Thalassa’s hands shook as her eyes repeatedly ran over the bold words: DIVORCE AGREEMENT.

Agreement? She certainly didn’t remember sitting down to talk about anything. This surely had to be a mistake.

She turned her panicked eyes to the lawyer. “Is this a joke?”

“I don’t remember ‘comedian’ being in my job description, Miss Thompson,” the lawyer said, sounding offended.

“Then what is this?” Thalassa demanded, her voice louder than she intended, laden with frustration.

The lawyer’s nostrils flared as he looked around at the people staring at them. “It’s exactly what you’re looking at, Miss Thompson. Kris wants a divorce.”

Thalassa noted how he kept referring to her by her maiden name, as if she and Kris were already divorced.

The lawyer took a step closer. “Look, don’t make this complicated. You’re lucky to be walking away with just a divorce. You could’ve spent several years rotting in jail. You should be thankful to Kris that he convinced his mother to drop the charges.”

Just like that, Thalassa felt hope spark inside her. Kris had convinced his mother to drop the charges. That could only mean that he loved her. There was definitely an explanation for all this.

Mr. Sawyer drew a pen from his bag. “Here, please take the pen and sign the papers. There’s no alimony because Kris said you can keep the millions you stole into your offshore accounts. All you have to do is sign at the required spots, and he’ll have your belongings delivered to wherever you want.”

Before the lawyer could finish speaking, Thalassa had turned and began storming out of the police station. Reaching the roadside, she quickly waved her hand at an approaching cab.

The car stopped in front of her, and she didn’t waste time entering. “The Miller mansion,” she instructed the driver. She still had the divorce papers in her hand, and her heart pounded as she stared at them.

It couldn’t be true. This had to be another one of Linda Miller’s schemes to separate her and Kris. She wasn’t going to believe it until Kris himself told her that he wanted a divorce.

When the driver stopped outside the Miller mansion, she reached into her bag and pulled out some dollar notes. Not caring how much it was, she tossed it at the driver and got out.

She was just about to enter through the gate when a burly security guard stepped in front of her.

“You can’t go in,” he said gruffly.

Thalassa glared at him. “What do you mean I can’t go in? This is my house! I’m Kris’s wife!”

“I know that. But I’ve been given orders by Mrs. Miller not to let you in.”

Of course, it was Linda Miller’s orders.

Thalassa roughly ran her fingers through her hair, feeling like she was going insane. Without a second thought, she ran past the security guard onto the mansion’s compound.

“Hey, I told you you can’t go in!” the man hissed, running after her, but his speed was no match for Thalassa’s desperation as she ran on and finally entered the house.

The Miller family was all gathered in the living room, but Kris was nowhere in sight. All of them turned to look at her disdainfully before storming towards her.

“What are you doing here, you thief?!” Cynthia, Kris’s aunt, demanded.

“This bitch really has some guts!” Tyler, Kris’s younger brother, scoffed.

“I’m going to drag her out by her hair!” Susan, Kris’s younger sister, gritted out.

“Ma’am, I tried to stop her, but she just ran past me,” the security guard said as he appeared behind Thalassa, grabbing her by the arm.

“It’s okay. Let go of her arm,” Linda Miller said as she finally stopped in front of Thalassa. The rest of her family also stopped behind her, their eyes blazing like vultures, waiting to tear Thalassa to shreds.

“You have no shame showing your face here after what you did to my son and our family,” Linda sneered, her voice dripping with disgust.

Anger shot through Thalassa as she snapped. “I did not do anything, and you know it! You were the one who sent me to meet that man. Why are you doing this? Why are you lying?”

Her voice broke, which only increased the pleasure on her mother-in-law’s face.

“My son wants nothing to do with you anymore, Thalassa, so you have no business being here. Get out of here.”

“You’re nothing but a snake! I am not leaving until I speak to Kris!” Thalassa stated firmly, glaring back at her.

“Don’t speak to my mother like that,” Kris’s harsh voice sounded as he approached.

Thalassa immediately ran towards him, holding up the divorce papers. “Kris...your lawyer...he came to me and gave me these papers. He said you wanted a divorce, but I know it’s got to be a mistake. It’s all a mistake, right?”

