“I accept your offer.” I said coldly, the air sharp with finality. “I will disappear from Alexander Hamilton’s life forever… and marry the Stone heir instead.”
The diamond wedding ring clattered onto the mahogany table like a final nail in a coffin.
Across the lavishly furnished drawing room, Frederick Winslet, my biological father froze mid-sip of his tea.
“You… what?” he rasped, voice filled with disbelief.
“I said I will marry the Stone heir who is on his deathbed.” I repeated, meeting his stunned gaze. “The forced engagement meant for your beloved daughter Stephanie? I will take it instead.”
Three years as Alexander Hamilton’s secretary. Three years as his hidden wife. And one month ago my entire life fell apart.
Kidnapped on my way home from work, I was kept in a windowless warehouse for four days screaming myself hoarse.
My wrists torn raw from the nylon that chewed through flesh. I heard them calling Alexander. Twenty-seven times.
Not once did he bother to answer.
Eventually, one of the men laughed, holding the phone out on speaker. A woman’s voice came chuckling: “The boss has better things to worry about. Try someone who gives a damn.”
They left me there after that.
I don’t remember how I was found. The police said I had been unconscious.
A week of starvation, a day away from death.
When I was wheeled into the hospital, I kept asking for my husband but he never came.
Instead, I saw the tabloids the next morning:
[Love in air: Alexander Hamilton photographed with childhood sweetheart Stephanie Winslet leaving a private resort in the Bali.]
And just like that, the illusion I had wrapped around my life disintegrated.
While I was suffering, my husband was with his secret lover, my ‘sister’ Stephanie.
The girl who was swapped with me at birth.
After spending sixteen years in countryside with my poor grandmother, it was discovered that I was the biological daughter of the Winslet household.
‘We cannot let go of the daughter we have raised for sixteen years. Unlike you Stephanie is fragile Lavina. Now that you are staying with us don't covet what is not meant for you.’
That was the first thing they told me while looking at me like I was a blemish on their legacy.
“I know you don’t want Stephanie to marry a dying man but you also need Stone Corporation’s help to sustain your business. Well, congratulations. Your unwanted daughter will do it instead.”
Eerie silence swallowed the room.
Frederick Winslet stared at me. My biological mother said nothing, her face morphed in shock.
I stood up slowly, gathering the last shreds of dignity I had left.
“In return.” I said coldly “Erase me from the Winslet family. No name, no inheritance. Pretend I was never born.”
And for Alexander...the man I once called husband...I had one final gift.
Divorce and freedom.
——
The Hamilton villa was unusually quiet when I stepped in.
Walking inside with cautious steps I breathed shakily at the sight infront of me- an intimate candle light dinner straight out of my dreams.
Was this… for me?
Then I heard his voice.
“I get it, Stephanie. It’s alright if you can’t come this time.”
“Don’t worry baby. I messed up most of the recipes anyway so how can I let you taste such awful food. Lavina will be home soon so the food won’t go to waste.”
I stood there frozen, tears stinging before I could stop them.
I stepped forward slowly, quietly as if I didn’t already know I didn’t belong in this scene.
Alexander turned around taken aback by my presence before a scowl formed on his lips. “Lavina why are you so late? If someone sees you working like this, they might think you work more than me, the CEO.
“Was just... finalizing some deals.”
“Whatever…You always say I don’t try enough.” he added. “So I wanted to surprise you this time with a .”
Bile rose my throat and I didn’t answer. Couldn’t.
My gaze drifted to the roses too beautiful, they looked just like my wedding bouquet.
Too much like it.
Maybe that was why my fingers trembled as they brushed the petals, trying to pretend, to believe, just for a second, that it was all meant for me.
Slap
My hand recoiled instantly as a sharp sound echoed throughout the manor.
Pain stung across my knuckles making me recoil in shock like I was burned.
Alexander had slapped my hand away so hard that red bruises started to appear instantly, I stared at my husband of three years in horror making his face drop, stunned.
“Lavina…” His voice was low, cautious, as if unsure what he had just done. “I didn’t mean… I wasn’t thinking right okay……You know I don’t like people touching my things…”
His eyes darted to my hand as he hurried inside to bring a first-aid box.
“I was just worried that you would ruin the arrangement I spent hours preparing…” he trailed off, his words dying somewhere between excuse and guilt as he tended to the wound while I sat frozen.
He picked up the bouquet, thrusting it toward me as he was done. “Here, you can have them.”
“It’s alright." I spoke trembling.
“Forget it alright. Didn’t you always complain to have a dinner with me, today is your day.”
