Sophia’s POV
Twisting her arm so that she released her hold on my hair, I took a step away from Kate.
“I refuse to have his conversation with you, Kate. You stole my husband, fine, I hope you have a wonderful life together.”
My head hurt from her harsh grip on my hair but saying those words hurt more. Maybe it was because I didn’t mean it. I didn’t want them to ‘have a wonderful life together’.
“Your husband?” The amused tilt to Kate’s lips was back. “Remember, Sophia, the only reason Jerry married you was for the inheritance, I am the woman he really loves,”
There it was again. Another remembrance of how thoroughly Jerry had played me.
Kate must have seen the pain flash across my face because her smile broadened and she leaned in with a whisper, her left hand cradling her baby bump.
“And throughout the five years of your marriage, Jerry has been in my arms, not yours.”
My chest burned and my vision went red for a second. I was so angry and pained in that moment that if not for the fact that Kate was pregnant, I might have hit her.
Yes, I saw her with Jerry on the day of our wedding. I don’t think I could ever forget that moment even if I tried but less than a week after the wedding, Jerry had broken things off with her rather loudly before forbidding the security personnel and staff from letting her into the house.
Jerry and I might not have had a true marriage initially but I had felt that he at least respected the sanctity of the marriage.
That was one of the reasons I had hoped after our night together that we could be something more.
But now, now I looked back at everything and saw what a fool I had been. All those impromptu meetings and crises at the company that made Jerry stay out late must have been his alibi to see Kate.
I crouched and picked up my box. I had heard enough. I didn’t want to stay in this room I had shared with Jerry one minute more.
I was almost out of the room when Kate latched on to my arm stopping me.
“This isn’t how it works, Sophia,” She said caustically. “I decide when this conversation is over. Not you.”
I looked from her hand on my arm to the rising indignation in her baby blue eyes and I just felt tired.
“This conversation is over, Kate.”
I shook away her grasp on my shoulder so that I would leave.
Kate let go of my hand only to smirk at me then fall to the ground with a loud piercing scream.
I watched her wide eyes and for a moment, I was extremely confused.
“What are you doing?”
Kate continued to scream.
Barely a few minutes had passed when Jerry ran into the room shoving me aside in the process to get to Kate.
He gathered her into his arms and Kate buried her face in his chest clutching his shirt with a heart rendering sob.
“Jerry, I’m so scared,” She cried then she cradled her belly meeting Jerry’s worried gaze manipulatively. “She wants to kill our baby.”
What? What was Kate talking about?
Jerry stood up leaving Kate, his cold furious gaze focused on me making me almost back away involuntarily.
“What? I never-” I tried to defend myself but faster than I could speak, Jerry grabbed my box out of my hand and took my arm roughly with his other free hand then he proceeded to drag me out of the room and the Baxter house.
Once we were out of the house, Jerry flung my box at me nearly hitting my stomach in the process.
“Get out and I don’t want to see you here ever again,” He said pointing at the gates then his gaze turned angrier. “And if you threaten the life of my child and fiance again, I’ll have you locked up for the rest of your miserable life.”
For a moment, all I could do was look at him, my lips unable to form words as tears gathered unbidden in my eyes.
His baby and his fiancee.
This was the first time since his revelation of the truth that we were alone. This should have been the moment I gouged out his eyes for his betrayal but I couldn’t.
“What did I ever do to you?” I asked instead, my voice quivering ever so lightly.
For a moment, Jerry seemed taken aback, his eyes flaring wide before a sneer replaced his surprise faster than I could blink.
“What did you do? You mean apart from forcing me into marrying you by sexually manipulating my grandfather?”
“You know that is a lie,” I shook my head. “You know you were my first.”
With the intensity of the silence that followed, someone might have thought I dropped a bomb instead of stating the truth about what had happened between us just two nights ago.
He knew I had been a virgin when he pushed into me that night. When he had held me close to himself like I mattered, whispering sweet nothings into my ear as we made love.
“That was a mistake,” Jerry said finally, his eyes anywhere but on me as he spoke. “But I am ready to compensate you for it.”
Compensate me? What the hell did that mean?
He pulled out his checkbook from his back pocket and scribbled something before tearing out a check, forcing my hand open and slapping the check onto my palm.
I looked down at the check in my hand. It was a check for a million dollars.
“Take the money you’ve always wanted and get out of my life.” Jerry said, his arrogance back as he looked down on me like I was vermin.
Looking at the check that was supposed to pay for my virginity and the man who had shattered the heart I hadn’t even been aware that I had given him and I just snapped.
I closed the distance between Jerry and me.
“You. Are. An. Asshole.” I said punctuating each word with a stab of my index finger to his chest.
Jerry gave me a look that would have once cowed me into silence but I was too far gone now and nothing could stop me from speaking my mind for the first time in five years.
I had nothing left to lose.
“This marriage might not have been what you wanted, Jerry, but it wasn’t what I wanted either! I wanted to marry for love and not to an arrogant manchild like yourself who would be nobody without his grandfather’s money.”
“Sophia!” Jerry growled, his eyes flaring with anger as he grabbed my wrist harshly stopping me from hitting him.
“Don’t you dare shout at me!” I said, raising my voice back at him and shoving at his chest.
Jerry staggered back from the push more from shock than anything.
I looked at the check again and my anger rose uncontrollably.
I held the check up for him to see then I ripped it into pieces and let the air carry it away.
“I don’t need your money, Jerry Baxter.”
The lump in my throat was heavy and I could already feel the tears gathering in my eyes again but I refused to let it fall.
Jerry Baxter would never have the pleasure of seeing me break down again.
I looked at my ex-husband.
“You hurt me, Jerry. You used me just to get your inheritance and humiliated me at our wedding anniversary. I won’t forget this and I promise that one day, I will repay you a hundredfold even if it’s the last thing I do.”
Then I picked up my box and walked out of the gates of the Baxter mansion.
You know some moments that reverberate through you like with one word you have changed fate.
That was that moment for me.