My Cruel Choice, His Silent Death

My Cruel Choice, His Silent Death

Marigold

5.0
Comment(s)
18
View
24
Chapters

My husband, Cole, collapsed on our kitchen floor, gasping that he was in agony. But I told him to stop being so dramatic. My toxic ex, Bryant, was drunk and whining about a sprained arm, and I chose to rush him to a private clinic instead. I left Cole to die alone on the cold tiles. He had to call 911 himself. When I finally saw him in the hospital, the adoration he'd held for me for five years was gone, replaced by a chilling emptiness. "You left me to die, Emily," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. "You chose him. Again." I had taken the kindest, most devoted man I'd ever known for granted, treating him as a placeholder for the man who constantly broke my heart. In one single, cruel moment, I had finally killed his love for me. Now, the divorce papers are on my desk. He's in Paris, thriving with a new restaurant and a new love who appreciates him. And I am left with nothing but the ashes of my mistakes, beginning a life of lonely, agonizing penance.

Chapter 1

My husband, Cole, collapsed on our kitchen floor, gasping that he was in agony.

But I told him to stop being so dramatic. My toxic ex, Bryant, was drunk and whining about a sprained arm, and I chose to rush him to a private clinic instead.

I left Cole to die alone on the cold tiles. He had to call 911 himself.

When I finally saw him in the hospital, the adoration he'd held for me for five years was gone, replaced by a chilling emptiness.

"You left me to die, Emily," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. "You chose him. Again."

I had taken the kindest, most devoted man I'd ever known for granted, treating him as a placeholder for the man who constantly broke my heart.

In one single, cruel moment, I had finally killed his love for me.

Now, the divorce papers are on my desk. He's in Paris, thriving with a new restaurant and a new love who appreciates him.

And I am left with nothing but the ashes of my mistakes, beginning a life of lonely, agonizing penance.

Chapter 1

Emily Collins POV:

The divorce papers, a stark white testament to a life I no longer recognized, sat on my desk, a silent accusation.

My assistant, Sarah, cleared her throat.

"Ms. Collins, are you sure about this?" she asked.

"Completely," I replied, my voice steady, betraying none of the earthquake inside me.

The last few months had been a blur of work, a desperate attempt to outrun the ghost of a love I hadn't truly valued until it vanished.

Cole.

His name was a raw wound, fresh despite the passage of time.

He had left, not with a bang, but with a quiet, devastating whimper that echoed louder than any scream.

He hadn't fought for me, not in the way I expected.

He had simply... let go.

And that, I was beginning to understand, was my hell.

His silence, a weapon I' d forged against him, had turned on me.

I picked up my pen, the cool metal a stark contrast to my burning hand.

The signature was familiar, bold, and unapologetic.

It was mine.

But this time, it was for him.

He was gone.

Gone to Paris, to a new life, a new restaurant, a new... everything.

Without me.

"Send them," I instructed Sarah, pushing the signed documents across the polished mahogany.

"To Paris?" she asked, her voice laced with concern.

I nodded, my gaze fixed on the cityscape outside my floor-to-ceiling window.

The bustling streets below, once a source of pride, now felt hollow.

"Yes. To Paris."

I regretted every second I wasted taking him for granted.

We were over.

He had made sure of that.

My phone buzzed.

It was a blocked number.

I hesitated, a flicker of an old habit, a toxic pull I thought I' d finally severed.

Bryant.

Even his name was a bitter taste in my mouth.

I had destroyed his life, his career, everything, in my desperate, twisted attempt to fix what I had broken with Cole.

It hadn't worked.

Nothing I did seemed to work.

I ignored the call.

It rang again.

And again.

A sigh escaped my lips.

Old habits died hard.

"What do you want, Bryant?" I answered, my voice devoid of emotion.

His voice, once so captivating, now grated on my nerves.

He was complaining about some business deal gone wrong, another consequence of my wrath.

I had pulled every string, leveraged every contact, to dismantle his empire brick by brick.

It was my penance, my twisted offering to a ghost.

"It's all your fault, Emily!" he whined. "You ruined everything!"

I closed my eyes, a wave of weariness washing over me.

"Is that all?" I asked, my patience thin.

"No! I need your help! I... I messed up. Big time. I need money, Emily. A lot of it."

My jaw tightened.

Even now, after everything, he still saw me as his personal ATM, his fixer.

"You made your bed, Bryant," I said, my voice cold. "Lie in it."

I hung up, the click of the phone final.

The silence in my office was deafening.

I walked to the window again, staring at the endless expanse of the city.

It was a monument to my ambition, my ruthlessness.

And my loneliness.

Cole had once filled this space, this vast, cold apartment.

He had filled it with warmth, with laughter, with the scent of gourmet meals.

He had filled it with love.

A love I had carelessly discarded, like a forgotten trinket.

Now, only echoes remained.

Echoes of a life I could never get back.

I had tried.

God, how I had tried.

But he was a wall, an impenetrable fortress of indifference.

His eyes, once so full of adoration, now held nothing for me.

Just a vast, empty expanse.

I had driven him away, pushed him to the brink, and watched him fall.

And in his fall, I had found my own.

