“I’m so sorry for your loss.”

I simply smiled at the lady. I had been greeting guests since morning.

It was my adoptive father, Michael Mooroe’s funeral today.

I had no words to describe how I was feeling right now.

The person who loved and cherished me the most, who gave me this life and made me the woman I am today was gone. My heart was in so much pain and I had no one to lean on.

I turned my gaze to Marcel’s direction.

He was standing in a corner and talking to a lady.

I looked more closely.

It was Jennie.

Jennie was Marcel’s college girlfriend and a woman whom he still cared about deeply. I turned away the moment I saw him smile at her.

Once again my heart was breaking and I was all alone.

Marcel never loved me, in fact, he was forced to marry me.

When Michael Mooroe adopted me into his family, Marcel was the happiest. He was happy to have finally gotten a younger sister, but I never saw him as an older brother.

Michael’s wife, Ashlin had some complications during her pregnancy due to which she could not have anymore children and Marcel who eagerly wanted a younger sibling could not understand this. Therefore they made a decision to adopt a child.

I was 8 years old when my parents died in a car accident. My father was Ashlin’s older brother. Ashlin who didn’t want me to suffer as an orphan spoke to her husband and they decided to adopt me. And that’s how I was adopted into the Mooroe family. Marcel was 12 at that time.

Marcel wasn’t expecting his younger sibling to be an 8 year old. He wanted to watch his younger sibling grow up and play with them as a baby, but now he couldn’t do that.

He was quite sad upon my arrival, but after having a talk with his parents he came out smiling brightly and embraced me.

That was the very first time my heart skipped a beat.

As we spent more time together we naturally came to liked each other.

I was 18 when I finally realised that I was in love with Marcel, but I never acted upon my feelings and never told anyone. Me and Marcel continued to make more happy memories today.

But like they say — nothing lasts forever.

On my 25th birthday, Michael announced that he had planned to marry me and Marcel.

I was the James’ only heir and had already inherited my family’s wealth, so a marriage alliance between us was a good decision. At least that’s how everyone saw it, but to Michael leaving his son and wife in the care of me, whom he knew and trusted was the best choice.

Marcel wasn’t very happy about this decision, but did nothing to protest. Even when Michael told him to break up with Jennie, he just simply agreed without saying anything.

I wasn’t exactly sure when it all started to go down.

Was it when he started going to college? Or when he got himself a girlfriend? Or when he was asked to marry me?

I wasn’t sure exactly when our relationship fell apart. I had always loved him that no matter how hard I tried I could never see him as my older brother. I knew that he liked someone else and I knew that he didn’t have romantic feelings for me yet I couldn’t bring myself to say no when my Michael asked me to marry him.

We weren’t blood related therefore our marriage wasn’t considered ‘incest’, and many of our relatives were happy about our marriage.

I wasn’t that close with all of our relatives, but the ones I was close with liked me a lot.

I wasn’t stubborn and I wasn’t rude or arrogant either, therefore a lot of people liked me. Michael didn’t like Jennie and wanted someone whom he trusted to marry his son, therefore he considered me to be the perfect match.

I was so happy when he asked me to marry Marcel and since Marcel agreed I thought that maybe, just maybe he liked me, too.

But I guess that was the downfall of our relationship.

After that he started to ignore me and barely spoke to me. He was always the first to wish me happy birthday and always planned something for my birthday, but this year he didn’t even leave me a happy birthday message. He always at the very least left me a birthday message in case he couldn’t make it.

I once again turned to his direction.

He was still smiling at Jennie.

He was gloomy the entire day since yesterday and didn’t say anything. I wanted to comfort him, but i couldn’t bring myself to for fear that i would only upset him more.

I guess he’s feeling better now since he’s smiling so much.

As expected, Jennie was the only one who could make him smile.

When Michael decided to get me and Marcel married, he was still dating Jennie. There was nothing Marcel could do. Michael didn’t like Jennie, so convincing him for their marriage was impossible and that’s probably why he didn’t even try and just agreed to marry me.

There was nothing in particular about her that Michael didn’t like.

She was pretty, had a nice attitude, was friendly and not to mention was extremely smart, and her personality wasn’t bad either. In all honesty, even I don’t know why Michael disliked her.

Both Jennie and I studied medicine.

I was always fascinated by the medical industry, but I didn’t want to become a doctor because Blood scares me.

When Michael found out about my passion towards medicine, he suggested that I join medical school and graduate, and become a assistant of a doctor.

The idea was nice. I could still pursue my passion without having to cut people open, so I agreed and joined medical school.

That’s when me and jennie first met. She and I had the same classes and that’s how she and Marcel met as well. He met her when he had come to pick me up one day, and thus they relationship began.

“Are you okay?”

I was brought back to reality by the familiar voice.

“I’m fine.” I said.

The person who just spoke to me was Ashlin Mooroe, my adoptive mother.

I simply gave her a slight smile.

I was already drained with all the activities I had today and now I barely had any strength left.

Ashlin was obviously having a harder time than me right now, but she was still more concerned about my feelings. Well, that’s just the kind of person she was — always putting others before herself.

Ever since I was young I aways admired her — she was independent, kind, strong and so full of love. After my parents passed away, she was the only person who reached out to me. Although as time went by I ended up receiving love from her husband and son as well.

“How are you feeling? If your still not feeling well you can go back and rest.” Marcel said as he made his way to Ashlin.

“I’m fine. I want to be here till the end.”

“…..okay, if that’s what you want. But please do let me know if your not feeling well.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”

She gave him a slight smile.

Marcel turned to look at me.

His eyes were icy cold with hostility in them.

“?”

I flinched.

I was waiting for him to say something, but he just walked away.

‘Why does he hate me so much?’

I knew that he was acting this because of our forced wedding, but his hostility towards me wasn’t just mere anger. It was pure hated.

To some extent I deserved it, after all i ruined his and Jennie’s relationship. I’m the villainess of his story.

*****

I sat down on my dresser and started removing my makeup. I was exhausted and all I wanted to do right now was sleep.

As soon as I was done I changed into my nightgown and went to my bed.

Just as I was about to go to sleep I heard the door open.

I got up to see who it was.

To my surprise it was Marcel.

Since me and Marcel got married, he has not even once slept in the same room as me. He always tried to find excuses to not sleep in our room. Sometimes he’d say he had to work, and sometimes he’d simply stay out.

But now he was here — in our room.

I wanted to feel happy about the fact that he finally came here, but I knew him too well to misunderstand this situation.

The fact that he’s here means he’s here to discuss something.

“What are you doing here?” I asked first.

He stopped for a second by the door before walking to my side of the bed.

“You were awake?”

“No, I was sleeping.”

What type of dumb question was that? I wouldn’t be talking to him if I was sleeping.

“….”

He didn’t say anything and just sat down.

The silence overflowed the room.

“Why are you here?”

I asked again, breaking the silence.

I wasn’t sure if I was ready to hear his answer. No, I was scared of what his answer might be.

It had been five months since we got married and during these five months he didn’t even speak to me.

Now he was here. on the day of his father’s funeral.

‘Is he here to talk about divorce?’

That was the only reason I could think of that would bring him here.

Was I ready to accept it if divorce really was the reason behind him seeking me out? Would I be able to cope with the pain? Of course not!

I wasn’t mentally prepared, but I wasn’t gonna cry or cling to him to stay.

After taking in a deep breath, he got up from the bed and turned to face me.

His eyes that were icy cold just a few hours ago were not warm and soft.

“…I”

He paused as if the words had gotten stuck in his throat.

He once again took in a deep breath as he fixed his expression.

His eyes were no longer warm.

“I want a divorce.”