Kris stared coldly into her eyes as he answered, “There’s no mistake.”

Thalassa stumbled back, shaking her head in disbelief. “Kris...please, you can’t... Let’s save our marriage. All this is a misunderstanding. I didn’t do anything. Please, you’ve got to believe me.”

“Do you really still believe that I want to continue being with a woman like you? You don’t even have the decency to admit what you did,” Kris snorted, his cold eyes boring into her.

“But I didn’t do anything!” Thalassa declared desperately, grabbing onto his arm. “Kris, please be–“

“Let go of me!” he hissed, snatching his arm from her hold.

“Why is the door left open?” A voice came from behind Thalassa.

It was the voice of Karen Blade, her best friend. Hope beamed inside Thalassa.

“Thalassa...” Karen gasped with surprise when she finally saw her. “You’re out of jail?”

Thalassa instantly moved towards her and grabbed her hand, leading her to where Kris was standing. “Karen, please tell Kris. Tell him how I called you after his mother sent me to give the documents to that man. Tell him how I was hesitant because something didn’t feel right. Tell him that I’m innocent.”

Thalassa waited. Waited for Karen to tell Kris exactly that, but the next words out of her best friend’s mouth sent her whole world crashing down.

“I’m sorry, Thalassa, but I’m tired of always covering up your lies. You never called me.”

Karen’s denial was like a slap, causing Thalassa to stumble backward as her mouth dropped open in shock.

“But...but Karen...what are you saying? What lies? I called you to tell you about it. You even called me later to ask whether I was on my way to do what my mother-in-law had asked.”

Karen’s eyes, which usually always shone with affection, now blazed coldly with malice.

“Enough already, Thalassa! Aren’t you tired of always telling lies? I’m so tired of always having to lie for you, but I can’t anymore. Kris is a good man and he doesn’t deserve your deceptions.”

Thalassa’s head spun as she tried to process everything. Was she dreaming? She had to be dreaming. Otherwise, why would her best friend, the person she trusted and confided in the most, betray her like this?

Feeling like her heart was beating out of her chest, she turned to Kris, looking at him pleadingly. “Baby, please, I... I don’t know why Karen is lying, but please believe me. I haven’t done anything. I’ve never lied to you.”

“You lowlife thief! So everyone else is a liar except you?” Susan, Kris’s sister, snorted as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Thalassa paid no heed to her words because they didn’t matter. The only person whose opinion mattered to her at that moment was Kris.

“Kris, why aren’t you saying anything? Please tell me you believe me.”

“I have nothing to say to you apart from the fact that you should sign the divorce papers and disappear from my life. I want nothing to do with you.”

“No!” Thalassa declared loudly, throwing the divorce papers to the ground. “I refuse to sign them. Kris, you can’t possibly believe that I could lie and steal from you in such a way.”

She grabbed his hand, staring into his hard eyes with her pleading ones. “You promised me that nothing would ever come between us. What happened to that promise?”

“That’s because I didn’t know I was marrying a liar, a thief, and a slut,” he hissed, jerking his hand away.

“It’s okay. I’ve had enough of this woman,” Linda Miller said. “If she refuses to sign the divorce papers, we can get it another way. Take her away.”

Immediately, the security guard grabbed Thalassa’s arm, but just as he was about to drag her away, she yelled,

“I am pregnant!”

The hall turned silent. So silent that you could hear a pin drop as everyone stared at Thalassa in shock, but the only reaction she cared about was Kris’s.

His nostrils flared, his eyes widening as if demanding to know if she was telling the truth.

“Yes,” she nodded earnestly. “It’s true. I found out yesterday. That’s why I called you so many times; I wanted to give you the good news, but you never picked up. And when I texted, saying I had something important to tell you, that’s what I wanted to share.”

Her breath caught as she gauged Kris’s reaction, anxiously waiting for his response. His eyes scanned her face as if looking for any hint of lying, his gaze turning conflicted.

Just as Thalassa began to think that he believed her, his mother appeared. “Son, you can’t possibly believe anything that comes out of this whore’s mouth after everything she has done. She’s lying! She’s obviously telling you this so that you won’t divorce her.”

