"Is this what you wanted?" He sneers, eyes cold and unforgiving. It was as if I was looking into the eyes of a stranger. He looks down on me due to his tall stature. "To be the 'pathetic' whiny burden you have always been?" I flinch at his words. No, this cannot be, this cannot be happening. This is not my Nate, my Nathaniel. I struggle to maintain my composure. My breath came in shallow, ragged gasps, each one a painful reminder of the betrayal that had brought me to this breaking point. ********* At just five years old, she was abducted and replaced to protect her family's reputation, as it would have been scandalous for her influential father to have a kidnapped child. Returning home, she felt like a stranger in a place where her parents had long forgotten their love for her. Nate her husband, was her knight in shining armor... or so she thought. Betrayed and left to die by the people she trusted. What happens when life gives her and her unborn child a second chance?
Chapter 1 Lost Fight
"How could you do this to me?" I whispered, my voice barely audible over the roar of the stormy rain outside. The cold, metallic taste of betrayal placed at the tip of my tongue. My words felt hollow, swallowed by the endless void of silence that hung between us. I searched his eyes, hoping for a glimpse of the man I once knew, but all I found was emptiness.
"WHY???" This time I scream at the top of my lungs, my heart beating frantically against my ribcage. His silence was infuriating me. "Answer me, Nate," I demanded, my voice cracking under the weight of my anguish. I could feel the desperation clawing at my throat, threatening to choke me if he didn't speak.
He clutches the champagne flute in his right hand, swirling it lazily as he takes sips without a care in the world. The arrogance in his posture made my skin crawl. Meanwhile, I'm left ranting like a madwoman. But indeed, I am mad... I am a woman in love, madly in love, and it's driving me to the edge.
"Say something!" I plead, taking a shaky step toward him. My voice is barely above a whisper, but it carries the weight of my shattered heart. "Nate, please... say something."
His lips curl into a smirk, as if my suffering was a source of entertainment for him. "And what exactly do you want me to say?" he finally speaks, his tone dripping with disdain. "That I'm sorry? That I made a mistake?"
"You bitch!" I charge towards Claire, my fury urging me forward, but that's when I finally gain a reaction from him. He stands up abruptly, grabbing my hand in a vice-like grip.
He twists it painfully and hisses, "Don't you dare." His voice is low, almost a growl, sending chills down my spine.
"Oh, Wow!" I scoff in disbelief. "Don't I dare what, Nathaniel?" I sneer back, my voice laced with bitterness. "Protect myself? Fight for what's mine?" I try to pull my hand free, but his grip tightens, sending a sharp pain up my arm.
"Is this what you wanted?" He sneers, eyes cold and unforgiving. It was as if I was looking into the eyes of a stranger. He looks down on me due to his tall statue. "To be the 'pathetic' whiny burden you have always been?"
I flinch at his words. No, this cannot be, this cannot be happening. This is not my Nate, my Nathaniel. I struggle to maintain my composure. My breath came in shallow, ragged gasps, each one a painful reminder of the betrayal that had brought me to this breaking point.
Beside him, Claire's laughter was a harsh, mocking sound that cut through the room like shards of glass. "Oh, look at you still playing the victim. You were always so weak, so useless."
With my mouth agape, I couldn't believe what was unfolding right before my eyes. My Nate doing nothing to defend me, the woman he claims he loves. Am I in a simulation, or was this a sick prank?
"I always knew something was off," I choke, my voice trembling. "The way you stopped asking about my day, the way you stopped looking at me like I was the only girl that mattered in the world, The way you snapped at me for the smallest things. I thought... I thought it was stress."
I inhaled as much as I could. "...The day I stopped feeling loved by you. I should've known. I thought maybe I was being too sensitive. But never, never did I imagine... I would live to see the day you would stop loving me."
Claire narrows her eyes at me. "You were always an outsider, pretending to be something you're not. We never wanted you here, don't you get it through your thick, shallow skull? YOU ARE NOTHING." Her words were like venom, seeping into my veins, poisoning every memory I had of the life I thought we shared.
I laughed out loud like a maniac, "Can you listen to her, Nate? Where are the cameras?... , yeah you got me, cut!!" I am delusional enough to believe this was a prank. I scan the room desperately, searching for any sign of this being a joke, but there's nothing. Just their cold, unsympathetic stares.
Instead, he steps closer, his breath warm against my face. "You were a burden from the start. Annoying, whiny, and always in the way. You think you're special, but you are just a poor imitation of what I truly wanted."
I always had a gut feeling that something was wrong. The way he grew distant, barely acknowledging my presence. The coldness in his eyes whenever I tried to reach out, the annoyance in his voice when I spoke. I had suspected an affair, but never in my darkest fears had I imagined it would be my own sister. They say, never undermine a woman's intuitions, and that is exactly what I did. I doubted myself.
And now that I was faced with the truth of their deception, it felt like a suffocating blanket thrown over me. I was nothing more than a pawn in their twisted game, discarded when I no longer served a purpose.
"Get out!" Claire spits, her voice dripping with hatred. "You're nothing, Just a shadow that doesn't belong here."
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