Clara's POV 

 "Clara, if we divorce I promise that you will never see Luke again!"

 A cold smile ran from ear to the other, curling my scarlet lips, "Who says I'm fighting for custody anyways? I'm kicking both you and your son out of my life."

 He was dumbfounded, I took full advantage and yanked my hand out of his grip.

 Not another word was uttered between us as I stalked over to the front door.

 Without wasting time I fished out my phone and booked an immediate appointment with my attorney.

 We met at her firm, she pushed up her thickly framed glasses when I said I wanted a divorce.

 "I don't mean to pry, but are you sure about this, Mrs Winston?"

 I chewed on my bottom lip, the doubt clouding her features made sense.

 For almost decade I had been more of a loyal laptop than a wife to Nick, all he had to say was jump and I would ask 'how high?'

But not anymore.

 "Yes, I'm sure. Begin drafting the papers-"

"Okay, but I'll have to warn you that the best case scenario will be 50/50 custody for Luke..."

"I'm not filing for custody, rather I want to give up my parental rights," I said point blank, my lawyer froze up, it was years of professionalism that allowed her to resume the motions without probing why I would not seek custody for the boy that I had raised as my own.

 The drafting process chewed up most of my day, but at the end of it all I carried a folder containing a document that would help me finally sever all ties to Winston.

 I was halfway to my car when a text struck my phone.

 It was from my soon to be ex-husband. ((Get to the hospital now, Cassie just passed out!))

 I clicked my tongue.

 Typical Nick. He didn't think I was serious about the divorce and was already galavanting with his mistress again.

 Good, I want her to be there anyways.

 I already knew the hospital where she was, from the reception I was headed straight to her ward.

My heart kicked against my rib with every step.

This was the place.

 The place where I gave her my kidney, the one she supposedly fed to street dogs.

 Here was where I finally came to the truth that the two people I loved more than anything in the world care for me just as much as a piece of gum stuck under their shoe.

 A lump continued to form in my throat however it didn't stop me from taking confident strides until I reached the ward room.

 There was a square shaped opening at the door, through it I saw Luke throwing himself into Cassie's arms, Nick shook his head but you could see a little smile tugging the corner of his lip.

 From here they looked like the perfect little family.

 Now wouldn't it be tragic... So tragic if they were to lose it all?

 I pushed the door forward making my entrance.

"Aunt Cassie, I wish it was my mommy who was sick instead of you."

 "Luke,"Nick said his name in a tone of warning, "you shouldn't say that out loud."

 I sighed quietly, the problem wasn't what he said but that he said it. Cassie stroked Luke's head.

 "Nick you're always so hard on him, he's a kid he can't help but be honest all the time."

"Yes!"Luke said with vicious vindication, "Aunt always understands! I wish you weren't sick, can we get ice cream after?"

 I instinctively stiffened, Luke had a sweet tooth like most kids and would eat ice cream and chocolate all day if you'd let him.

Within myself I chuckled bitterly, was that what made me the bad mommy? Because I didn't let him ruin his health? Hilarious.

 I coughed because seeing them so happy was starting to make me sick to my stomach, Cassie was the first to notice me.

 Her lips broadened into a big smile.

 "Sis, you came..."

 Nick finally noticed, he stomped over to me.

"I've been trying to get a hold of you all day. Where have you been?"

 I gave him a passive shrug then presented the folder.

 "Preparing our divorce agreement, don't tell me you haven't reached out to your own lawyer?"

His mouth opened as if inviting a fly to hover in.

"Are you still going on with this joke?"

 "It's no joke Mr Winston," I said, thickly separating the document from the folder and pushing it into his fingers.

 His eyes quickly scanned through, bulging wider after each line of ink at the end of it he balled up the agreement, tossing the trash.

 I was hardly shocked.

 Nick's short temper was nothing new to me, neither was his immaturity.

 "I can just print another one," I said, meeting his eyes.

 "We are not getting a divorce,"he insisted.

Hearing the word 'divorce' thrown around finally started making its impact on Luke, he subconsciously pulled away from his biological mother's arms then tipped his head off to look at me.

 "Mommy are you divorcing daddy?"

 "I'm not your mommy," I corrected him immediately, stabbing my finger towards my sister, "she's your mommy, isn't that what you wanted?"

 Luke tried to grab my skirt, I took a quick step backwards he noticed, instantly his eyes swelled with tears.

 My fingers twitched, the habit of a former life coming to hunt me. Before those tears never failed to melt away any anger I had but now they only solidified it because I saw them for what they were not true expressions of pain but manipulation learnt at such a tender age.

