It took me six years to climb to the top as the most beloved weather anchor at the Gravenhold TV station. Six years of relentless work, dedication and sacrifices to secure my position. And Nicolas? He knew exactly how much this job meant to me and how hard I had fought for it.

But he didn’t care.

Or maybe, for Annette, sacrificing my reputation and career was no big deal. After all, hadn’t he already proven that when he coldly had our child aborted for her sake?

The thought made my eyes sting. The slap I delivered to Nicolas was fueled by every ounce of betrayal and it left him stunned for a fleeting second.

“You’re in no position to talk about limits right now, Nicholas.” I spat, my voice shaking with anger.

“Do you even hear yourself? What do you mean, she can have my job until she’s bored of it and then she’ll just hand it back? Do you think I need your charity? That position was mine—earned by my own blood, sweat and tears!”

I glared at him, the words tumbling out like venom. “You’re always pulling this crap—hitting me with a slap, then handing me a candy to smooth it over. That’s so you, Nicolas. Manipulative to the core.”

I pushed past him and pulled a gift bag from the back seat of the car, the one he had so proudly bought to ‘compensate’ me for losing my job. Without hesitation, I hurled it at his feet.

We parted ways on a sour note, driving off in separate directions—his car heading west, mine east. The symbolism wasn’t lost on me. Just like our arranged marriage, the once-parallel paths we shared were now hopelessly divergent.

That evening, I got a text from Annette. She summoned me to a private lounge, like a queen summoning her subject.

When I arrived at the door, I saw them.

Nicolas was lounging on the center sofa, arm draped around Annette, grinning as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Their group of friends surrounded them, laughing along.

One of them teased, “So, what you’re gonna do if Rowena actually divorces you?” 

Nicolas scoffed, downing his drink. “That’s not gonna happen. She loves me too much to go through with it.  She’s just being extra. Typical her.”

From where I stood, peeking through the gap in the door, Annette caught sight of me. Her gaze turned sharp, like a dagger with an unspoken message: Hurry up and divorce him already.

I didn’t stay. I turned on my heel and walked away without looking back.

For the next two weeks, Nicolas didn’t come home. I didn’t care.

The rain had been incessant, tapping against the windows like a soft, persistent reminder of my solitude.

One night, as I sat on the couch flipping channels, Annette’s face suddenly filled the screen. She was dressed in a tailored blazer and pencil skirt, her hair cascading over one shoulder. Her expression was plastered with a smile, but it was stiff, awkward.

“Over the coming days, temperatures across the country are expected to drop further due to repeated cold fronts…”

Her voice was monotone and when she stumbled over a tricky phrase, I felt a smug sense of satisfaction.

It was at that moment that the front door opened, bringing in a gust of cold, damp air. Nicolas walked in, drenched from head to toe. Without a word, he tossed a towel in my direction and leaned closer, water dripping onto the fabric of my nightgown.

I didn’t move. My expression was stone cold.

When he realized I wasn’t going to dry him off, he snatched the towel back, rubbing it through his hair. Catching sight of Annette on the TV, he smirked, pride practically radiating off him.

“Not bad for her first official broadcast, huh? I knew she had potential,” he said, his tone dripping with self-satisfaction.

I ignored him and got up, heading straight to the bedroom.

Nicolas followed, his gaze flicking down to where the damp spot on my gown clung to my thigh. His eyes darkened with unmistakable intent. Before I could react, he pinned me against the headboard, his lips trailing rough, uninvited kisses along my face.

“It’s been so long since we’re having it,” he murmured, his breath hot against my skin. “Don’t you want it too, baby?”

I laughed—a bitter, mocking sound that filled the room.

My mind flashed back to the image of him tangled with Annette on our living room sofa, their bodies entwined in a way that still made my stomach churn.

I tried to push him away, but his hands were relentless, pinning mine behind my back.

Our eyes locked and I could feel the anger burning inside me as I taunted him. “Oh, so now that Annette is busy with her new job as weather anchor, you lack of woman who can satisfy you, Nicholas?” 

Nicolas was busy loosening his tie, raising an eyebrow and giving a smirk.

“What are you talking about? Isn’t that why we’re in this position right now?”

I never imagined he could go to such lengths just to annoy me.

His warm breath was close behind me and I couldn’t hold back any longer—I started gagging.

Nicolas almost instantly backed away, his face showing clear signs of disgust and anger. Once I managed to compose myself, he grabbed my face firmly.

“So now I’m repulsive to you, huh? But didn’t you say you loved me, what happened? Can’t no longer keep up the act, Rowena?”

Tears started to slide down my cheeks and he let go quickly, as if burned by my reaction.

I forced a smile, feeling a strange calm inside me.

“I don’t love you anymore. A cheating man is like a rotting carcass — foul, repulsive and impossible to ignore once the stench fills the air. No matter how well you try to hide it, the decay always seeps through, leaving nothing but disgust and betrayal."

Nicolas' face changed and he seemed ready to argue, but when he saw how pale I had become, he shut his mouth.

“Say whatever you want, but you have to remember that I own you, Rowena. and I’ll make you regret ever saying that to me,” he muttered, throwing those words at me before walking into the bathroom with his clothes in hand.

I held back my disgust and walked to the living room, gulping down a glass of water. Tears spilled uncontrollably, blurring my vision.

Nicolas wasn’t wrong — he did owe me.

The weather report show had already been canceled and the rain outside picked up, pattering against the windows.

My phone buzzed a few times. It was a message from Annette.

She sent a few screenshots of her bank transfers, along with a few lines of Nicolas’ complaints about me.

“I really can’t stand her. Always walking around with that sour face, acting like I really owe her something!”

“She has no sense of fun! Every time something good happens, she always ruins the mood—so boring!”