With that various dishes were piled in my plate like I wasn’t a human but a feeding pig that he wanted to use to throw off the waste while he just took a few bites for himself.
I remembered it clearly when we were newly married, I had once playfully stolen a bite from his plate. He hadn’t said a word to me then.
Instead, he called the butler over and said coldly ‘Throw it all out. It is contaminated now.’
Since that day, I never ate beside him again and now that I was leaving, there was no point in starting.
“I am not hungry, I just want to sleep.”
The atmosphere turned ice as Alexander’s smile froze.
“I did so much for you and you are still throwing a tantrum, for god’s sake Lavina it was an accident-“
“And I will forgive you if you just sign these documents.”
My voice was quiet…too quiet. calm, decceptively so.
Alexander’s brows furrowed as I slid a document across the table.
“What is this?”
“Just some formalities.” I said, forcing my gaze away from him. “For the future.”
“As my secretary can’t you just handle this yourself instead of bothering me. This is ruining my mood.”
It was at this moment his phone buzzed.
Stephanie.
The name flashed bold and bright across the screen. His face lit up instantly, as if something inside him clicked back into place.
Moving away from my eyes he answered without hesitation.
“Yes. I am still at the villa, I was just waiting for you. No, no problem… give me five minutes.”
I watched him.
Watched the man I married, casually walk past the remnants of the dinner he claimed to make for me, walk past the bruises still blooming faintly on my hand and pick up a pen.
“I will sign whatever you want.” he said, not even glancing at the pages. “Just don’t stay mad, okay?”
His signature scrawled across the bottom of the last page like the final cut of a blade. Sharp. Irrevocable.
He set the pen down and reached for his coat. “We will talk later, Lavina. This is urgent so just eat by yourself and go to bed..I would be late.”
Then he left.
Just like that.
No questions.
No goodbyes.
The door shut behind him, soft but final. A silence bloomed around me so loud it rang in my ears.
My gaze drifted to the folder.
[Final Decree of Divorce]
He didn’t even read the title.
And I… didn’t stop him.
As soon as I clicked the photo of the divorce agreement and sent it to a number, a message instantly beeped on my phone.
[Damien Stone: Now that you have agreed to marry me. One month from now, I will come to claim what belongs to me.]
Chapter 2
The next morning when I arrived at the Hamilton Enterprises, the office felt colder than usual.
“Lavina” Alexander’s commanding voice ordered me from inside our joint glass cabin, cold and detached like he was the boss and I was a mere employee, like he wasn’t the man who had once kissed me, held me in his arms.
When I stepped inside he didn’t bother to look up from his phone or ask me to sit.
“Close the door.” Only then did he lift his eyes. Cold unreadable.
“Lavina, I will keep this brief.” he said, standing with a rigidness that made the room feel even smaller.
"People are starting to talk and frankly, I can’t afford to have my reputation dragged down by you. As of this moment, you are fired from your secretary position. Don't bother showing up at this head office again. Starting tomorrow, you will report to a different branch...far away from here."
He paused looking at me with distant eyes.
“Stephanie will take over as my secretary.”
The atmosphere chilled as I stood frozen without being able to utter a single word.
His words felt like a dagger was being pushed in my heart.
This was the firm I helped Alexander build from scratch.
When the lead investor laughed at his pitch, I chased the old man in a torrential downpour. For Alexander to have one more chance for presentation I worked as a free slave in the inverstor’s company for one long year, ran errands for him like a dog and kneeled infront of his office for an entire night, just for one single chance.
I never asked for credit and neither claimed any shares when the company went successful, instead I worked five shifts a day for three years without a break, even when I was sick I refused to take rest, all because I wanted to lesson my husband’s burdens.
And yet he did not even think twice before throwing me away.
At one time I felt he kept our marriage secret to keep me safe from jealous slanders from media houses but only now I understood, he never felt any emotion for me in the first place. Alexander’s love has always belonged to Stephanie.
“Lavina…you have enough experience to work anywhere but think about your sister, Stephanie is fragile and her husband just died so she needs support, in return I will-”
“Alright.”
The room stilled.
The rehearsed excuse crumbled mid-air.
“That’s all? Aren’t you mad?” Alexander blinked somewhat taken aback.
His hand tightened around the velvet box in his hold that he meticulously prepared.
Last night he had ordered a customised diamond pendant with our initials on it, a present to lessen the blow, like a bone to the dog.
“If that is all, I will take my leave.”
“Lavina…what do you mean? Aren't you going to ask me anything?”
He expected me to cry and beg to remain by his side, to be angry that I was being sacked and my calmness made him open his mouth in protest.
At that moment the door burst open without a knock.