 "Clara, please if you're going to be angry at anyone be angry at me... I'm the one who was shameless enough to come back."Cassie wanted to throw her little pity party but I was quick to shut it down.

 "It's good that you understand your position," then I snapped to my husband, "now let's talk about my divorce settlement."

Nick's POV 

I grabbed her arm without warning and pulled her out of the room, throwing a look at Luke over my shoulder, that told him to stay put even without words. He pouted but remained inside obediently, Cassie's face folded into something complicated but understanding enough.

 "Are you happy now? What if that scene you just pulled worsened Cassie's condition?!" I blew up at her.

 Instead of her crumbling into an apology as she normally would she hissed in my face and continued the nonsense she was saying earlier like she didn't even hear me.

 "30 million, that's how much settlement I'm going for, and I'm not taking a penny less."

 My chest seized, "30 million?" I repeated back at her to make sure my ears were not tweaking.

"I didn't mince my words, Mr Winston."she said to me hauntingly, "I gave up a promising career and some of the best years of my youth to cater to you and your son, don't you think that's the least I deserve?"

 "My son?" I couldn't just help with repeating everything she threw at me, it felt like my brain was short circuiting.

 Where was my docile, obedient wife? The one who could sprout out of bed in the dead of night to quickly fix me up a snack if I asked.

 Only a week ago, she'd kissed me and told me that she didn't mind Cassie moving in with us despite our former romantic history and the undeniable tension but still existed between us, sparking the air and electrifying my nerves.

 Now she was raving about a divorce, and an absurd settlement. As a CEO I could take that, but we were about to establish a new branch in another state, that money would go to better use.

 What am I even saying? I'm not agreeing to any silly divorce!

 I was about to tell her just that when I heard a screech coming from inside Cassie's ward, I looked between Clara and the door, hesitant for a split moment.

 She just rolled her eyes at my dilemma; "Go to her, both of you deserve each other."

 A muscle ticked in my jaw.

 "This conversation isn't over."

 I didn't wait for her retort, just hastened back into the ward room to check on Cassie.

 Turns out she was fine, just indulging in some silly horse play. Luke who would normally be laughing and giggling at such playful antics had such a serious look on his face he almost looked moody.

 The second he saw me he sprinted over to my side, rubbing my pants like I owed his money.

"Daddy is mommy going to leave us?"

 His eyes had already gotten so red and puffy, I grated my teeth together.

 Couldn't Clara see that her entire fiasco was affecting all of us? But I know she won't leave us.

 I ruffled Luke's hair.

 "Mommy is not going anywhere," then I flicked my eyes towards Cassie and my heart skipped a beat; "Aunt Cassie isn't going anywhere either,"

••••••

 We returned home after a couple more hours, I sent Luke up to his room then. My butler, Mr Whipple approached me with a cloud hovering above his head.

 "Master Winston..." He began then paused dramatically.

 "If you're going to say something, spit it out," I snapped short of patience.

 He coughed awkwardly to clear his throat adjusting the color of his button up, ironed shirt.

"The madam asked me to pack her things into bags, she says she will be departing either today or tomorrow."

 This new piece of info flushed the color right out of my face and a muscle stretched in my jaw.

"Are you sure she said that to you?"

 He nodded quickly.

 "She did, I wanted to wait for you to arrive but she insisted and I did as she asked so-"

"Enough!" I normally wasn't so sharp with Mr Whipple, he had worked for my family ever since I was a toddler but right now I was not in my best state of mind.

 "I'll talk to her, where is she?" I demanded to know, Mr Whipple turned his head towards the swimming pool, telling me enough without words. 

 I stomped over to confront her, but what I saw seized all the breath in my throat for a second.

There was my wife like I had never seen her, stretched out on a lounge chair, wearing a bikini that wasn't leaving much to the imagination, exposing smooth supple skin that radiated the rays from the sun, she had the company of a cocktail beside her, taking eventful sips every now and then.

 Her eyes tilted over to me and I don't know if it was my imagination or not but there seemed to be a flash of disgust before her face molded a mask of neutrality in front.

I regained myself and approached her, noticing that my steps had become watery and weak.

What the heck?! For years I had begged her to dress like this instead of her normal style that would make any grandma shake their head.

 Just what had possessed her to be acting so differently?

 "Mr Whipple told me you asked him to pack your bags," I said, finally beginning to question if all of this was really not just a bluff for my attention, "are you really ready to throw away everything we have together? 8 years just like that?"

 She took a long loud sip from her cocktail then without even looking at me she stretched out on the lounge chair, I gulped a mouthful of spit wondering if she was teasing or taunting me, perhaps both.

 "Have you found a new donor for Cassie?" Her question brought me back to earth.

