The Gift I Gave My Husband: A Divorce He Never Saw Coming

MADELYNN

“Madelynn, we both know how hard you’ve worked for this marriage. I advise you to take the time to reconsider this decision.”

“I’ve made up my mind, attorney. I’m going to divorce Oliver and leave his company. Just draft both agreements please.”

Madelynn had been Oliver Kane’s secretary for four years, and at the same time, she had been secretly married to him.

Few months ago, while she decorated the house to announce her pregnancy to her husband, robbers broke in. They forced her to make countless calls and messages to Oliver in order to get the combination to the safe where he kept all his money and valuables. They threatened to kill her if they didn’t get the code to the safe.

But despite seeing the blue ticks that showed that Oliver was reading her messages, he never responded or answered the call.

The robbers had stabbed her in the thigh and left her to bleed to death, but luckily, she was saved by a neighbor who had heard her screaming.

She found out later that Oliver had been at a resort… with Cecelia, her sister.

The marriage she had tried so hard to protect shattered at that moment. She could finally see the truth, and she decided to walk away for good.

She looked at her lawyer. “I’m not changing my mind. And Oliver will probably be happy.”

She knew Oliver didn’t love her. But she had loved him since she was a little girl, so she had jumped at the idea of being his wife. But he didn’t see her as his wife, she was nothing to him. So for their wedding anniversary, she would give him the gift he wanted most… divorce.

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Oliver hated messes, especially the ones made from cooking.

Madelynn could still remember the fuss he had made years ago when he came home to find her in the kitchen. “Why don’t you let the professionals handle that instead of turning my house into a pigsty!?”

So she was very surprised when she walked into the house that evening and found him bent over the stove. She knew there could only be one reason… Cecelia.

“There wasn’t much to do at the office today, so why are you late? Only prostitutes get home at such late hours of the night, Madelynn.”

“We had interns today, remember? Someone had to show them around since you bailed.” She said tiredly, ignoring his other comment.

He nodded once. “Let’s eat, I made dinner.”

She reluctantly sat down, and Oliver placed a plate of trout and vegetables in front of her. “I made this especially for you. It’s your favorite.”

Her stomach twisted and turned.

Cecelia was the one who loved trout. Madelynn was deathly allergic to seafood.

They had been married for four years, and her husband still didn’t know about her allergies. If he had paid any attention to her all these years, he definitely wouldn’t be serving her something that could kill her in minutes.

“What’s wrong? Why are you eating?” He asked when he noticed she was just staring at the plate.

She gently pushed the plate away from her and reached into her bag for the documents. “Dinner can wait. I need you to sign these.”

Oliver frowned. “What’s so important that I have to sign now? You know how much I hate talking about work at the dinner table.”

Just as he reached for the papers, his phone vibrated.

He almost sprained his wrist with how fast he tried to cover the screen, but she already saw it.

It was Cecelia.

He immediately stood up and walked over to the balcony to take the call. The sudden movement caused his wine glass to fall off the table, sending shards of glass everywhere.

A small piece of glass nicked her on the arm and red immediately tainted her fair skin and dripped onto the floor.

Oliver didn’t even turn around to look. He spent a long time on the balcony talking to Cecelia before he grabbed his coat from the rack and headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” She asked quietly even though she already knew the answer.

“Something came up. I have to go.”

“You haven’t signed the papers.”

He sighed, then walked back to the table and hastily signed his name on the bottom of both pages. “There. Can I go now?”

She stared at the signatures in resignation, and nodded softly. “Yeah… go.”

He walked out at the speed of light. Like something was chasing him out of their home.

She laughed bitterly. He couldn’t even bother to pay enough attention to know that he had just signed the papers for her freedom.

Or that their floor was stained with her blood.

Oliver had always loved Cecelia. She was the “real” heir to the Fontaine wealth after all.

When Madelynn was a little girl, her mother’s most trusted maid died and left a little daughter, Cecelia. No one knew who her father was, and there were no other family members to take her either.

So Madelynn’s parents decided to take care of her as a way to honor her mother who had worked for the family for years. Her parents went the extra mile to make Cecelia feel accepted, as she was still too young to fully understand what had happened to her mother.

So they never punished her or treated her badly. Cecelia was always treated like an egg. She was the fragile child, and eventually, she became everyone’s favorite. Madelynn’s parents told her to take Cecelia as her sister and to never tell anyone otherwise, else they would look down on her and reopen old wounds.

So to the world, Cecelia was the Fontaine family’s favorite daughter and true heir.

Oliver and Cecelia had loved each other as children, but before they could ever get serious, Cecelia met another man and left the country in pursuit of her ‘one true love’

The Fontaine family and the Kane’s were longtime friends and business partners, so to preserve that relationship, Madelynn was asked to marry Oliver instead.

Oliver had agreed, despite being in love with Cecelia. She figured if she loved him hard enough, he would eventually fall in love with her too, but it never happened.

Instead, Cecelia returned and Oliver immediately betrayed Madelynn.

He leaked controversial videos of her online, and she overheard him and Cecelia talking about it.

“Madelyn will have our parents' support if I suddenly leave her. The only way to do it is by ruining her reputation. That way, we can both be together.”

Cecelia had asked him if he felt anything for Madelynn in the years they had been married.

But her husband shook his head. “Madelyn was just a stand in. But she will never be you.”

She had thought she could change Oliver by being devoted to him. But she was so wrong. Her heart broke as she looked at the divorce papers.

But she had given Oliver too many chances to disrespect and disgrace her, and she wouldn’t do it again.

She always said that one day, she would reach the limit of things she could endure, and the time had finally come.

Tonight, she placed two items into a box, sealed it, and locked it in the safe. It would be her final wedding anniversary gift to Oliver.

He would probably like it, she would give him everything he ever wanted, his freedom.

With everything in place, Madelyn picked up her phone and called the man she hadn’t spoken to in four years.

“Bash? I need you”