“Alex! I have sorted your documents, do you need me to bring anything else… Oh! Sister Lavina?”
Stephanie’s voice rang with artificial sweetness, all doe-eyed innocence as she stepped inside, oversized bag swinging.
CRASH
The sound was piercing.
A music box with a ballerina kept on my smaller desk hit the floor and splintered open. A soft, broken melody spilled out before dying.
My breath caught in my throat as I looked at the broken porcelain doll on the ground.
The one Alexander and I had made in a pottery class together after I had a miscarriage. It had a hidden compartment, holding the sonogram picture of the child we never got to meet.
“Sister, I am so sorry, it was an accident..please don’t be mad-” Stephanie gasped fake tears escaping her eyes as Alexander rushed to her side.
“Why would she be mad at all?!” Alexander intervened.
“Lavina, why do you keep such useless junk by your side, what if Stephanie got hurt?!”
Useless junk?
The only thing that made me survive depression as I grieved the child I miscarried while Alexander returned to work the next day was junk?
I sank to the floor, hands trembling slightly as I picked up the cracked porcelain. One jagged edge sliced into my finger cutting deep.
Blood dribbled down but Alexander did not see me.
“Steph, you are cut.” Alexander whispered, lifting her hand to examine a small scratch on her wrist. “Come. Let’s clean this up.”
He didn’t take a second look at me.
Didn’t notice the blood running down my fingers.
He walked out, his hand on Stephanie’s back like she was a fragile doll made of glass. The door closed gently behind them.
I remained, sitting on the cold marble floor, the broken music box clutched against my chest , my blood soaked into a tissue and slowly I packed all my things, throwing away the unwanted memories.
The old plane ticket to Santorini Greece, where he first said I love you. Torn in half.
The rare Swiss watch I bought him? Still in my drawer. I left it, unworn and unwanted.
And everything else…all gone.
When Alexander returned fifteen minutes later, the cabin was hollow.
No faint perfume in the air. No messy post-its on the edge of the desk. No hum of my laptop screen.
Even the little cactus he used to tease me about vanished.
Just one thing remained.
A faint smear of blood near the leg of his desk.
He stared at it, still and speechless.
He stepped back, something rattling inside him.
Just as he turned to leave, I opened the door to retrieve the documents.
“Lavina wait!”
I paused, looking over my shoulder.
“This is temporary Lavina, this isn’t permanent. When the rumours die down…I will bring you back.” My lips curved and yet the smile didn’t reach my eyes.
“I waited for you long enough…it doesn’t matters.”
For my parents Stephanie was their beloved princess and for Alexander she was his one and only priority. Even when she choose someone else over him, he still hadn’t let go of her.
No matter how much I tried the outcome would not change.
I was about to leave when Alexander called me.
"Lavina...wait, there is an auction tonight and the organizers invited me." I was about to refuse, but he cut me off.
“You are still my subordinate. I can’t show up at something like that event without one.”
Alexander’s pressurizing gaze said that he would not listen to a ‘No.'
At last I just nodded recalling Damien message from last night.
In a month I was going to leave eitherways.
“Of course” I said coolly, voice devoid of emotion. “One last task.”
Chapter 3
The VIP section of the auction lounge glittered with beautiful gold chandeliers.
Just as the host requested, I arrived an hour ago to submit the ‘extravagant’ items that Hamilton Enterprises will put on auction for kids fundraiser.
But as soon I stepped closer to the semi-private area marked “Elite Access Only” familiar voices sounded behind the small crack in the door.
Alexander and his childhood friends. The men I had cooked for, laughed with, served wine to like they were my own brothers laughed like wolves encircling a prey.
“Now that Stephanie’s back in the picture, you are finally free Alexander.” one said amused.
Another chimed in curiously “But what are you going to do with Lavina now?
She is decent, sure, but come on. Between her and Stephanie? One is the Winslet family’s beloved heiress, and the other…” A chuckle. “Just a plain, awkward secretary who got lucky.”
The words sliced through the door and straight into my chest.
I remembered how Alexander had smiled that day....introducing me as the ‘humble girl from a poor village’ ,claiming his friends disliked arrogance.
But now I knew.
He wasn’t protecting me.
He was hiding my identity so that his Stephanie could stay in spotlight.
“And infertile too, isn’t she?” someone added casually. “Didn’t she miscarry once and fail IVF procedures like four times? You will be an idiot to bet your legacy on a faulty woman like her.”
The silence that followed felt like a noose tightening around my throat. The words cut deeper than knife making it harder to breathe.
Alexander didn’t mind their words.
Instead, he spoke.
