Don't Divorce, Destroy Him

When I caught my husband, Roman, cheating, I didn't hesitate. I signed the divorce papers and walked out.

I figured the career I built before my marriage would be enough to give Hazel a solid life. Reality hit me hard.

During interviews, HR managers took one look at my status as a divorced single mom and shook their heads. "This role requires constant travel and latenight client dinners.

It doesn't suit your current situation." Meanwhile, Roman and Savannah moved fast. They got their marriage license, had a son, and lived like royalty.

Then the real nightmare started. Rhonda, the nanny I paid top dollar for, made a "mistake." Boiling water splashed over Hazel. Severe burns covered my little girl's skin.

Medical bills drained every cent I had. Out of options, I knelt on the cold pavement outside Roman's luxury condo, clutching my burned daughter to my chest, begging for help.

Savannah walked out with a basin of rotting slop.

She tipped it straight over my head. "Where did this filthy beggar come from?" She pointed at the street. "Get lost." My mind went blank.

I stumbled toward the intersection, hugging Hazel tight against me. Tires shrieked. A massive truck grill filled my vision. Metal smashed into bone. We flew through the air.

Blood pooled in my throat. I lay paralyzed on the asphalt. Click, clack. High heels stepped into my blurry vision. Savannah looked down at me. Right beside her stood Rhonda.

My nanny. "A good mother eliminates all future threats for her child." Savannah looked down her nose at me. "You?

Useless." A final surge of adrenaline rushed through my shattered spine. I shot my hand out. My fingers twisted deep into Savannah's hair. I yanked.

I dragged her screaming body right into the path of an oncoming car. Darkness. Then, a sharp gasp. My eyes snapped open. I was back.

Back on the exact day we laid our cards on the table. Chapter 1 My phone buzzed. My body jerked. My arms clamped down on the little girl curled against my chest on pure reflex.

Warm. She was still breathing, her tiny chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. My vision blurred. I stared at the caller ID flashing on the screen.

It was a number burned into my retinas across two lifetimes. Savannah. Roman's mistress. Memories of my own death crashed over me like a suffocating wave.

Dragging my mangled legs across the asphalt. Finding my daughter. Begging the blurry faces of strangers to call an ambulance.

The terrifying, agonizing wait as Hazel's tiny body went cold against my collarbone. Click, clack. High heels had approached.

Blood plastered my hair to my face, turning the figure standing over me into a distorted silhouette. "Maren.

You really are useless, aren't you?" "Savannah?" My bloody fingers clawed at the fabric of her pants. "Please. Get my daughter to a hospital.

She's slipping away." She lifted her heel and ground it directly into the back of my hand. "Relax.

The hearse is already on its way." Savannah leaned in. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this, Maren." "I chased him for three years, and he took one look at you and played the lovesick fool.

But life doesn't end with a wedding ring. I timed my return perfectly, right after you popped out the kid.

And just as I predicted, you were an absolute idiot." "You had no idea how to manage a marriage. You let your home turn into a disaster zone.

Slowly but surely, he started noticing what I brought to the table. He started regretting that he didn't pick me." She laughed, a sharp, grating sound. "Oh, and that pool of blood?

Fake, obviously. But he bought it. And that was the day he started pulling away from you." I pressed my hands hard against my ears, the gravel biting into my palms. "Shut up.

Just save my baby. Please." "Save your daughter? Keep dreaming." Savannah stepped aside. "Take a good look at who's standing right behind me." Ice flooded my veins. Rhonda.

I lunged toward her, dragging my dead weight across the pavement. "Rhonda! Call 911! Hazel isn't going to make it!" Rhonda's lips twitched. She let out a long sigh. "I called.

They're on their way." Then, right in front of my eyes, Savannah linked her arm through Rhonda's. "Are you really this blind? You're such a naive idiot, Maren.

Rhonda works for me." Static filled my brain.

In the final seconds before darkness took me, Savannah's laughter echoed in the night air. "A good mother eliminates all future threats for her child.

Did you honestly think I'd leave you two mutts breathing? Tell me, are you really that stupid?" Pain tore through every nerve in my body.

I shot my hand out and twisted my fingers deep into her hair. My legs were shattered, but a dying animal has nothing left to lose.

I yanked with a terrifying, primal strength. "Ah—Help! Help me! Rhonda! Get her off me!" My other hand grabbed my smashed phone from the pavement. Once. Twice.

