The day Elena decided to leave Vincent was their fifth marriage anniversary.

As she listened to the furious slapping of skin against skin, his deep voice that would've, at one point, lit up her entire day coming out in groans, she knew he had no love for her in his heart anymore.

How else could he be sleeping with an unknown woman when she was stuck in the hospital fighting for their unborn child's life?

Cold tears streamed down her face in response to the suffocating pain she was feeling, her teeth chattering and goosebumps trailing down her arm. The flimsy hospital gown she had on did little to shield her from the cold weather, as she protectively cradled her little bump.

The last two years had been a rocky one. Battling for her husband's attention with his so-called best friend was already tiring.

She couldn't add this to the pile.

So with bloodshot eyes, Elena turned to walk away quietly, dialling the number she'd been hesitating to for days:

"I know you want to bring Vincent down. Do you want to join hands with me?"

****

The moment she got back to the hospital, Elena immediately asked to be discharged.

"Mrs. Lopez. I advise you to stay one more day." The nurse pressed for a second time as she packed her bags but Elena refused.

No amount of treatment could take away the pain she was feeling.

Her feet were numb from the cold as she hadn't bothered to pull on her boots earlier, and she felt the pain from the blisters that had formed beneath them. Still, it wasn't as painful as the ache in her chest.

Five years. Why would Vincent throw five years down the drain?

"I'd like to go home now." She replied in a small shaky voice.

And with a deep sigh, the nurse checked her out.

Within a few minutes, she was out of the hospital and on her way home with her two guards who by then had returned from their short break.

Waiting for the car to pull up, for a minute, she considered calling her husband to let him know that she'd been discharged but thought less about it.

It wasn't like he'd care anyway.

When he wasn't busy with his best friend, Claire, he was with another woman.

She'd been stuck at the hospital for a week due to a severe infection, fighting for her life... also to save their unborn child, yet he didn't bother to visit once, claiming to be out of town for business.

A familiar ache, one Elena had become accustomed to for months, flared up within her. It would be a lie to say she hadn't seen it coming; their marriage was barely hanging by a thread.

The car screeched to a stop as one of the guards announced.

"Mrs. Lopez, we've arrived."

Moving to step out of the car, her eyes caught sight of a black lacy underwear peeking from beneath the driver's seat.

Elena's heart dropped as they widened in realisation.

How long had this been going on? Who exactly was this mistress?

With a heavy heart, she carefully picked it up, tucking it into her bag as she got out.

As soon as she walked into their home, she instantly knew that Vincent had been lying when he said he was out of town.

He had a habit of leaving his coats hanging on the rack whenever he returned every day, so the rack was filled with coats.

On the dining table were two recently used glasses and an empty bottle of wine.

Didn't he say work might take longer than planned? She'd blindly believed him, knowing how spontaneous his job was.

He wasn't just anyone but the leader of the mafia in their region. It was all a lie.

How could she have been so foolish?

Not bothering to wait for him to get back, she headed for their room, washing away the grime smell of disinfectant from the hospital before lying on her bed to sleep.

Yet it didn't come easily.

Elena forced down the lump in her throat as her heart raced, thumping loudly against her chest.

How could Vincent treat her this way? She was with him when he was just an ordinary gang leader, and now that he had risen to the top, she was nothing?

Her pregnancy was unplanned and gotten during one of his drunken trolls but she had thought a child could mend their growing rift.

How wrong was she...

Exhaling loudly, she closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to pull her in when her phone beeped.

It was a post Claire had tagged her in. A picture of Vincent grinning so brightly as she placed a kiss on his cheeks with the words

'Find a man who'd love you right.'

She let out a bitter laugh.

How ironic.

He'd also left his mistress to spend time with Claire.

How could a man shuffle between three women?

Irritated, she dumped the phone on her bedside table, staring into space until sleep took her. By the time morning came, it was a call from Vincent that woke her up, and out of habit, she hurriedly received it.

"Hello?"

"Elena." His deep voice filtered from the phone. "Are you feeling better? I'll try and make it back today. You're still at the hospital, right?"