“It is not Lavina’s fault, she has been a good placeholder.” he said at last, tone disturbingly calm. “But in the end that is all she is. I cannot let a substitute carry my seed.”
The world tilted beneath my feet.
“The first time I got Lavina pregnant was a pure mistake and I was unsure, but then she miscarried.
I was sad but truth to be told I never meant to have a child with her. Didn’t want to take any chances so I started giving her strong contraceptives secretly.
Only with that I didn’t mind her making a fuss about going through various fertility procedures knowing that nothing will succeed in the end.”
My heart stilled.
And then it hit me.
The bitter tablets I used to gag on. The ones he insisted I swallow. The ones he claimed would ‘keep me healthy.’
Each time I went through the painful fertility process, Alexander gave me hope… hope that I could be a mother knowing completely well that it was him at the end who would make me feel despair that was worse than death.
‘We will try again, when you're stronger.’ He said each time embracing me tightly.
“Man, you knew how much your mother despised Lavina for having a faulty womb and you still made her go through that because of Stephanie…at this point I feel pity for her.”
“I only married Lavina because my grandfather insisted.” Alexander continued, laughing bitterly. “He loved Lavina’s purity. I didn’t even have a say.”
“Stephanie is everything I ever wanted.”
That was it.
That was the moment.
I turned and ran away. My tears blurred everything as I clutched my mouth hard to stop the sobs as I held storm in.
I couldn’t cry here. Not where the walls might echo it back.
I didn’t realize how long it was when my phone buzzed.
[ALEXANDER: Where are you? Get back up here. Hurry.]
I stared at the screen through tears, a bitter smile ghosting my lips.
Of course.
Even now, he thought he could summon me like a trained pet.
With my heart completely shattered I called the butler at Alexander’s home.
“Bring me all the items inside my safe now.”
Wiping off my tears I strode inside calmly as if nothing had transpired, as if my heart wasn’t split in half.
The auction hall was filled with elite CEOs all over the city. Flashlights glimmered the moment Alexander arrived with Stephanie beside him.
“Lavina, you are here.”
I looked at them without a word as the press swarmed around us.
“Mr. Hamilton!” a reporter yelled, shoving her mic over the velvet rope. “Is it true you made Miss Lavina resign from the company today?”
“Mr. Hamilton, is your personal assistant also your romantic partner? The rumors…are they true?”
More microphones. More cameras flashing.
Stephanie’s hold on Alexander’s arm tightened as her eyes glared daggers at me.
But before Alexander could coldly deny any sort of connection I stepped in.
“There has been a misunderstanding.” I said coolly, my voice slicing through the chaos making everyone quieten down instantly. “There is absolutely no personal relationship between Mr. Hamilton and me.”
“Mr. Hamilton is the CEO of Hamilton Enterprises.” I said, voice unwavering. “And I was a company employee. Nothing more nothing less.
I can resign any time, and it is be no different than an intern walking out. Infact, I have almost finalized a deal with another business tycoon to work for them.” A gasp ran through the crowd as Alexander froze in his place.
His jaw tensed as he looked at me, the faintest flicker of panic crossing his expression but he couldn’t interrupt without confirming the chaos.
One reporter, bolder than the rest, pushed forward with several photographs of a couple ring from Paris.
“Are you saying everything is false? That you didn’t got secretly married three years ago and that you are not his wife when the ring you never take off is a commissioned couple set of rings from the most famous designer in Paris- the male version of which Mr.Alexander is still wearing now-”
“But do you see me wearing that ring?” I said quietly before raising my fingers for everyone to see and no wedding ring was there.
The hush was suffocating.
Alexander took a step towards me, face unreadable remembering my smiling face as I vowed to never take off the ring: the symbol of our unbreakable bond.
Then I reached into my bag, pulled out a glossy folder, and handed it to the nearest reporter.
“Here’s a notarized statement from the Paris registrar. No record of marriage between Alexander Hamilton and Lavina. Infact I am already promised to another man.”
Gasps rippled through the press like electricity.
Alexander stepped forward, lips parting but the loud chime of the auction bell cut him off.
Perfect timing.
Chapter 4
The grand hall fell into a hush as the auctioneer stepped onto the gilded podium, announcing loudly.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we begin tonight’s event with a priceless piece donated by Hamilton Enterprises.”
The velvet box opened under the spotlight.
Gasps echoed.
An emerald necklace deep, vivid green like wild forest after rain. Raw and captivating.
Alexander's smile froze, he could recognize that jewelry anywhere afterall he had chosen the emeralds himself saying that they matched my eyes…eyes that once looked at him like he was my whole world.
Now they glinted coldly beneath auction lights.