 "I thought you were just divorcing me... You're also going to let Cassie die too?"

 Another sip from her cocktail, as if it was giving her the next words to claw into my heart.

 "Who says you can't be the donor instead?"

Clara's POV

 The way his face instantly went white sickened me, it shamelessly told me that he still thought I was going to do his bidding, donating one of my most vital organs to someone who didn't even need it.

 What a joke

 I grabbed my cocktail really making sure to savor it.

 "You better figure something else if you want your mistress to live, not right here otherwise." I set the cocktail down and he just gave me a long stare, the login his eyes told me that he had about it doesn't other comments but he just accept them behind his lip and slithered out of my sight.

 Good, I should enjoy this pool at least once before I have to leave.

 But 2 hours later on a fresh glass Cassie showed up with Luke trailing behind her.

 He looked like he was about to run over to my side, but then Cassie thugged him on his arm.

From the corner of my mind it crept back to me that Luke during this time in my past life had a super important homework that took a titan size of his grade.

 In my past life I had forced him to do the homework while he begged to play his time away.

 He came out with the best grades, but still look at me like I was the dirt he walked over.

 Cassie would probably know about this homework if she actually cared about his future, and Nick was always too distracted between work and entertaining his mistress, besides I was always there like the loyal lap dog I have been in my previous life keeping up-to-date with everything; doctor appointments, club activities.

To think I was solo parenting while he got to play family with the woman that abandoned him.

Let's see how that works out for him now.

 Cassie kept throwing looks at me, I knew she hoped I would be jealous and bitter looking at her spend so much time with Luke, but my only annoyance came from the noise they were making and nothing else.

 Eventually they stepped out from the pool, water dripping. She didn't even grab him at towel or anything. She just wiped herself and with the same soaked towel threw it over to him as an afterthought before gliding over.

 "Clara, Mr Whipple told me something awful, are you really moving out?"

 With Nick nowhere inside and Luke several meters away finally having to dry himself for the first time instead of having me do it for him Cassie was free to reveal a little bit of her fangs.

Her words on the surface carried a note of regret, but it was a huge juxtaposition from the big smug smile on her face.

 From the looks of things it seems like Nick had not told her about the 30 million settlement, if not she would have already started hooting about it.

 Nevertheless she'll find out when she escorts him to court.

 •••••••••••••

 That evening I was no longer in the suffocating Winston mansion, but rather a suite in a five star hotel. I hadn't been completely stupid in my previous life, I had kept a rainy day fund, do it had been with the hooks of supporting Nick in case anything ever went wrong with his business now it was purely for my own benefit.

 I cozied into a plush chair, then carried my eyes out to the view laid out in-front of me.

 My phone rang with a call from an expected number.

 I ignored the pile of other calls I had gotten in the last 5 hours, bringing the phone off to my ear and in moments a deep velvety voice oozed through after I gave a polite good evening.

"Evening to you as well Miss Moore, or perhaps I'm jumping the gun. Or am I supposed to still call you Mrs Winston?"

 "Legally, yes. But I prefer if you called me Miss Moore, I'll have everything filed and official before this week ends."

 "I'm afraid I'm inclined to doubt that, Miss Moore, what man in his right senses would let you go?"

 I squeezed the phone tight, on the other side of this line was arguably the most desirable bachelor of the country.

 Mr Silas Luther, a man whose name rang synonymously with wealth and power as the CEO of his titan company, Luther corporation. He was the kind of man that every other man wanted to be and every woman wanted to be with.

 For what it was worth, his compliment was like a light balm to the wounds that my self esteem had endured over the years.

 "Don't worry," I said propping my laptop over my legs and the positioning it so that I was looking comfortably at the screen, "will have no other choice than to do what I say,"

 "I hold you to your words then.."he said then momentarily paused, "what changed?" He asked a little out of the blue.

 "About me?"

 "Yes," he responded quickly, "5 years ago when I offered to make you my secretary you'd thrown that job offer at my face, you said that your fulfillment in life was being a housewife and a mother."

 You could tell he wasn't judging just simply curious but it's still made the corners of my my ears go red.

 Out of the goodwill of his heart, Nick had taken me to a charity gala and amongst the elite that graced the occasion Mr Luther was one of them.

He had my husband straddled with some other responsibility than moment he laid eyes on me and offered me the job, I don't know how he found out I was the one doing all the work in the shadows while Nick took all the credit but I doubt there was much a man with his connection and charisma couldn't find out.

 I had bluntly rejected him, back then I thought I was happy.

 "Let's just say I want to be where I'm appreciated now, so just wait, within a week. We'll be talking face to face."