A scoff escaped Elena's lips, unable to believe that he was still keeping up the act. All she said in reply was a detached "No." Then ended the call to prepare for work.

As an artist, she had a big exhibition coming up and was behind schedule. It was the only thing that could take her mind off everything anyway so she planned to work herself to the bones.

But even at work, she found it hard to concentrate. The post had spread like wildfire, and it was all her colleagues spoke about.

Vincent was only a popular rich businessman in the eyes of everyone and they believed Elena was lucky to be his wife. So they were all curious about his relationship with the woman in the picture.

Elena's chest tightened at the unwanted attention.

She wanted to be left alone to wallow in her self-pity, but it seemed impossible.

On the other end, Vincent kept bombarding her with calls out of guilt and switched to texts when she ignored them,

'You sounded so cold on the phone earlier; are you alright?' 'Elena, what is going on?' 'Are you sulking?' He sent text after text and she was going to turn off her phone when the last one caught her eye.

'I sent you a surprise package.'

A surprise package? The last time he surprised her was a year ago and that was a luxury bag for forgetting her birthday.

She was wondering exactly what he would have sent this time, when a delivery man walked into the gallery and straight up to her.

"Mr. Lopez asked that I deliver this to you, ma'am."

It was a food tray. One she craved two weeks ago yet it only made her feel more sad as she stared at the peanut-flavoured tray.

Elena's lips trembled, she could feel her heart sinking further.

Her phone beeped again.

'Did you receive my gift? You can stop being angry now.'

The grief she'd been trying to contain, flooded her mind.

Had he ever paid attention to her? How many more years did they have to spend together for Vincent to remember that she was deathly allergic to peanuts?

Claire was the one who loved peanuts.

'Are you sure this is for me? And not for your wonderful best friend?' She typed back, her response dripping sarcasm and proceeded to throw the tray in the trash until her gaze caught a small white note sticking out the side.

Her curiosity piqued. She flipped it open only to feel gut-wrenching pain at the words that met her eyes.

'I miss having you above me, Claire. '

What?

The identity behind the soft moans that complimented her husband's groans last night…

Elena inhaled sharply, her breath getting caught in her throat at the realization.

Claire was the mistress.

Later that evening, Vincent returned as promised, showing up unexpectedly at Elena's office, yet she didn't need an informant to alert her of his presence.

She could already hear the regular squeal of her coworkers as they fangirled over her good-looking husband.

It was the first time he was coming to pick her up, in months instantly knew it was because of the text.

Vincent stood with his legs crossed against his sleek black car, surrounded by his usual entourage of guards.

The handsome sight of the man, which usually caused a flutter of butterflies in her belly, only made Elena feel burdened.

No matter how she tried, she couldn't look at him the same way. How could he do that with the one person that had always been the source of their problems?

Ever since Claire returned from her study abroad two years ago, their marriage had fallen into jeopardy.

'Meet my childhood friend Elena. We've just reconnected.' Her husband had introduced but it took less than a week for her to see that their relationship meant more.

Forcing on a well-practised smile, she approached him.

"Hey... how do you know to come here?"

Vincent shrugged, leaning in to give her a small kiss, which Elena stylishly avoided.

There was no need to accept it when she knew it was for paparazzi.

If he felt offended by the action, he didn't let it show as he pulled open the door. "I want to take you out for dinner to apologise for the mix-up.

That's all.

He didn't even try to explain himself.

Why should there be a mix up at all? Do you know I got the note too?

Elena wanted to say but decided against it. His actions left her stomach in knots; she felt disgusted but she knew that was not the place to hash things out, so she quietly got into the car.

By the time they reached, it was a familiar fancy sushi restaurant—the one they had their first-anniversary celebration.

Elena felt a flutter of hope.

Was he trying to make up for missing their anniversary yesterday?

But as soon as they were escorted in, it all crashed.

Her eyes met a sly fair figure sitting prettily in a beautiful red dress as she welcomed them with a smile.

"Hi, Elena and Vincent bestie." The woman winked.