“I am not lying!” Thalassa declared fiercely. “When I found out, I told Karen about it. She–”

“Why do you keep trying to involve me in your lies? You did not tell me anything,” Karen denied once again.

This time, Thalassa wasn’t surprised by the betrayal, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

At that moment, the look of conflict on Kris’s face transformed back into the hard, cold look as he gritted out, “Get out of here.”

Thalassa flinched, her throat tightening. “Kris, I just told you that I’m pregnant. Do you really want me to leave?”

“I am not falling for your lies anymore. I want you out of my life because I can’t stand you. I hate you, Thalassa Thompson.”

Tears brimmed in Thalassa’s eyes as she shook her head vigorously in denial. “You... You don’t mean that.”

Kris let out a chuckle so cold that it sent a shiver down her spine. “You’re right, I don’t mean that. Because I don’t hate you, Thalassa. I fucking despise you.”

The tears finally fell down her face. In that moment, the pain that went through her heart was so sharp and intense that it felt like a knife piercing through her. She had to wait a few seconds for the pain to subside.

“Fine,” she finally said, wiping furiously at the tears streaming down her cheeks. “Give me a pen, and I’ll sign the divorce papers.”

She was done. Done being humiliated. Done trying to prove her innocence to Kris. If he despised her, then so be it.

A pen was thrust in front of her. Without even bothering to see who was offering her the pen, Thalassa grabbed it and walked towards the center table in the living room. Squatting, she placed the divorce papers on top of the table and signed all the required spots.

Once done, she closed it and walked back towards where Kris was standing.

“Here,” she said, her voice and expression now devoid of any emotion. “I’ve signed them. Just like you wanted.”

Kris took the papers from her hand, his eyes never leaving hers. “Once you decide, let me know where you want your belongings to be taken to, and I’ll have them brought to you.”

And just like that, he turned and walked off, never looking back as he climbed the stairs.

Once he disappeared from view, Thalassa slowly turned to look at the people behind her. They all had victorious smirks on their faces, except for Karen who didn’t even have the guts to look at her.

“What are you still doing here, bitch? My brother has divorced you already. Tomas, take her away,” Kris’s brother, Tyler, instructed.

Just as the security guard grabbed her by the arm, Thalassa jerked herself free and coldly said, “I know my way out.”

With her head held high, she began walking towards the door, but just as she was passing by her ex-mother-in-law, the woman grabbed her by the arm and whispered for only her to hear, “Do you really think you’re going to have that bastard you’re trying to pass off as my grandson?”

When Linda Miller finally let her go, Thalassa didn’t respond as she continued her way outside. She couldn’t have responded even if she wanted to because she felt tired. Exhausted. Numb.

One year of enduring Kris’s suddenly cold attitude and his family’s humiliation, trying her very best to make her marriage work, and what did she have to show for it? Nothing. It had all been for nothing.

Once outside the Miller Mansion, Thalassa kept walking. She didn’t know how long she walked. Neither did she know where she was going. All she knew was that her whole world had come crashing down around her and she didn’t know how to pick up the pieces.

Her surroundings came sharply into focus when a hand suddenly grabbed her from behind and shoved her into a dark alley. As her heart skipped a beat, Thalassa let out a scream, but the person who had grabbed her quickly covered her mouth with his hand.

“Don’t you dare scream!” her attacker hissed. It was a man, and his face was covered with a mask.

Thalassa sucked in a breath, realizing how reckless she’d been for wandering alone at this time of night.

No, she couldn’t let anything happen to her. She’d been through too much to add this on top of it.

With all her might, she clamped her teeth on his hand, biting him fiercely. The man shrieked, letting go of her, but before she could use that opportunity to run, he grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the wall before violently jamming his knee into her belly.

Thalassa gasped as pain shot through her abdomen, and her eyes widened with dread. Her baby!

“Don’t hurt me. Please don’t hurt me,” she pleaded. “You can take everything I have on me, but please don’t hurt me. I am pregnant.”

The man laughed callously. “Who says I care?” Leaning forward, he whispered into her ear, “I’ve been sent to give you a message; next time, don’t mingle where you don’t belong.”

