Sophia’s POV
What was she doing here at our anniversary? On the day that should have symbolized a new beginning for Jerry and me?
The entire party fell into an almost silent hush when they realized the star of the show, Jerry Baxter had finally arrived… with another woman.
Anastasia Baxter recovered faster than any of us and crossed to meet her son in two powerful strides.
“Jerry, what are you doing?” She asked him in a hushed voice that I could only pick up due to my proximity to the door.
Jerry didn’t skip a beat and his voice was loud enough to carry to the rest of the guests far away.
“Kate will live here with us from now on.” He declared.
My heart shattered in that moment and I was so dazed that I couldn’t process what was going on in front of me.
“What?!” Anastasia exclaimed before lowering her voice and glancing between Jerry in his impeccable suit and Kate in her winter coat that almost swallowed her, lending her an almost childlike appearance. Naive and innocent.
“What are you doing Jerry?” Anastasia asked once more, sounding almost panicked. “The press are here.”
“Good,” Jerry said with a shrug before taking Anastasia’s hand in his, looking at her with all the love I never knew I wanted him to look at me with. “I want everyone to know that Kate will be my wife.”
The guests went crazy, the murmurs doubling as the paparazzi cameras flashed continuously recording the biggest scoop of the year but none of the chaos could compare to the one in my head.
I wanted to scream but doing that would require air. Air I didn’t have enough of.
It was getting more difficult to breathe by the second but I took a step then another towards Jerry, the world narrowing down to just the two of us in my head.
Jerry looked at me for the first time since he walked into this party and in those cold wintry blue eyes, there was no sign of the man who had made love to me last night.
Something shriveled up and died inside me at his frostiness but it wasn’t enough to stop me from reaching out to touch him.
“Jerry, what is this?” I asked, tasting the salt of my tears on my lips when I spoke. “Did… did I do something wrong?”
Jerry looked at my hand on his sleeve and brushed it off with an almost disgusted look on his face.
“I never wanted to marry you, Sophia,” His cold blue eyes pinned me in a spot. “Today, the clause of marriage to you for five years ends and I can get my inheritance.”
What? Had I misheard Jerry’s words over the growing noise of the crowd watching this drama unfold with avid interest?
No, I hadn’t misheard. But I still didn’t understand.
What clause of marriage was Jerry talking about?
“Jerry,” Anastasia sounded as shocked as I felt. “You can’t do this. The clause says even if you divorce her after five years, she gets half of your inheritance.”
What?!
Anastasia wasn’t shocked by her son’s news, she was shocked that Jerry was willing to part with half of his inheritance?
I was still in shock as pieces of a puzzle I didn’t even know I had slid into place.
So that was why Jerry had married me. Not to respect his grandfather’s last wishes but to secure his inheritance.
Good lord, was that the reason they had even bothered to tolerate me all this while?
Jerry didn’t seem bothered at the reminder that his inheritance had been halved. He merely shrugged once more.
“You don’t need to worry, Mom. Sophia signed away her right to my inheritance as well as the divorce papers yesterday. The divorce was processed in court today.”
Just when I thought I had seen the worst Jerry could do, he sunk to new depths.
I thought of his almost desperate impatience to have those papers signed yesterday so much so that he had physically hurt me for the first time in our marriage.
Those were not just inheritance papers but divorce papers?
My head swam and I stumbled nearly falling over from the wave of shock that hit me.
Kate smirked at me, her hand still in Jerry’s grasp, and then she blinked up at Jerry, tugging on his sleeve gently.
“Jerry, I’m tired. I want to get some rest.” She said softly but I wasn’t even listening to her at this point.
No, my eyes were drawn to what she had revealed the moment she released her hold on her coat to touch Jerry.
Kate’s coat had fallen away to reveal her obvious baby bump.
A baby bump. Kate was pregnant and I could already guess who the father was.
My husband. No, my ex-husband.
My cheeks were wet with tears, my vision blurry, my heart broken beyond repair and the screams in my head refused to stop.
“Of course my love, you should get some rest.” Jerry smiled at Kate and it was the same smile he had given me last night when I had threatened to castrate him if he tried anything funny with me.
Anastasia was practically grinning ear to ear, all her reluctance gone the moment she realized she would be rid of her unworthy daughter in law while getting an heir to Baxter family at the same time.
“Don’t worry about it, Jerry. I’ll take my new daughter in law to her room.” She said taking Kate’s arm and her luggage in.
I didn’t look at Anastasia and Kate or even listen to the reaction of the guests and press to this new development.
No. I was too busy looking at Jerry.
Last night I had given him my virginity only for him to divorce me today.
I should have been yelling at him and clawing his eyes out. Maybe a stronger woman would have but I was Sophia.
Weak broken Sophia worn down by life, my father, dangerous hope and my own terrible luck.
So I begged him, tears I couldn’t seem to be able to stop streaming down my cheeks.
“Jerry, please you can’t do this to me.” I pleaded.
“Oh but I just did,” Jerry smirked at me before reaching into his briefcase to pull out a paper he flung at me. My copy of our divorce papers. “We are divorced now, Sophia. Get the hell out of my life.”
Then he walked away from me.
With the Baxters gone, the spell holding the press back from lynching us came to an end.
In seconds, numerous microphones and cameras were shoved in my face.
“Mrs Baxter, has your marriage with Jerry Baxter really ended?”
“Mrs Baxter, is it true this was a contract marriage?”
“Did you always know that your husband had a mistress?”
I spun around looking for an escape but all I could see were the judgemental faces of the people who had been congratulating me mere minutes ago.
The looks of shock were far fewer than the mocking looks. The flashes of cameras all around me capturing the moment Cinderella’s magical rise came to an end.
So I did what my ex-husband had bid me. I shoved my way through the crowd and ran.
Getting the hell out of Jerry Baxter’s life