to Kylie in the very bed that had once been ours.
I leaned against the wall, numb. I never expected my marriage to end like this.
At first, life with Arthur had been like any ordinary marriage. We were deeply in love—or so I thought. When my family discovered I wasn’t related to them by blood, they had wanted to cast me out immediately. If not for the marriage alliance, they would have disowned me without hesitation. Instead, they decided to adopt Kylie and send her abroad to complete her studies.
I had been heartbroken then, but at least Arthur was still by my side. He was the one I turned to when my family shunned me. He had been my comfort, my refuge, the man I thought would never betray me.
But it turned out, everything had all been an illusion. He was never mine to begin with.
The sound of the bedroom door creaking open snapped me out of my thoughts.
I staggered back, just as Arthur stepped into the hall with Kylie nestled in his arms. They froze when they saw me standing there, my face pale, my eyes brimming with tears.
