1: MCPEW 001: DIVORCE

MCPEW 001: DIVORCE

"I want a divorce, Phoenix." I gazed disbelievingly at Ace, the love of my life, my husband of five long years.  2

'Please Lord, let this be a nightmare.' I mumbled under my breath with my eyes firmly closed, ignoring the splitting pain in my chest. Praying in silence that when I open my eyes, the nightmare will be over. 

But it seems the heavens have failed to grant my pleas. I opened my eyes and found myself still seated across my heartless husband. A stone-cold expression was plastered on his face. Unimaginable pain clutched my heart, and my breathing stopped as our eyes met.

My fingers trembled, and I slowly had to let go of the glass of champagne I was holding in my hand. It suddenly felt so heavy. I decided to let some time pass in silence, hoping that it was a joke or that he would change his mind. But my husband's expression remained cold and distant, making me feel worse inside. 

We shared five years of marriage and yet he looked at me like a total stranger—not the same woman he vowed to love for the rest of his life in front of the altar.

I longed to hear him say that the words he'd just spoken were false, just an April Fool's joke he wanted to play on me. But his face showed no sign of humor, his lips were not stretched into his customary wide boyish grin that I loved. That's how I knew that this time, my greatest fear had finally come to life.

My throat went dry as we continued to stare at each other. Trying to quench my thirst, I picked up my glass of champagne, but my fingers fumbled when they touched the glass. To my horror, I accidentally knocked it over. 

The champagne spilled all over the cream-colored tablecloth before I was able to pick it up. The glass was now empty—just like how hollow I feel deep inside. 

My eyes landed on the mess I made on the table cloth. If I could only see how the blood flowed from my wounded heart, it would have made a huge red stain on the tablecloth, similar to the spilled champagne.

"Why Ace…. Am I not enough?" I said the words aloud and without a trace of fear or panic showing on my face. I was extraordinarily calm when a normal wife would be furiously sobbing at the mere mention of divorce from her beloved husband.

"You're not the problem, it's me. I'm sorry I fell out of love." He replied rather calmly. I couldn't help but wonder if he even shared my pain, when he couldn't even show a speck of sympathy. 

Faint embers of regret crossed his sad, tired eyes. Silently, I died inside. He regretted our marriage and it hurt so bad that he did. 

The tightening in my chest worsened. This time I had difficulty breathing. The knife stabbing my heart intensified.

After sacrificing my dreams to make him happy, he broke my heart into thousands of shards in return. The damage had been done, my irreparable heart was beyond salvation. 

Seeing how lightly he was taking this break up further twisted my fragile heart. He showed no pain as he bid me goodbye, making me wonder if he ever truly loved me. 

"Why Ace?" I asked for the second time, demanding the truth from him. 

"I want a child, Phoenix. As my wife, you failed to bear me a son. You can't fulfill the responsibility of providing me an heir so I have no further reason to stay in this marriage."

His sharp words pierced straight to my heart. For a moment, I was speechless. 

If only Vien, our daughter, didn't die from that accident then this would never have happened. But that tragedy already claimed my daughter's life. Even if I wished I was the one who died that night, it will never change that truth that she's gone forever. 

And though I tried to have another child, I failed. But Ace shouldn't put all the blame on my shoulders, it wasn't entirely my fault. 

"Can't you see I'm doing my best, Ace?" The words came out of my lips in a barely audible whisper. "Don't you see how difficult it was for me too? I go to regular check-ups, undergo strict diets, and obediently follow all my doctor's advice. Even if sometimes it was difficult to follow those strict demands, and even if I was afraid of the pain from the injection needles, I kept my mouth shut and never did I complain. I did all that because I love you." 

The lengthy reproach I shot him sent me on the verge of tears, but he just looked at me with his cold, vacant eyes, without even bothering to fake sympathy for the sake of our long marriage. 

I shook my head and closed my eyes, refusing to cry or break down in public. Even if it was getting harder to do so after every passing second, I had to maintain my composure. Everyone inside the restaurant was looking at our table and I didn't want to create a scene in front of a huge crowd. 

One huge mistake and I'll end up as tomorrow's sizzling headline. My life was already complicated enough, I didn't want to add more burden to my miserable life by announcing to the world I was Mr. CEO's secret wife. 

Only a few people—including my co-workers at Greyson's business hotel—knew about my marriage to him. If the public knew a billionaire like him married a lowly hotel staff, it would have caused a huge scandal. 

Ace Carter Grayson, the man sitting like a demigod on the opposite chair in front of me, was a notorious playboy, gracing the front cover of illustrious magazines all over the country. Well-known in the business world, he came from an influential family and every soul in the country knew about his existence. 

He was perfect on all fronts, the exact description of every girl's dream husband, but to me—Ace was now my worst nightmare. 

I wanted to save my marriage, but how could I, when my husband didn't care about it?

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