The Unwanted Wife's Awakening

music was a faint hum. I was about to go back inside, find my purse,

in front of everyone... in front of Olivia. It feels... w

gentle, the way he only ever spoke to her.

the garden wall. His hands were on either side of her head, and he was leaning

rlett whispered, her eyes wide a

a stray strand of hair from her face. "You know how I feel. You've

antom limb, an echo of an old wound. I recognized it for what it was: the last dying ember of the love I onc

d to walk away, but my heel caught on a loose st

ices s

e, her innocent expression vanished, replaced by a flash of pu

ice trembling. "What are you do

It's gone!" She looked around frantically. "It was a gift

rushing out. "What is it, darling? What's wrong?"

bbed. "I just had it! Olivia was here...

e looked at me. "Olivia, did you take Scarlett's necklace?

nything," I said

always hated that Liam gives me gif

to me, his face red with anger. "You've caused e

ch purse and opened it, dumping the contents onto a sm

oesn't have

He looked from Scarlett's tear-streaked f

Scarlett wailed, pointing a shak

e face. The sting was sharp and shocking. "How dare you st

r hands rough and invasive.

mall, almost invisible pocket in the seam. Her fingers

was the missing

p of onlookers who had gathered. Scarlett sob

got there. It was an obvious, clumsy setup, b

t of me, his eyes blazing with a cold fire I had never

low and lethal, each

disgusting woman

ed to. The quiet venom in his

You're nothing. You're not my wife. You're just an obligation I've been forced to endure." He gestured to

annihilate what was left of my spirit. The old Olivia woul

side me didn't b

er, but a wild, exhilarating sense of release. The last cha

t was a smile of pure, unburdened freedom. It was the smi

. My smile was not the reaction they exp

t in the eye, the sm

r and steady, ringing through the silent gar

"Because I don't