I dragged the jagged shards of glass directly down her face. She was right. I was an idiot. I destroyed my daughter. I destroyed my parents.

After Hazel had suffered those severe burns, the guilt broke my parents. They tried to sell their house to cover the medical bills, but the market was dead.

It wouldn't sell in time. I had no choice but to carry my burned baby to Roman's luxury condo. I thought he might have a shred of humanity left for his own flesh and blood.

I was too damn naive. When a man like that signs the divorce papers, he surgically removes his past family from his brain. He didn't regret it. He wasn't ever going to look back.

There was no grand groveling, no begging for forgiveness. The only thing waiting for me and my daughter was the crematorium. Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder.

I used the absolute last ounce of strength in my veins, locked my arms around Savannah's ruined face, and dragged us both right into the path of an oncoming truck.

If… If I could just do it all over again… Chapter 2 The phone buzzed again, yanking me out of the suffocating memories. "Maren, do you have a minute?

I have something good to show you." The woman on the other end of the line was vibrating with impatience. I took a deep breath and wiped the dampness from my face. "Sure.

Where?" "The Sichuan hotpot spot downtown. Thirty minutes work for you?" "I'll be there." I hung up and stared at the dark screen, mapping out the timeline in my head.

The "something good" she wanted to show me was a sonogram. In my previous life, the second I saw that piece of paper, I slapped her across the face twice.

In the ensuing struggle, the boiling vat of chili oil on the table tipped over. Savannah called the cops, and I was booked for aggravated assault.

During the fifteen days I sat in a county holding cell, Roman "handled" the fallout. He drained our joint savings account, paying out a $200,000 settlement to Savannah.

He used every last dime I had to pay off his own mistress. The minute I got out, he weaponized custody against me to force my signature on the divorce papers.

The room had spun when I read the terms. I walked away with Hazel and nothing else. "If we take this to court," he had told me back then, "you just got out of a cell.

Add a civil suit to that, and no judge will give you custody. My cash is all tied up in the business anyway.

We have zero liquid assets." Terrified of losing my daughter, I had bitten my tongue so hard I tasted copper and signed the papers. Only now did the full picture snap into focus.

The two of them had orchestrated the whole thing. She deliberately provoked me to get me locked up, while he liquidated and hid our marital assets. Perfect.

I gathered my documents, called my insurance agent Kimberly, and headed straight to Roman's office.

The second the cheating bastard saw me, he shot up from his chair. "Honey, what are you doing here?" My fingernails dug halfmoons into my palms.

I forced my breathing to stay even. "Roman, Hazel is turning two soon. I wanted to update our family's coverage." "This is my friend Kimberly.

I asked her to help map it out." Kimberly smiled and handed over her business card. The muscles in Roman's jaw tightened. His smile dropped an inch. "In… insurance?" "Yeah.

Hazel doesn't have any coverage right now, and it's making me anxious. I'm setting up some additional accidental death and critical illness policies for the two of you.

Does that work for you?" He blinked, staring at me like I had two heads. In the timeline he and Savannah had plotted, I should have been sitting in the back of a squad car by now.

Instead, I hadn't breathed a single word about his mistress. I was standing in his office with an insurance agent, my tone perfectly level.

The confusion was written all over his face. He looked down at the paperwork I slid across the desk. Roman: $500,000 supplemental accidental death policy, beneficiary: Hazel.

Hazel: $1,000,000 accidental death, $1,000,000 critical illness, beneficiary: Maren. "Look… buying insurance is fine, but all my cash is tied up in a project with the guys right now." "That's fine.

I'll cover the premiums.

Just sign on the dotted line." Guided by Kimberly, Roman hesitantly scribbled his signature across the documents, his eyes darting to my face. "Honey, did you… meet up with anyone today?" I gathered the finalized policies, sliding them neatly into my folder. "Anyone?

No. Just a stray bitch I need to deal with. I'll let you get back to work." I stood up and walked out. It's a golden rule.

The very first thing you do when you find out your husband is cheating and has a bastard child on the way? You take out a massive accidental death policy on him.

The exact reason why? You'll see. Chapter 3 The phone buzzed again. It was her. "Maren, where are you? I've been waiting for three goddamn hours!" "Relax, I hit traffic.

Almost there." I hung up and pulled my car up to my old college roommate Mackenzie's apartment building. Back in college, Mackenzie was the ultimate human megaphone.