Stephanie leaned in eagerly. “It’s stunning! Who owned it, Alex? I want it.”
Before he could respond, she raised her paddle, bidding like a woman obsessed.
The gavel dropped.
Sold.
Another box. The second item: a limited-edition diamond wristwatch. I had given it to him on his 30th birthday…the first year he forgot mine and yet I never said a word. Just smiled and wrapped it around his wrist.
Sold.
The third: a vintage brooch inlaid with rare rubies. Passed down from Alexander’s grandmother, gifted to me when I became his wife. It was the only heirloom I had ever received.
Sold.
Each memoryladen piece sold off like it was scrap metal. And I stood beside Alexander, composed like he wanted me to…just as his secretary.
Alexander turned sharply towards me, completely ignoring the eyes, the murmurs and the cameras altogether.
“Lavina....that...that necklace was your favorite, you bawled your eyes when it was merely scratched then how could you just give it away? Don't you remember thatit was my gift to you on our wedding night?”
He watched in horror as the necklace was brought to Stephanie and even though he gifted her more expensive things…this one necklace of mine around his mistress’s neck felt…wrong.
“All I did…” I said, my voice low “..was enhance your public image. Kept your reputation spotless without costing you a dime. Isn’t that what you always wanted, Alexander?”
Picking up a glass of red wine from a nearby tray I raised it in the air.
“Cheers to Mr Hamilton!”
The crowd erupted in applause, raising their glasses.
Alexander didn’t move. His eyes locked on mine…his heart feeling unfathomable.
Then he turned away, swallowed by a sea of powerful men and fake laughter.
I downed the wine in one sharp gulp and walked out, the applause echoing behind me like cruel laughter.
The hallway was dim but as I turned the corner, I froze.
Stephanie.
I stilled, blood draining from my face when she smiled...that same cruel smile from when we were children.
When she shoved me headfirst into the pond until I nearly drowned.
When she pushed me down the stairs and framed me as a liar infront of the Winslet family.
Then came the shove.
I stumbled backward into the freezing cold storage room. The heavy door slamming shut.
“Tonight was mine!” She sneered “But you stole the spotlight my spotlight? So here..have your moment..alone, in the dark while I toast champagne with your husband.”
“Stephanie, you are insane!” I pounded on the door. “Let me out!”
“No one’s coming, You thought auctioning off those trinkets would make Alex pity you? Feel guilty?"
"I don’t care about Alexander! You can have him!”
“Oh, I will.” she purred, voice laced with poison. “But really, thank you. While I was groaning under silk sheets in Paris with your husband, you were busy playing housemaid scrubbing Alexander’s mess, building his empire from the dirt."
“You shameless snake! If anything, you are the other woman. The mistress!”
“Mistress?” she laughed. “I was his first. His everything. He lost his virginity to me, Lavina. And when you were miscarrying? I told him I had the flu, and he left you in the hospital to hold me through the night in Paris.”
My heart sank as miserable tears threatened to escape my eyes. Stephanie laughed at my stunned silence before she turned and walked away, her heels echoing, her last word hanging in the air:
“Enjoy the cold, sis.”
The auction ended and Alexander with a stomach full of anger waited for me to show up.
“Alex sister was too angry with me, I messed up big-“
“You messed up? It is her who has been throwing a tantrum just because I sacked her off! Let her be if this is what she wants!
Let me see how many days can she live without me!” With that Alexander left with Stephanie.
I pulled out my phone, fingers trembling…no signal.
Time blurred as I lost the feeling in my body and my body swayed before collapsing.
But just before everything faded, the door burst open with a loud, violent crash.
“Clear the way! MOVE!”
I couldn’t lift my head, but I caught the deep voices, the urgency in their steps and the sharp command that silenced everyone.
Men in a dark suit threw a coat over me while paramedics rescued me. "Ms. Winslet please hold on!"
Hours later I woke up to my hand attached to an IV drip.
A familiar doctor who was attending to me for the past three years for fertility treatments appeared by my side slong with others.
“Miss Lavina you are lucky.
Master Damien was deathly sick yesterday but when you did not answer your phone, he forced us to stop his treatment and go search for you instead. Even a moment of delay and your life could have been in danger. Or both of you wouldn’t have made it.” I could not speak due to astonishment before a single word registered in my mind.
"Both?" I asked making the fertility specialist smile.
“Yes, you and your baby. Congratulations Madam, you have finally conceived. The IVF treatment that failed four times previously was successful.
Last night we found that you are five months pregnant.”
Chapter 5
After being discharged, I took a cab to Hamilton estate.
