POV : Arrabella

At nine o’clock in the morning, I officially signed our divorce petition.

The Civil Registry Office was still quiet when I stepped outside. The morning sun was hidden behind gray clouds, making the atmosphere feel even gloomier. The cold air stung my skin, yet nothing was colder than the emptiness now spreading through my chest. The plastic folder containing the divorce documents was clutched tightly in my right hand.

I had taken a major step.

I was not waiting to be discarded.

I was the one leaving first.

When I stepped back into the Cooper residence, silence greeted me heavily.

Quiet.

The antique clock in the central hall chimed slowly, showing eleven o’clock in the morning.

Michael still had not come home.

I let out a short breath and looked around the house I had cared for wholeheartedly for the past three years. Every corner held traces of how hard I had tried to become a good wife for him. Yet last night’s phone call—the sound of running water and Sophia’s soft laughter—had become the most definitive answer.

Michael was making up for the longing he had carried for three years.

There had never been a place for me from the very beginning.

I walked into the master bedroom, pulled a medium-sized fabric suitcase from the large wardrobe, and began packing my clothes one by one with slow, mechanical movements.

My tears had already dried.

They had been replaced by frozen determination.

Bang!

The sound of the front door opening forcefully brought my movements to a halt.

Hurried footsteps echoed through the hallway, heading toward the bedroom.

“Ara! What is the meaning of this, sweetheart?”

Dona Cooper stood in the doorway with her eyes widened in shock. Her gaze immediately locked onto the open suitcase on the bed. Behind her, Felix Siauw Cooper followed with an extremely tense expression.

I forced a faint smile, trying to hide the fragile tremor in my shoulders.

“Mom? Dad? What brings you here so early?”

Dona did not answer.

She strode toward me and gripped both of my arms, her fingers beginning to tremble. Her eyes moved from the pile of clothes inside the suitcase back to my face.

“Why are you packing your things, Ara? Where are you going?”

I lowered my gaze to Dona’s hands on my arms.

“My role is over, Mom. Michael’s first love... Sophia, has returned.”

“What do you mean your role is over?!” Felix Siauw Cooper interrupted with his deep baritone voice, which thundered through the bedroom. His firm footsteps carried him closer.

“Who told you your role is over, Ara?”

“Michael didn’t come home last night, Dad,” I said softly.

Silence instantly suffocated the room.

The room fell completely quiet, leaving only the sound of Felix’s heavy breathing.

“Sophia answered his phone,” I continued, letting the sentence hang in the air.

I took a deep breath, trying to ease the tightness in my chest.

“She said Michael was taking a shower. They spent the night together. This marriage... from the beginning, it was only an arrangement to save the Cooper family’s reputation when Sophia left. Now that she’s back, it’s time for me to know my place.”

“No! There will be no divorce in this family!” Felix shouted.

His face was flushed red with overwhelming anger. He clenched his fists tightly at his sides and stared directly at me.

“If anyone has to leave this family, it’s not you, Ara! No matter what happens, the only daughter-in-law of the Cooper family is you!”

Dona cupped my face, her eyes glistening with tears as she looked at me with deep sorrow.

“Ara, look at me, sweetheart. Let Mom ask you something... During these past three years, have you never loved my son? Was all the care you gave him fake?”

I fell silent for a moment.

My chest ached unbearably at her question.

“I love him, Mom,” I admitted in a voice barely above a whisper, hoarse from the pain that had accumulated inside me. “I’ve loved Michael since we were children at the orphanage. But loving him alone only adds more wounds to my heart. I can’t do it anymore.”

Dona shook her head firmly before turning to her husband with a sharp look.

“Dad! Call Michael right now! Tell that shameless son of yours to come home immediately!”

Without wasting a second, Felix pulled his phone from his coat pocket and dialed Michael’s number with a sharp motion.

The moment the call connected, he gave the person on the other end no chance to speak.

“Come home right now, Michael Cooper! Don’t you dare argue with me if you still consider yourself part of this family!”

Beep.

Felix ended the call without waiting for a response, his breathing rising and falling with restrained fury.

Thirty minutes passed in suffocating tension.

We were all sitting in the living room, trapped in rigid silence.