The sound of the pet name that Elena normally would overlook made her skin crawl. She couldn't hide her discomfort and glared at the woman.

"What is Claire doing here?"

Was it not enough that they were sneaking behind her back? Such a brazen act!

"She doesn't want to have dinner alone, so I invited her."

As always when it came to Claire, her husband downplayed the seriousness of the scenario and walked in. "Why don't you sit?"

"No!" She refused. "I thought you said you wanted to apologise. Shouldn't it be about what I want?"

Vincent's jaw ticked, a telltale of his upcoming irritation.

"It's just a dinner Elena. Why are you being selfish?"

Selfish?

She couldn't believe his words.

He was the selfish one for bringing his mistress here in disguise.

"Just a dinner? You really do not remember, do you?" She inquired and he frowned, confused at the underlying meaning behind her words.

However, Elena was already used to being disappointed, so when he came up short, the hurt felt natural.

In a bid to clear up the air, Claire piped up

"Vincent abandoned all work to be here for you. Don't be insensitive, Elena."

"Yes. You're too uptight." Her husband seconded the motion.

Elena couldn't stop the dry laugh that flew out from her lips.

How shameless of them? They were going to make her into 'the fool'. If this was the game they really wanted to play; so be it!

"You're right." She took a seat as the servers brought in their dishes, "I think the baby is starving anyway."

Deciding to take advantage of the situation as she hadn't had anything to eat all day, Elena stuffed herself in silence, pressing down the whirlwind of emotions that kept threatening to burst out at every laugh and giggle that came out of the two.

"Oh, Vincent. I feel stuffed." Claire loudly called after a while. "Why don't you place them on Elena's plate instead?"

Looking up for the first time since she began to have her meal, Elena saw that Vincent had been dressing the fish for his best friend. His ears flushed a bright red as he realised that his pregnant wife should've been his priority.

Another blow to the heart.

"Don't worry about me." She waved them off. "After all, this dinner is also to apologise to Claire."

Vincent let out a frustrated sigh; like she was being unnecessarily difficult again.

"What is it this time, Elena?"

She gave him a naive-looking smile.

"I got Claire's basket just as she got mine; am I wrong?"

He spluttered, unsure of how to reply to that; however, Claire did as she pulled on a smug smile.

"Oh, don't worry. I usually get it in all the flavours. The delivery man made a mistake thinking both orders were for me as before."

Elena's face paled, staring at her husband who was doing his possible best to avoid her gaze.

It took him two weeks to get her a basket she had been craving, but he had been getting it for Claire?

Did he even see her as his wife anymore?

She had always seen through Claire's fake innocent actions... her obvious spite to show off that she had all Vincent's attention.

The previous Elena would battle her with words and fight for her marriage, but she felt exhausted. All the fighting she'd been doing for years, had amounted to nothing.

Her mind was dead set.

If they wanted to be together, they were free to do so.

Done with her food, she placed a small white gift bag on the table, grateful that she had decided to take it along to work.

Elena pushed it towards her husband.

"It's for you; take it."

Vincent eyed the bag suspiciously.

"What's the occasion?"

"Our fifth anniversary was yesterday." She said like it didn't mean anything, watching as his hand twitched for a second.

He really forgot...

Nodding towards it, she encouraged.

"This is from me. Go on, open it."

Tentatively picking it up, Vincent looked into the bag, his eyes widening in recognition as they met the black lacy underwear.

The moment his gaze returned to Elena's questioning ones, he knew he had been caught.

In a split second, the guilty look on Vincent's face changed into a hard one.

"Now I can drop the pretense."

Elena was taken aback.

"The pretence?"

"Yes." He replied with cold indifference "I don't feel comfortable around you anymore. You've changed Elena. Just because you're pregnant doesn't mean you should be fat."

Elena looked down at herself.

Fat? Her bump was barely showing. From her last visit to the hospital, even the doctor complained of her losing too much weight and that it wasn't healthy for the baby.

Her eyes darted to Claire who had excitement flashing across her eyes.

Had he gotten so used to having his hands around her that he'd forgotten she was always like this?