I stepped inside quietly, heading straight to the bedroom to pack what little still belonged to me when I heard the soft drag of fabric, followed by a low giggle echoing from inside.
Stephanie.Standing in front of the mirror wearing my wedding dress.
The pearl-laced wedding gown that my grandma stitched on her deathbed, her last blessing to me when she realized that the Winslet household did not care for me at all and I was working five jobs in a row to accumulate some money to buy the silk fabric.
And now?
It hung limp on her frame, the front ripped open. She was using her hands to hold it together, her fingers curling into the delicate fabric like claws.
“Oh, here you are sister.” she beamed, twirling. “I was hoping you would have died but here you are, well guess what happened last night.”
My body stiffened. I already knew I wouldn’t like the answer.
She stepped closer, dragging the ruined hem across the floor. “Alexander took me to the rooftop suite of your favourite hotel. The one where you spent your last birthday alone in?” Her voice dripped with mock sweetness.
“He took me to your private suite with the balcony view.”
My stomach twisted. That used to be our place….the place where we spent our wedding night.
“We left the curtains open.” she said, her eyes glinting. “I screamed his name loud enough for the staff to hear.”
I tried not to flinch.
“Alexander said I taste sweeter and tore the dress open while I was still wearing it.”
My vision blurred.
Stephanie pulled back the sleeve, exposing red-purple love bites scattered across her collarbone, her chest.
“It got a little wild when I told him I was ready to start a family. He didn’t even hesitate.” She smiled, slow and smug. “Who knows? I might already be carrying his child.”
My fingers curled into fists. I was shaking.
“You are disgusting!” I whispered.
She leaned in, tilting her head with mock concern.
“Funny. That is different from what your husband thinks when he pushes my body and enter me again and again trying to impregnate me. Maybe I will finally give him what you could never.”
My last of the reason snapped and I slapped her hard.
The sound cracked through the room like thunder making Stephanie stumble in shock before she fell down with the impact.
“You!”
“Lavina?”
Alexander’s voice echoed.
He stepped in, brows furrowed, taking in the scene: Stephanie half-naked in my destroyed wedding gown on the floor, me standing in the doorway.
But Stephanie didn’t miss a beat.
“I am sorry sister!” she choked out, tears springing instantly to her eyes. “I was modelling the dress for a campaign… I swear, I didn’t mean to damage it! It just… ripped!”
“I-I am your culprit, I was the one who snatched your parent’s love but please forgive give sister, love cannot be forced…I-I can’t do anything else except….” She paused tears tumbling down her cheeks. “except dying……yes, once I die, everything will be yours…”
She got up instantly, picking up a fruit-knife.
“Stop” Alexander growled, lunging forward and yanking it from her. She let out a cry, twisted in his grip and then suddenly darted toward the nearest wall like she meant to crack her skull open.
Alexander caught her just in time, arms locking around her waist. She collapsed into his chest, sobbing like some tragic heroine from a cheap romance.
“Stephanie” he said firmly “I invited you here as my guest. If anyone has a problem with you, they have a problem with me!”
I watched them with numbness spreading in my heart, Stephanie clinging to Alexander, him protecting her like some wounded bird and my lips curled into a bitter smile.
When he turned to me his voice was colder than ice.
“Lavina, apologize to her!”
I merely looked at him numbly “Apologize? Alexander aren’t you even curious where I was last night?”
“I don’t care!” he cut in sharply. “You don’t get to hurt Stephanie! If you don’t apologize right now, I will block all your cards and shift your room to the servant quarters!”
My heart lurched.
My child had nearly died.
Our child.
And Alexander was busy soothing his mistress.
“That should humble you Lavina.” he added cruelly. “maybe I have spoiled you too much.”
I didn’t say a word.
Because in that moment, I realized the truth.
He never saw me as a wife, I was a pet, a maid he kept out of conveinience.
He thought taking away the money would crush me.
What he didn’t know was I had already been poor. Starving. Forgotten.
I only stayed because I loved him. I gave him everything my time, my youth, my soul while building his empire with my blood.
“Shift her to the servant quarters and don’t let her eat until she apologizes.” Before leaving, Alexander ordered the servants coldly.
Just like that I became a villainess in their lovestory.
The moment Alexander walked away with Stephanie, my phone buzzed to life with an anonymous number.
"Where was he? While you were losing consciousness in a storage room, where was your husband Miss Winslet?" The sheer anger in the male's voice made me freeze for a moment before I realized that there was only one person who would be angry like this.
Damien Stone.
“He was with...her.” My throat burned as I whispered.
"I can’t stay away anymore.” he answered his voice barely restrained.
“How long?” I whispered.