Then he jammed his knee into her abdomen again, this time more fiercely than before. Thalassa let out a groan of pain, her body going weak as she sank to the ground.

She clutched her abdomen as she lay on the ground, her voice weak as she pleaded, “I beg you. Please don’t hurt me. I am pregnant. Why are you doing this? Please have some mercy. Please.”

But all her pleas fell on deaf ears. The man began kicking her in the abdomen, over and over again. The more she begged him, the more he kicked.

By the time he stopped, Thalassa had tears streaming down her face as she groaned repeatedly in pain. It took her several seconds to realize that her attacker had left.

Her whole body hurt as she braced her hand on the ground and forced herself to sit up, but she froze when she realized she was bleeding. Blood was soaking her panties and pooling around her thighs.

Panic shot through her. No! Her baby! Her baby! She needed to save her baby.

With the last bit of strength she had, she crawled out of the alley, weakly calling out, “Help me. Please, help me.”

She tried getting up to her feet, but it hurt too much, so she just kept on crawling as she continued calling for help.

She saw a woman approach and stretched out her hand. “Please...help me.”

The woman looked freaked out and quickly ran off without even turning back to look at her.

“No...please, don’t go. Help me.”

She was feeling too weak. The whole world spun in front of her eyes before she collapsed on the floor, and everything went black.

“Isn’t that Thalassa Thompson?”

“No way! The gold-digger who married Kris Thompson for his money?”

“Yeah. She also cheated and had been stealing from him the whole time they were married.”

“Yes, I heard about it. Poor man. He married her despite her low-class status only for her to betray him like that. But wasn’t she arrested?”

“Both of you shut up this instant! How many times must I warn you not to gossip about our patients, especially in front of them?”

Thalassa slowly opened her eyes but closed them instantly when bright lights attacked them. Blinking to adjust to the lights, she finally opened her eyes to find three women hovering over her. They were dressed in healthcare overalls. Two looked to be nurses, and the other looked to be a doctor.

“She has woken,” one of the nurses observed, and they all focused on her.

“Finally,” the one who looked to be a doctor said, then flashed a small smile at Thalassa. “How are you feeling, dear?”

Bracing her hand on the bed, Thalassa slowly sat up, groaning as she did. She felt a dull ache in her abdomen, causing her to grimace in confusion.

“What happened? Why am I here?”

The last thing she remembered was walking out of the Miller Mansion after signing the divorce papers. How had she ended up in the hospital?

“Oh dear, she doesn’t even remember what happened. I wonder how she’ll take the news,” one of the nurses whispered to the other, but it was audible enough.

The doctor glared at them chastisingly while Thalassa questioned, “What are they talking about?”

The doctor bit her lip. “Last night, a woman found you in a pool of blood on the street and called emergency services. You were rushed to this hospital.”

Instantly, the horrors from last night seared through Thalassa’s mind: her walking on the street, being grabbed and shoved into an alley, her attacker repeatedly kicking her in the abdomen despite how many times she’d begged him to have mercy.

The doctor was still speaking. “We hope you don’t mind, but since we already knew who you were, the hospital took the liberty of sending a message to your husband’s office. Unfortunately, we haven’t received any reply.”

“Kris didn’t come?” Thalassa asked, afraid to voice the one gut-wrenching question that was the most important, but she knew she had to ask it soon.

“Doctor,” she began, her lips quivering as tears brimmed in her eyes, “how’s my baby? Please tell me my baby is okay. Please tell me they’re fine.”

The doctor didn’t respond for a few seconds, but the forlorn look on her face informed Thalassa of the answer even before she began to speak.

“Mrs. Miller, the impacts on your abdomen were very strong, and since your pregnancy was only two months along, it couldn’t withstand it. By the time you were brought to the hospital, you’d bled out for far too long, and saving your life was what mattered. I regret to inform you that we couldn’t save your pregnancy.”

“No,” Thalassa whispered softly as a tear slid down her cheek. Then another. And another.

“We’re really sorry,” the doctor was saying. “We know you might want a moment to yourself, but due to the nature of the assault, we needed to inform the police. They will be here soon to take your statement. I’m sorry for your loss.”