"Is that something you should be saying to me?" She asked in disbelief.

"I'm being honest." Vincent sniffed. "Would you rather I lie to your face? I have decided—until you deliver the child, Claire will attend all functions with me. Be grateful she agreed to take your place."

Each word he spewed was like a dagger to her heart.

"I never asked her to do so!"

"Elena!"

"Was that why you slept with her? I saw you last night Vincent. I know you didn't travel."

Vincent looked away, as though it wasn't a big deal. "You would've saved yourself the hurt if you didn't stalk me! Whatever you're imagining did not happen."

Elena could hardly believe her ears,

Was he going to deny it till the end? After she'd presented the evidence?

"Vi—

"What do you expect me to say?" He snapped, going back to his usual cold self. "Yes. I slept with Claire once and it won't happen again. It was in the heat of the moment."

In the heat of the what?

"But I'm your wife."

Vincent ignored her, rising to his feet as his phone began to ring, "I need to pick up this call."

Immediately, the door closed behind him; Claire let out a mocking laugh, dropping her innocent facade completely.

"I guess we can openly show our love now. I'm tired of hiding."

Elena clenched her trembling fist, refusing to show the home wrecker how hurt she was.

"What love?” She berated. “You've only brought distress into our lives since the moment you came. Why do you want to ruin my home?"

The only thing she got in reply was a sinister laugh as Claire taunted,

"How can I ruin what is already ruined?

****

Elena didn't speak anymore. Even when Vincent returned and suggested they drop Claire off before going home, she only hummed in agreement.

It wasn't like he was going to listen if she opposed it.

On the drive home, the silence was deafening, and Vincent kept glancing her way, yet she didn't acknowledge him. Her actions made him feel uncomfortable, that he blurted,

"Are you still mad at me?"

Mad?

What was the use of being mad when she was leaving anyway?

Elena lightly laughed, giving him a cold reply, "What's there to be mad about? You said it won't happen again."

Vincent grumbled as the uncomfortable silence continued. After a few minutes, he threw a turquoise jewellery box into her lap.

"Well, I got this for you. You can call it the anniversary gift you want. "

Elena opened the box to see the most beautiful dainty gold bracelet and her eyes flashed in recognition as she remembered seeing the exact design but in diamond on Claire's wrist a moment ago.

She had come second again.

This was his method of apologizing. Whenever he did something wrong, he'd spoil her with expensive gifts.

He wanted her to play along again? So be it.

Feigning fascination, Elena plastered a weak smile on her face, "I love it. Thank you."

But Vincent could sense the obvious dryness of her empty words.

"What is wrong with you? Why are you being so cold?" He asked but Elena remained quiet.

How could she act like nothing was wrong?

Her husband had not just openly confessed to cheating with his so-called best friend and asked her to deal with it but also made her feel worthless in comparison to her.

Who would be fine knowing they had wasted five years of their life with a man who was this cruel?

Thankfully, the car came to a halt as they arrived at their home, and Elena got out without saying a word.

It wasn't like she had anything to say in reply, the previous times she'd voiced out her complaints, it resulted in fights where he threw words like

'You're being unreasonable.'

'Claire is just a friend.'

'You're the one who's insecure.'

A pang still shot through her anytime she remembered his hurtful words from the last and final fight they had:

'Why do you keep suspecting me of being with Claire? I wouldn't be with you any more if I wanted her. You're just complaining because you're greedy and do not want my attention on someone else. Don't I spoil you enough?"

It'd taken weeks for the tears not to flow at the recollection of those disheartening words. The fight had ended with him stumbling into her room drunk.

Elena had finally thought it was the end of all their fights. Now she knew it was only the beginning.

Only a fool would believe his words about it happening once. The underwear in the car explained that much.

Vincent harshly gripped her wrist as she was about to walk into their home.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

Elena's sad eyes met his as she forced a faint smile.

"I'm tired. Let's talk another time."

"Fine! Do what you want!

He snarled, storming into their home.

Elena watched him walk away in anger... her entire world crumbling as she knew there wouldn't be another time.