He didn’t hesitate.
“One week that's all. After that, I come to take you home.”
"Alright."
Chapter 6
For days, I was a prisoner in my own home.
No locks. Just silence, and a house too large for a woman slowly unraveling.
Three times a day, the maid knocked. Her voice grew softer each time.
“Ma’am.” she whispered once through the door, almost trembling, “I know you did nothing wrong... Please eat something. Your hands are turning blue.”
But the head maid quickly intercepted, scolding harshly.
“You are not to disobey Mr. Alexander!” she snapped. “No meals until she apologizes.”
I never replied.
Only a few apples ever made it through. Slipped beneath my door in secret, wilted and cold yet I never once complained and ate them hungrily for the sake of my child.
Just sat by the window, wrapped in the same sweater I had worn since that night without a single blanket.
Counting backwards.
Three days have passed, four more days. Once the divorce agreement is approved by court I would leave. Burn every trace of this life behind me.
My phone never stopped buzzing.
Stephanie.
Her messages came like venom dressed in pearls each one designed to pierce.
On the morning I zipped my last bag, another message arrived.
[Stephanie: You never won our mothers, and you will never win Alex. One word from me, and he even forgot that you even exist.]
She was right.
Alexander never came home.
Not that night. Not the next.
But Stephanie made sure I saw him.
Every hour, a new video.
Him helping her into my favorite cashmere robe.
Him tying her hair into a ponytail in his farmhouse kitchen.
Him kissing her shoulder in bed.
Some clips were quieter and yet more sinister.
The way she filmed herself wearing his shirt, mouthing “I love you” before flipping the camera off with a wink.
Or the one where his voice whispered, off-screen “Steph if we have a daughter we will name her Hope, if it's a son Xavier.”
Once, I would have curled into my sheets and sobbed.
Now?
I just watched my reflection in the window, pale and calm as the morning sickness once again assaulted my senses and yet I slowly rubbed my belly calming down my child.
It was at that moment my phone buzzed with a message.
[ATTORNEY: “Congratulations! Miss Lavina not only your divorce is finalized but legally Alexander Hamilton is stripped off all his rights as a father, he will not have anything to do with the child in your womb.]
I wanted to be happy but tears tumbled my eyes as three years of marriage dissolved into dust. Cold bit through my sleeves as I walked towards the balcony, my hot breath coming in short pants fogging the air.
Each step I had taken to get there had felt heavier than the last.
My body ached from days without food, my legs trembling, head spinning with exhaustion.
But I needed air. I needed silence. I needed to feel something other than the bruising silence of that house.
And then.
A sudden crack ripped through the night.
Fireworks.
Loud. Violent and right above me making me startled.
I gasped and staggered back in panic making my heel caught on the uneven tile and just like that I fell hard.
A piercing pain ripped through my abdomen making me scream loudly.
My hands flew to my belly in terror.
I felt it. Warm. Wet. Spreading rapidly between my thighs.
The guards rushed forward, their faces finally shifting from apathy to alarm.
“Get the family doctor!”
A guard pulled out his phone to call Alexander.
“Sir! It’s Madam! She fell from the balcony, she’s bleeding badly. We need the doctor right away! Please-”
But before he could finish, Alexander’s voice cut in, sharp and cold through the speaker.
“I know her tricks damnit, this is just another act to avoid accepting her wrongdoings. Lavina is not to leave the house under any circumstance until she learns her place!”
The call disconnected.
The servant stared at the phone, stunned and ashamed.
I looked up at the CCTV camera at the balcony, tears of fury blurring my vision.
“I apologize!” I rasped, voice shaking as I clutched my stomach. “I am sorry for ever meeting you, for choosing a heartless man like you, for ever loving you Alexander Hamilton!”
Another firework exploded in the sky pink, then gold, then white.
Thousands of drones lit the sky at that moment in a formation.
[HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE] was wriiten in air.
A miserable tear dribbled down.
So today was the day I was exchange with Stephanie at the hospital….it was my birthday as well.
“My baby…just save my baby.” Those were the last words, the only 'gift' I begged for before I lost my consciousness completely.
“Madam.? Madam?!"
"Hurry! Her body’s going cold!” one cried. "We didn't knew but while everyone was starving her, miss Lavina was already pregnant!"
Chapter 7
I regained consciousness after three days with the doctor telling me that the entire country was turned upside down and the best doctos of the world were called to my rescue that night.
It was after eight hours of rigorous procedure that my child and I survive.
Tears welled in my eyes, but I blinked them away before they could fall.
While I was lying liflessly staring at the ceiling Alexander rushed inside my ward.