With that, the doctor and the nurses exited the room. Thalassa slowly lay back down as more tears streamed down her face, curling herself into a ball. The position made her abdomen ache, but it was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on her door before two cops strode into her hospital room.

“Mrs. Miller, we know you must be going through a lot, but if we are to help bring whoever did this to you to justice, then we need your statement,” one of them said.

Thalassa slowly sat back up, staring at him unseeingly.

“Did you see who did this to you?” he asked, his pen poised on his notepad.

She shook her head. “No, he was wearing a mask that covered his entire face.”

“Mrs. Miller, do these belong to you?” he said, and the other officer stepped forward.

That was when Thalassa realized he was holding the handbag she’d had with her yesterday.

She nodded. “Yes.”

The first officer looked thoughtful. “Well, we realized that your attacker didn’t rob you of anything at all, which means this was an intentional attack. Do you have any idea who could’ve attacked you or why they did it?”

“No...” Thalassa began to say, but suddenly, the possibilities began turning in her mind.

She remembered the words the attacker had said to her when she’d told him not to hurt her because she was pregnant.

“I’ve been sent to give you a message; next time, don’t mingle where you don’t belong.”

The realization hit her hard. Someone had sent the attacker to harm her!

But who?

The only people close to her who’d taunted her with the fact that she didn’t belong with them were her mother-in-law, Linda Miller, and her other family members.

Suddenly, she remembered the words Linda Miller had whispered in her ear before she’d walked out of the house:

“Do you really think you’re going to have that bastard you’re trying to pass off as my grandson?”

Her heart sank. It couldn’t be, right? Her mother-in-law couldn’t have sent someone to attack her and kill her own grandchild, right?

But she also remembered how Karen had betrayed her so viciously. it had been obvious that she was in cahoots with Linda. Could it be Karen who sent that man?

Or had the two of them worked together to destroy her?

“Mrs. Miller, you haven’t responded to my question,” the officer’s voice drew her out of her thoughts.

“No, I don’t have any idea who could’ve attacked me or why,” she finally responded.

The officer narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Are you sure, ma’am?”

Thalassa nodded stiffly. “Yes, I’m sure.”

What was the need to tell the police what she suspected? It would be of no use. The Miller family was the most powerful family in Baltimore. They practically ruled the whole city. Even if she tried to report Linda or Karen, the woman would just use her influence to have the case swept under the rug or even turned against Thalassa.

“Okay, we’ll leave now, but we might contact you for more information,” the officer said. “Here are your belongings.”

After handing her bag and her phone to her, they excused themselves and left. Thalassa immediately turned on her phone, grateful to find that the battery wasn’t out.

Kris. She needed to tell Kris what had happened to their baby. Finding his contact, she dialed his number. It rang until it went to voicemail. When she tried again and the same happened, she decided to send a text.

Sweetheart, I was attacked last night on the street, and I’m in the hospital right now. Unfortunately, our baby couldn’t survive. Please come see me. I need you.

Surely, he would reply. No matter what he thought of her, this was still their child she was talking about.

Despite her hope, she was surprised when a reply came in almost immediately. She instantly pressed on it, but as soon as she read the reply, she wished that she hadn’t.

KRIS: So what should I do? Deal with it. I don’t care.

Thalassa felt like a bucket of ice-cold water had been poured on her. She was so shocked that she read the message over and over again, trying to make sure that she hadn’t read it wrong.

When she finally realized that this was indeed the reply that Kris had sent to her, the pain that crashed through her was so immense that she gasped and clutched her chest. She felt like her heart was going to rip out. Maybe that would be better, so that this wouldn’t hurt so much.

Deal with it? I don’t care?

How could he be so cruel to her when she needed him the most?

When she finally got tired of crying, she just lay there quietly, staring unseeingly at the ceiling. A few minutes later, the door opened, and the doctor from earlier walked inside.

“Thalassa, we sent another message to your husband’s office and there has been no response, but we need someone to fill out the necessary documentation. What do we—”

“Don’t contact him again,” Thalassa deadpanned.

“Sorry?”

Thalassa slowly sat up as she wiped the tears from her face before she coldly said, “I said don’t contact him again. I’ll do everything myself.”

She was done. So done shedding a single tear more for Kris Miller.