Then the sound of a car entering the driveway broke the stillness.

The front door opened.

Michael walked in with a hardened jaw.

But he was not alone.

Beside him, Sophia Muller entered with her chin raised high, dressed in a stylish burgundy gown. Her slender fingers were wrapped possessively around Michael’s arm, as though deliberately showing everyone in the room that Michael belonged to her.

“Dad? Mom?”

Michael stopped in the middle of the room. His eyes moved between Felix and Dona, who sat with expressions as rigid as stone. His brows furrowed tightly.

“What’s going on? Why did Dad order me home in such a tone?”

Sophia lowered her sunglasses slightly and offered a sweet smile that appeared forced.

“Hello, Mom, Dad. Sorry if my presence is a surprise, but I’m only accompanying Michael.”

“Take your hand off my son, you arrogant woman!” Dona hissed coldly, her sharp gaze fixed on Sophia’s hand still clinging to Michael’s arm.

Sophia flinched.

Instinctively, she tightened her grip on Michael’s arm before slowly letting go under Felix’s intimidating stare.

She stepped back half a pace and stood behind Michael’s broad back.

Michael let out a long sigh and stepped forward, trying to break the tension.

He looked at his mother with visible frustration.

“What’s really going on, Mom? Is there an urgent problem at the office?”

Michael’s calm yet ambiguous attitude made my chest ache even more.

He did not seem eager to save this marriage, yet he also did not immediately speak of divorce in front of his parents.

He simply allowed the situation to unfold, making me even more certain that I needed to end this uncertainty as soon as possible.

I rose from the sofa, breaking the silence with slow but firm footsteps.

From my shoulder bag, I took out the plastic folder I had brought from the Civil Registry Office that morning.

Michael immediately turned toward me.

His dark eyes locked onto my every movement.

There was a faint trace of confusion in them when he saw what I was holding.

I stopped exactly three steps in front of him, lifted my head, and held the folder out toward his chest.

“What is this, Ara?” Michael asked.

His voice was low, and his brow furrowed deeply.

I looked directly into the eyes that had once radiated a false warmth that made me lose myself.

“Our divorce petition, Michael,” I replied calmly, without the slightest trace of emotion.

Michael visibly stiffened.

His body suddenly tensed where he stood.

His eyes fixed sharply on the papers inside the plastic folder.

“Ara... are you joking?”

“I already signed the divorce papers this morning at the Civil Registry Office,” I continued, letting the words linger in the cold air of our living room. “Now, all that’s left is your signature.”

“What?!”

The cry of shock did not come from Michael.

It came from Sophia.

She immediately covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes sparkling with delight that she tried to hide beneath an expression of surprise.

Meanwhile, Michael remained frozen.

His eyes stared at the document in my hand in complete disbelief, as though he had just been struck by something he had never imagined would come from the lips of an Ara who had obediently followed him for the past three years.

***

Chapter 3:

POV : Arrabella

A suffocating silence spread between us.

The plastic folder in my hand still hung in the air, becoming an invisible barrier separating my world from Michael’s.

“You... want a divorce?”

Michael’s voice was low, almost like a whisper trapped in his throat.

He stared at me with eyes that were gradually darkening. There was a flash of unfamiliar anger in them, something I had never seen during the three years we had lived together under the same roof.

“Yes,” I replied softly but firmly, without looking away. “Isn’t this what you want the most?”

Michael snatched the folder from my hand with a rough jerk.

His breathing became uneven.

Instead of calmly opening the documents, his fingers tightened around the papers inside.

“Michael? What’s wrong?” Sophia whispered anxiously.

Her slender fingers reached for his arm, but he brushed her away without even looking at her.

I froze.

My eyes widened as I watched the documents I had painstakingly signed at the Civil Registry Office that morning being destroyed in Michael’s hands.

He crushed them into a wrinkled ball and threw them onto the floor without hesitation.

“What are you doing, Michael?!” Dona cried out from the sofa, rising to her feet with a shocked expression.

“I’m asking you, Ara!”

Michael stepped forward, closing the distance between us until I could smell his masculine cologne—an oddly familiar scent mixed with something foreign.