He stood there, breathless, eyes wide with panic. His coat was still damp from the drizzle outside, his hair slightly tousled like he had rushed the whole way.
Behind him, one of the guards looked conflicted, guilt twisting his features.
“Sir, madam lost so much blood-” the guard began, but I cut him off instantly, my voice low but firm.
“I fainted.” I said. “From exhaustion and malnutrition.”
Alexander’s steps faltered. His gaze dropped to the IV in my arm, to the dull darkness beneath my eyes, and the faint tinge of blue still clinging to my fingertips.
“You haven’t been eating?” He asked, voice soft.
“I wasn’t hungry.”
“Lavina all you had to do was just say sorry once, how was I supposed to know that it wasn’t just another tantrum?" He said his voice tinged with blame.
"You should have called me. I was in China and took the nearest available flight to reach here was in two days-”
“It doesn't matters...you were so busy so how could I bother you.” Taken aback by my response Alexander felt a tinge of guilt.
On the table beside me sat a small, clumsily arranged bunch of wildflowers. A ribbon tied around them awkwardly.
A maid had left them earlier with a note: Belated Happy Birthday ma'am.
Alexander followed my gaze, confusion crossing his features.
Then realization hit. His lips parted, and he looked stunned.
He forgot my birthday.
His face went pale.
Within the hour, the gifts began to arrive laced with guilt not love.
One by one.
He had clearly rushed the orders the moment he had found out. Expedited deliveries. Premium couriers. No expense spared.
A set of antique brushes for oil painting, a velvet case with a sapphire-studded pendant, just like the one I had admired in a magazine years ago but never bought.
A limited edition novel from my favorite author, signed, with a personal note scribbled inside from the writer.
They sat unopened at my bedside, untouched.
Alexander didn’t complain, instead poured soup from a flask into a bowl and brought the spoon to my lips. "Eat. You need strength.”
At this moment his phone buzzed with Stephanie's name on screen.
"What? I am coming." As soon as the phone hungup, Alexander stood keeping my food aside.
"Stephanie's dog has trouble in breathing, I need to go...just eat something and rest Lavina." He turned around and was about to leave when I held his sleeves with my trembling fingers.
"For the sake of being husband and wife for three years....for this one time can you stay beside me?"
"Lavina I..."He hesitated but as soon as another message beeped his tone sharpened. "Lavina..this is important. Just rest and regain your strength alright?" Alexander twisted his hand out of my hold and left without taking another glance.
A small miserable smile graced my features.
At the end he will always choose her above me.
Hours passed and my phone beeped with incoming messages.
[Damien- Lavina, this is Alexander Hamilton's real face]
I tapped onto the file and a video played showing 'Jules Selection', one of the most luxurious bridal boutique in the city. The kind I once dreamed of entering.
Stephanie stood in front of a full-length mirror, twirling in white lace and crystals with Alexander beside her.
[“Alex, I want this one.” she said, beaming.
“Ofcourse, choose whatever you love, we are going to get married aren't we.” he said. “Tomorrow is the family dinner hosted by grandfather and I will announce our wedding.]
My heart felt numb.
So it wasn't that her dog was sick, Alexander just needed an excuse to leave.
[But Alex...what about sister Lavina?" Alexander visibly flinched at the question before his jaw clenched.
"She will cry, obviously but honestly, I am done playing house with her. It is already getting a headache thinking about her tears at tommorow’s dinner but Stephanie the woman I truly love is you.”]
I didn’t sleep that night.
Not because of the monitors beeping softly beside me but because the silence inside me was louder than anything in the room.
I had loved Alexander Hamilton with every inch of myself.
And he had left me… for a dog.
No, not even that.
He had used it as an excuse to run back to the woman he chose again and again.
When the morning sun finally slipped through the blinds, I was already awake, dressing slowly. Mechanical. Detached.
The doctor entered with my discharge papers in hand, smiling gently. But I had no smile left to return.
“Could you… do something for me?” I asked, holding out a cream-colored envelope.
His brows furrowed slightly as he took it. “What is this?”
“My last gift to Alexander Hamilton.” I said, voice low
He opened it just a little. His eyes widened at the bold header: DIVORCE DECREE. Signed. Final.
“Lavina...what about the baby? You don’t have to rush-”
“My child deserves better.” I whispered. “From this moment on, we are done waiting for a man who never chose us.”
My phone beeped that moment.
[Damien Stone: Waiting for you. It's time we meet.]
Walking outside, the first thing I did was to drop all the birthday gifts from Alexander right into the thrashcan before taking out my sim and tossing it in the bin.
"Lets not meet ever again Mr.Hamilton."