“Are you done with work yet? Change into something nice, I’ll pick you up.” 

I opened a voice message from Annette and her playful, naive voice filled my ears.

“Did you watch my show, Rowena? It’s my first time on screen. Nicolas said I did better than you, so he even sent me five million for luxury items.”

“By the way, I heard Nicolas said you were upset because of your layoff? I’m here to talk some sense into you. Being upset will only make you age faster. After all, you’re already twenty-six, so you can’t compare with us twenty-year-old girls.”

I closed my eyes, already used to Annette’s occasional provocations. But right now, I couldn’t take it anymore. Opening my eyes again, I clicked on my brother’s chat.

Last year, my brother had sent me an application for a job opportunity at a major network. Back then, I still wanted to give Nicolas one last chance and had turned my brother down. After thinking it over, I realized how foolish I had been at the time.

But now, I had given Nicolas three chances and with the layoff and the two incidents that followed, all the chances I’d given him were gone. My feelings for him had completely faded.

“About that application you mentioned last year—if I fill it out now, will it still be valid?”

His reply came almost immediately. “It will be.”

“But... have you really thought this through?”

“Yeah,” I replied, wiping away my tears.

“And what about the offer I made to you? What do you say?”

“I’ve made up my mind. I do, Kyle.”

Although my brother was an adopted son, my father had once considered him as a potential son-in-law before he passed away. If my parents were still around, I didn’t think they would have opposed it. As for Nicolas and me, there was no need to drag it out anymore. My feelings to him and our marriage had reached their end.

Nicolas didn’t say a word after his shower. He grabbed his coat and left.

For the next ten days, he moved in with Annette. Every day, I received photos of them together—Annette seemed to love rubbing it in. The day we were supposed to file for divorce, I didn’t go. Kyle had made a tight schedule for all the proceedings of our marriage and sent me home right then. As the plane I was on soared into the sky, I fell asleep, slipping into a deep dream.

Actually, things weren’t always this bad between Nicolas and me. When we first got together, our marriage wasn’t as strained. Though it had been arranged by our families, we spent the first three years living in quiet, respectful harmony.

But if I’m being truthful, I think it was because I loved him. We had known each other since childhood. We were close—the kind of close that deepened over time, from innocent teenage affection to something more profound. That’s why I never objected to the idea of an arranged marriage.

Nicolas, on the other hand, resisted fiercely at first. He would pull me aside and insist we should reject the arrangement and go our separate ways. Out of selfishness, I refused. I couldn’t bring myself to let him go. So, I let the marriage happen.

Then, out of nowhere, Nicolas gave in.

In the beginning, after we were married, we lived more like roommates—under the same roof but emotionally distant. But as time went on, I noticed something changing in him. Maybe he had started to like me, even just a little. 

Every day when he came home, he brought me something—a surprise to brighten my day. Sometimes it was flowers; other times, delicious food. And at night, he would pull me close, holding me as we slept.

The worst part came when people started leaving comments on the weather station’s website where I worked, asking to meet me. Nicolas flipped. He was furious. He pinned me to the bed for an entire week, acting like a possessive puppy, never wanting to leave my side and demanding I not even glance at other men. For an entire week, I couldn’t even go to the bathroom without him holding me. That was our fourth year of marriage.

Then the news came—Nicolas’ first love, the one he had never truly gotten over, had married and started a family. I overheard it from the elders during our annual family gathering. And then Annette showed up. She had that same innocent, pure charm, the kind that mirrored his first love’s allure.

And it was around that time when Nicolas discovered it— my phone’s memo. In it, I had written down everything—every hidden feeling I had for him, from my teenage years all the way to our marriage. And that was when he snapped.

He believed I had conspired with his family to drive away his first love, but the truth was, I didn’t even know about her. I didn’t know he had been seeing anyone. I had no idea about his past relationship at all.

But Nicolas wouldn’t listen. From then on, he started to act out, constantly opposing me.

Annette’s first year on the scene stirred up a scandal, one that shook our marriage to its core. With photos, videos and all kinds of evidence, Nicolas pressured me to step up and clear the air. I was labeled by the media as weak, “love-sick,” and “pathetic.” The viewership of the weather broadcasts I hosted dropped through the floor.

In the second year, things got worse. I found out I was pregnant. Annette, of course, played the drama queen and cried, creating a scene that pulled at Nicolas’ heartstrings.

He remembered the pain of losing his first love and in a moment of weakness, he made a cruel decision. He gave me medicine to “help” with the pregnancy. It was meant to promote blood circulation and reduce swelling, but for me, it was poison.

At the time, I was already in a fragile state. I was supposed to be protecting the pregnancy, but after taking those pills, I started bleeding uncontrollably.

As I my skirt soaked with blood. He just watched, cold and detached as he stunted me.

Blood seeped through my skirt, pooling beneath me, yet he just stood there, watching with a cold, detached expression. His words lashed out, sharp and venomous.

“Does it hurt? When I ended things with her, it felt like this. No, it was a million times worse!”

“So this is why you didn’t mind the marriage, isn’t it? All because of you. Pretending so well, hiding your feelings for me, pushing my parents to forget about her and acting like you were the victim.”

“Now suffer! This pain is exactly what you deserve for everything you've done. You're nothing but a pathetic faker!”

I couldn’t care less. The pain was too much and I passed out. With the little mercy he had left, he reluctantly carried me and rushed me to the hospital. The doctors said that if I had arrived any later, I would have died. And now, three years after Annette showed up, I was forced to quit my job.

***

I didn’t realize the missed calls from Nicolas until I landed in Eldermere later that evening. I opened the voice message he had sent me. His voice, dripping with sarcasm, filled my ears.