That’s all it was meant to be?
The question tore through me, exposing a part of myself I thought I had already numbed.
In his world, in his circle, I had never been anything more than this—his wife in name alone, defined by duty, reduced to a single responsibility: Tess.
I sat straighter in the seat, the leather creaking softly beneath me as I shifted.
“Fine,” I said, the words coming out sharper than I intended. “If that’s what everyone sees me as—nothing more than a caregiver instead of a wife—then this marriage serves no purpose.”
My breath tightened. “When my internship ends in seven months, I’ll divorce him. And I’ll be gone.”
The words felt strange in my mouth, but they were final.
“I won’t spend my life married to a man who will never love me,” I said, voice hardening. “A man who will always see me through the lens of his dead wife. No.”
My chest rose unevenly.
“He was the one telling me just a week ago that I could heal, that I could escape the darkness I’ve been trapped in,” I said, anger threading through the pain. “I thought that meant something. I thought he was finally seeing me... not just tolerating me.”
A bitter breath left me.
“But I misread everything. His gentleness. His words. All of it.”
I swallowed.
“I will leave him,” I said, more certain now. “I will leave... and I will not come back.”
Ramiro didn’t respond immediately.
When he finally did, his voice was careful.
“Rafael doesn’t usually let people walk away from his world.” His tone lowered slightly. “And Tess... she’s attached to you. You’ve built a bond with her. Will you really walk away and leave her behind for something her father did?”
Tess.
Her name alone shifted something in me.
She wasn’t just Rafael’s daughter in my mind anymore.
She was... mine.
My fingers curled in my lap.
Abandoning her felt wrong in a way I couldn’t easily dismiss.
But staying—
Staying meant existing in a space where I would always be second to a memory I could never compete with.
A woman I had never met.
A grief I could never touch.
My chest tightened painfully.
“As much as I care for Tess,” I said, forcing the words out even as they cracked inside me, “I have to put myself first. Seven months is enough time to slowly detach... to let her grow closer to her father.”
My throat tightened. “So when I leave, it won’t hurt her as much.”