A fall into a lonely, desolate landscape of my own making.

My phone buzzed again.

Another blocked number.

I didn't answer.

I wouldn't.

Not anymore.

There was nothing left to salvage, nothing left to break.

Just the bitter taste of "too little, too late."

Continue Reading

Other books by Marigold

More
The Wife He Never Touched

The Wife He Never Touched

Billionaires

5.0

For five years, I, Chloe Davis, was the woman every other woman wanted to be, married to a man whose wealth was matched only by his handsome face, living in a gilded cage. But in three years of marriage, he had never touched me, our bedroom cold and empty. On my ninety-ninth attempt to seduce my husband, Ethan, he finally pulled me close. But as pleasure washed over me, he whispered, "Ashley, you know I love you. Marrying Chloe was something I had to do. How could you let her do this? How could you let her seduce me?" His confession shattered me. He wasn't incapable; he just didn't love me. His heart belonged to Ashley Thompson, his niece and my best friend, and I was just a shield. Ashley, the one who had encouraged me to pursue him, was the real object of his affection. Later, as I lay dizzy and confused in a hospital bed from donating my kidney to Ashley, Ethan offered me anything I wanted, even a child, if I saved her, revealing his plan to use me as a surrogate for him and Ashley. The truth sliced through my seven years of devotion like a knife. After all I'd given, all I' d sacrificed, I was just a tool in their twisted game, a cover for their sordid affair. Even my wedding ring was a duplicate of Ashley' s. I secretly signed our divorce papers on the operating table, and in the dead of night, I walked out of that mansion, leaving behind the shattered pieces of my naive heart and a final message: "Happy divorce! Never see you again!"

A Price on Freedom

A Price on Freedom

Modern

5.0

"Just drink it, Emily, it\'ll help you relax." David Clark\'s voice was smooth, but his grip on my arm was tight, pushing a dark, sweet-smelling liquid toward me. I looked at him, his face a charming mask, and knew he wanted me drugged for a photographer he\'d hired. He aimed to frame me, his fiancée, in a scandal to boost his political campaign. My refusal turned his charm into an ugly snarl, his hand grabbing for me as he threatened to ruin me. Just then, our hotel room door exploded inward. Two grim men in sharp military uniforms stood in the doorway, led by Captain Alex Stone. I, Chloe Miller, a tech inventor from the 21st century, had woken up in Emily Hayes\'s nineteen-year-old body, trapped in the 1980s. Emily\'s pre-arranged marriage to David, her family\'s desperate bid for security, was about to become my public nightmare. This was not my life. I stumbled forward, feigning fear, accusing David of trying to drug me, seizing the unexpected opportunity. Captain Stone, suspicious yet bound by duty, took me under his wing, dragging me into the heart of his powerful, tangled family. My engagement to Alex became my shield, but it also painted me as a gold-digger, an enemy to his vindictive aunt Clara, her resentful son Mark, and his jilted almost-fiancée Anna Lewis. Then, on my wedding night, Clara orchestrated the ultimate humiliation, bringing my poverty-stricken, opportunistic family to the mansion to stake their claim. I knew then that I had to fight, not just for survival, but for autonomy. Meeting Alex in secret, he revealed his true motive for our marriage: I was to be his "unassuming" tool, a corporate spy to secure his family\'s legacy. I accepted. This was my chance not just to survive, but to truly live and rebuild, turning what was meant to be my ruin into my ultimate rise.

You'll also like

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

Huo Wuer
5.0

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband’s Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn’t find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn’t even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father’s legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn’s party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara’s health and managing every detail of Caden’s empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I’d drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause—if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I’d forgotten.

Rejected Heiress: My Heartless Family's Regret

Rejected Heiress: My Heartless Family's Regret

Cassandra
5.0

For seventeen years, I was the pride of the Carlisle family, the perfect daughter destined to inherit an empire. But that life ended the moment a DNA report slid across my father’s mahogany desk. The paper proved I was a stranger. Vanessa, the girl sobbing in the corner, was the real biological daughter they had been searching for. "You need to leave. Tonight. Before the press gets wind of this. Before the stock prices dip." My father’s voice was as cold as flint. My mother wouldn't even look at me, staring out the window at the gardens as if I were already a ghost. Just like that, I was erased. I left behind the Birkin bags and the diamonds, throwing my Centurion Card into a crystal bowl with a clatter that echoed like a gunshot. I walked out into the cold night and climbed into a rusted Ford Taurus driven by a man I had never met—my biological father. I went from a mansion to a fourth-floor walk-up in Queens that smelled of laundry detergent and struggle. My new siblings looked at me with a mix of fear and disgust, waiting for the "fallen princess" to break. They expected me to beg for my old life back, to crumble without the luxury I’d known since birth. But they didn't know the truth. I had spent years training in a shark tank, honing survival skills they couldn't imagine. While Richard Carlisle froze my trust funds to starve me out, my net worth was climbing by millions on an encrypted trading app. They thought they were throwing me to the wolves. They didn't realize they were just letting me off my leash. As the Carlisles prepared to debut Vanessa at the Manhattan Arts Gala, I was already making my move. "Get dressed. We're going to a party."

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book