Elegantly Wasted

No Longer Mrs. Cooley: The Architect's Return

Xiao Xiaosu

I went to the City Clerk’s office for a routine copy of my marriage license to finalize a trust fund audit. I expected a simple piece of paper, but the clerk’s pitying look told me my entire life was a lie. "The license was never finalized, Ms. Oliver. In the eyes of the state, you are single." The three-hundred-guest wedding at the Plaza and the Vogue features meant nothing. My husband, Gray Cooley, had intentionally filed the documents with a "procedural defect" so he could discard me without a legal divorce. Moments later, an iCloud invite titled "Our Little Secret" popped up on my screen. It was a photo of my best friend, Brylee, holding a positive pregnancy test at our Hamptons estate. Gray’s text to her was the final blow: "Happy anniversary, babe. This baby is the best gift. Once the trust unlocks today, we’re done with the charade." I soon discovered they were even stealing my career, reassigning my architectural masterpiece to Brylee while preparing my eviction notice. Gray's mother called me a "barren mule" in a leaked recording, mocking the infertility I suffered after saving Gray’s life in a construction accident. I wasn't a wife; I was a three-year placeholder used to secure his inheritance. How could the man I bled for treat me like a disposable prop? How could my best friend carry his child while pretending to comfort me through my darkest moments? The betrayal burned until it turned into a cold, hard stone of fury. I didn't cry. Instead, I walked into the penthouse of the Barretts, the Cooleys' most powerful rivals. I signed a marriage contract with Kane Barrett, the man the tabloids called the "Beast of Wall Street." "I want a wedding," I told his father, my voice steady and lethal. "Bigger than the one I had with Gray." If they wanted me gone, they would have to watch me become the woman who owns their world.

Modern Revenge Divorce

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The woman stepped limping, tired of crying all day, sweat wetting all over her body.

Weak. With all her might she approached the telephone set located at the end of the living room, her hands shaking pressing number after number then placing the handle on his earlobe.

"Van, can you come here?” The woman spoke a little hoarse.

"Nick, what's wrong with you?” there's a woman's voice there.

“Help me, Van, I'm not strong enough.”

“Wait.” The phone was disconnected.

The woman put the receiver back on, then sat down leaning against the wall near the table. The crying broke out again. Her hands rubbed her flat stomach.

"I'm sorry, Baby," she said.

She smiled bitterly, squeezing her chest that hurt so much, the events of an hour ago made her world collapse instantly.

Knock Knock Knock ...

The door of the house was wide open, showing a woman with a distended stomach from behind the door.

"Nicky, what's wrong with you?” The woman approached Nikcy, helped her best friend to stand up, then helped her sit on the sofa seat.

Nicky's voice broke again. “It hurts, Van ...," she said as she sobbed.

The woman gently stroked Nicky's hair, trying to calm her down. “Tell me, what is it exactly?”

Nicky took a deep breath, sobbing as she said, “I'm pregnant, Van.”

Vanilla smiled broadly, her friend's long wait now coming to a happy end. “Really, thank God ...”

"But Jackson left me, Vanilla," Nicky said, breaking into tears again.

Vanilla's face changed, her smile faded. “You mean?”

“He cheated on me, Van.”

As if struck by lightning during the day, seeing Nicky's tearful cry tear Vanilla's heart to pieces, she carries Nicky in her arms, trying to give him peace.

”My father-in-law came to get him and Melvin, he told me that Jackson had another wife and was six months pregnant, " Nicky said.

Vanilla was silent, her hands still faithfully stroking Nicky's hair and back, without realizing her tears were flowing.

“Have you informed your family?”

Nicky shook her head. “I still hope Jackson comes back to me, Van.”

Vanilla nodded her head. “He has to come back, Nick, he has to choose you. This is your long wait of ten years.”

“He must be back, right, Van?”

“Hopefully, I'm sure he'll come back.”

Month after month passed by Nicky Zevionna alone, she still often cries over her fate now. The man she had been waiting for did not return home.

Sometimes Vanilla came to her aid when she was in pain, bought her milk, and took care of Nicky when morning sickness struck suddenly, also drove her to check the womb to the hospital.

Vanilla stopped caring for her because she had just given birth to her first child.

Vanilla's happiness is Nicky's happiness too. "He's so handsome," praised Nicky as she stroked the baby boy's cheek plan in a Vanilla hug.

“If you give birth to a daughter later, how about we match our children?"asked Vanilla.

"Good idea, Nicky's daughter must be beautiful like her mother," said a baritone voice who had just come to bring two glasses of chocolate milk and then put them on the table.

“This is for Vanilla and this is for you, Nicky. Do not confuse, one for pregnant women and another for nursing mothers.”

The two women chuckled softly then drank each other's milk.

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