If there was gossip, she knew it and broadcasted it. We hadn't hung out much over the last two years since I had Hazel, but we still texted. "Maren?

What are you doing here?" "Are you free? Let's go get hotpot." "Holy shit, you don't have the kid today? Hell yeah, wait, let me grab my gimbal." Gimbal? Right.

Mackenzie was a midtier foodie influencer now, sitting on a couple hundred thousand followers.

But more importantly, her older brother was a cop. "Are the other two free?" I asked. "We should get the whole crew together. It's been forever." "Sure!

Let me text Heidi and Fiona." A sudden tightness gripped my throat. The four of us had practically lived on top of each other for four years.

How long had it been since we were all in the same room? I honestly couldn't remember.

I only knew Fiona had blown up as a romance novelist, and Heidi was living the quiet suburban mom life. By the time Savannah's third call came through, over an hour had passed.

She was so desperate to shove that sonogram in my face and provoke a slap, she was actually willing to wait.

I declined the call, snapped a quick photo of my steering wheel, and texted her. [ Seriously on my way. Fifteen minutes, tops. ] I pulled into the restaurant parking lot.

I told Mackenzie to wait in the car for Heidi and Fiona while I went in to grab a table. I pushed the heavy glass door open. My fingers started to tremble.

The suffocating weight of my previous life crashed against my ribs. "Maren. Over here." Savannah raised a hand. I turned. I looked at her face.

It superimposed over the bloodsoaked silhouette from my dying moments. My jaw locked so tight my teeth ached.

If I held a knife right now, I would plunge it straight into her chest without a single hesitation. "I've been sitting here since lunch." Savannah crossed her arms. "You really took your time." "What did you want to show me?" She pointed at the chair across from her. "Sit." The second I sat down, she shoved a piece of paper across the table.

A smug, victorious smirk pulled at the corners of her mouth. "I'm pregnant, Maren. It's a boy." I glanced at the grainy sonogram.

I clapped my hands together twice, my face deadpan. "Congratulations. You're so blessed.

How far along?" "Three months." "Well, tonight is on me." I leaned back in my chair. "Eat up." Savannah blinked. The smirk faltered.

This wasn't the reaction she rehearsed. "Aren't you going to ask who the father is?" My phone vibrated against the table. A text from Mackenzie. [ Which table? ] [ Table 1.

Hard left from the door. ] Savannah had specifically chosen a booth right next to the hostess stand.

She wanted a frontrow audience for the inevitable assault charge. "Let me guess." I tilted my head. "One of those homeless guys from your time abroad?" Savannah let out a sharp scoff. "You're still exactly the same as you were in college.

Clueless. Naive. I honestly don't know what Roman ever saw in you." I met her eyes. The corner of my mouth ticked up.

I just sat there, waiting for her to drop the punchline. "I'm carrying Roman's baby." A loud gasp erupted from directly behind me. "What?

You're pregnant with Roman's kid?" "Holy shit, big scoop!" "What the fuck, Savannah?

You went overseas for a few years and the only thing you learned was how to be a homewrecker?" Chapter 4 The restaurant went dead quiet.

Mackenzie, Heidi, and Fiona stared dead at Savannah. "What are you guys doing here?" Savannah shot up from her chair.

She lunged across the table, clawing for the sonogram in my hand. I leaned back. She grabbed empty air. Her momentum caught the edge of the boiling chili oil pot. It tipped.

The scalding red broth splashed all over her shirt and jeans. "Ahhh! Assault! Call the police!" I dropped my gaze to the metal stand holding the pot. A rubber foot was missing.

Makes sense. I stood up, folding the sonogram and slipping it into my pocket. "Manager, call 911." I didn't look away from her. "And check the security footage while you're at it.

Let's see exactly why this stand is missing a foot." The color drained from Savannah's face.

She snatched a wad of napkins from the dispenser and started frantically scrubbing the grease off her clothes. "Give me the sonogram back." "Sorry.

Can't do that." I looked down at her. "We were college roommates.

If Roman forced himself on you, I owe it to you to make things right." "What?" The girls blinked. "Forced himself?" I pulled out my phone and dialed 911. "Hi, I need to report a crime." "A woman here claims she's pregnant with my husband's child.

She showed me the sonogram. I suspect my husband committed sexual assault." Savannah looked like she was going to throw up