Chapter Twelve
1060 Words
Chapter Twelve
(Adrian’s POV)
I hadn’t slept.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Nia standing in front of me with one hand over her stomach.
I choose them.
The words had followed me through the night.
I’d stayed in my office until sunrise, staring at the glass of whiskey I never touched and the phone lying beside it. I’d called Nia more times than I wanted to admit.
She hadn’t answered once.
At first, I told myself I was calling because she was pregnant and alone. She had left the estate with one suitcase in the middle of the night, and I didn’t know where she had gone.
Then I told myself it was because she was still my wife.
But neither explanation eased the tightness in my chest.
She had cheated on me.
That was what the report said. That was what the evidence in front of me had proven.
She had broken her vows, hidden a pregnancy, and expected me to accept children who weren’t mine.
So why did it feel like she was the one who had rejected me?
I’d given her a way to stay.
I’d told her I could forgive her with time.
Instead, she had looked at me with that quiet, final expression and chosen to walk away.
By the time I reached Blackwood Group, my head was pounding.
Daniel was waiting outside my office with a stack of files. He took one look at me and stepped aside without saying anything.
I shut the door behind us.
“Cancel my morning meetings.”
Daniel hesitated. “You have the board call at ten.”
“Cancel it.”
“Yes, sir.”
He placed the files on my desk, but before he could leave, the door opened again.
Sienna stepped inside.
She wore a pale dress and a worried expression, her hands clasped in front of her as though she had rushed there without thinking.
“Adrian,” she said softly. “I heard Nia left.”
The way she said Nia’s name made something in me tighten.
“Who told you that?”
She blinked. “Nancy mentioned it when I went to see my sister this morning. Is it true?”
I turned away from her and walked toward the windows.
“Yes.”
“I’m so sorry.” Her voice lowered. “I know you tried to make things work with her.”
I didn’t respond.
Sienna moved closer. “Maybe this was always going to happen. Nia grew up in the slums, Adrian. She was never going to understand what it meant to be part of a family like yours.”
My shoulders stiffened.
She kept talking.
“She obviously can’t be a high society wife if she’s going to spend her days sleeping around.”
“Enough.”
My voice cut through the room.
Sienna went silent.
When I turned around, her face had gone pale.
“I didn’t mean to upset you,” she whispered.
The anger drained from me almost as quickly as it had come.
Sienna’s eyes filled with tears, and for a moment, I saw the girl I had grown up with. The one who had spent years believing she belonged in the Caldwell family, only to lose her place when Nia returned.
She had lost so much because of Nia.
Or at least, that was what I had always told myself.
“I’m sorry,” I said, rubbing a hand over my face. “I shouldn’t have raised my voice.”
She nodded quickly, wiping beneath her eye. “You’re exhausted. I understand.”
I should have felt relieved that she understood.
Instead, I felt agitated.
Daniel knocked once before entering. He held a thin file in his hand.
“Mr. Blackwood,” he said carefully. “This was delivered for you.”
I recognized the law firm’s name before he placed it on my desk.
My stomach tightened.
Sienna leaned forward. “What is it?”
I didn’t answer.
I opened the file.
Divorce papers.
For several seconds, I only stared at the first page.
Nia Caldwell Blackwood had filed for divorce.
My eyes moved over the terms, expecting to find demands hidden in the legal language.
A settlement.
The estate.
A share of my assets.
Something.
Sienna looked over my arm. “She’s probably asking for compensation. She must think she can use this to take advantage of you.”
I ignored her.
The pages were clean and direct.
Nia wanted no money.
No property.
No claim to the Blackwood estate.
No share of my assets.
She had refused financial support connected to the twins. She had requested that all communication go through attorneys unless legally necessary.
My grip tightened around the papers.
“She’s really doing this,” Sienna said quietly.
I didn’t hear her.
I kept reading the same lines.
Nia had walked out with nothing.
Not even the things she had every right to take.
A memory rose without warning.
The day she had walked into the Blackwood Estate as his wife. She had worn an elegant and simple lace wedding dress. No make up and no jewelry. There was no celebration for her. She had been given the church wedding and told they would celebrate when it wouldn’t hurt Sienna as much. Nia had smiled, a genuine smile and had agreed.
“It will be us, together from now on.” I had told her that night.
I would be her wall and as long as she stood beside me. I would keep her safe and protected.
Then last night, the way she had looked at me when she said she chose the babies in her belly over me. It had hurt.
I’d thought she was trying to punish me.
But there was nothing here that would punish me financially.
Nothing that would tie her to me.
Nothing that asked me to acknowledge the children I had refused to believe were mine.
Sienna touched my arm. “Adrian, this is for the best. You never should’ve had to marry someone like her.”
I pulled away before I could stop myself.
Her hand fell to her side.
The office went quiet.
I looked down at the papers again.
Nia Caldwell only wanted one thing from me.
And I wasn’t going to give it to her.
- Writer