“Who gave you permission to go to the Civil Registry Office? Who allowed you to make such a foolish decision?”

I took a step back, trying to suppress the strange pounding in my chest.

I was confused.

Why was he so angry?

Hadn’t I already cleared the way for him to be with Sophia?

Why did he look like a wounded lion instead?

“Why are you angry?” I asked, my voice trembling from the pain I was trying to suppress. “My role is over, Michael. Sophia is back. The agreement from three years ago to save your family’s reputation after the wedding was canceled... has been fulfilled.”

“My role?”

Michael let out a harsh scoff.

His jaw tightened until the muscles in his neck stood out.

“You think this marriage is some kind of contract that you can end whenever you want?”

“Michael, darling, what’s wrong?”

Sophia interrupted.

Her fashionable face had gone pale and was filled with confusion.

She stared at the shredded papers on the floor in disbelief.

“Why did you tear them up? Wasn’t... wasn’t this what we talked about last night? We can be together again.”

Michael paid no attention to Sophia’s complaints.

His sharp, eagle-like gaze remained fixed on my face.

“Listen carefully, Ara. I will never divorce you. Not today, not tomorrow, and never.”

“Why?!”

My voice rose an octave, no longer able to contain the pressure burning inside my chest.

I pointed at Sophia with a trembling finger.

“Isn’t she the woman you love? Hasn’t your heart always belonged to her? Then why are you keeping me here? As a decoration? As a shield again?”

Michael remained silent.

His lips pressed into a tight line, unwilling to offer a single logical explanation for why he refused to let me go.

His absolute arrogance only made me feel more disgusted.

Just as he took another step closer, my eyes landed on the lipstick stain on his collar.

My chest tightened even more.

My head suddenly spun as last night’s phone call replayed in my mind.

The lingering heat of the night.

The satisfaction after reuniting.

Everything was vividly painted before me.

They had slept together last night, and now this man stood before me, refusing to divorce me without giving a clear reason.

How selfish.

“You disgust me, Michael,” I whispered.

The tears I had been holding back finally fell, warm against my cold cheeks.

“You came home carrying another woman’s mark on your body, and now you stand here forbidding me from leaving? Where is your conscience?”

Michael frowned and instinctively touched his collar.

A flash of panic crossed his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a cold, expressionless face.

“Ara, you don’t understand what really happened—”

“Then what happened?!” I challenged, taking a step forward despite my fear.

“Tell me! What reason do you have for refusing to sign those papers? Which room should I prepare for the two of you in this house before you’re finally satisfied?”

“Enough, Ara! Don’t push my anger any further!”

Michael’s roar echoed through the living room.

“Michael! Watch how you speak to your wife!”

Felix Siauw Cooper finally spoke.

He rose from the sofa with commanding authority and fixed his son with a warning stare.

Dona quickly walked toward us and deliberately positioned herself between us, blocking Michael’s view of me.

Then she glanced at Sophia, who was still standing there with a mixture of irritation and confusion on her face.

“That’s enough. Let’s put an end to this meaningless argument,” Dona said coldly.

Her eyes settled on Sophia with a clear message for her to leave.

“Sophia, go home. This is a matter between my son and daughter-in-law. Let the two of them talk and settle this without outside interference.”

“But, Aunt Dona—”

Sophia tried to defend herself, her face flushing red with embarrassment at being politely dismissed.

“I said leave, Sophia Muller,” Dona cut in, leaving no room for argument.

Sophia stomped her foot in frustration and looked at Michael as though demanding his help.

But Michael did not even glance at her.

His eyes remained fixed on me from behind his mother’s shoulder.

With obvious reluctance and a sour expression, Sophia finally turned around and hurried out of the Cooper residence, the sharp clicks of her high heels echoing harshly behind her.

After the front door closed firmly behind her, Dona turned to look at me before shifting her gaze to her husband.

“Dad, let’s wait upstairs in the study. Let them straighten out this mess in their heads.”

Felix nodded slowly.

He briefly patted Michael’s shoulder with a heavy hand, as though delivering a silent warning, before following his wife upstairs.

Now the living room was silent again.

Only Michael and I remained, accompanied by the torn pieces of the divorce papers scattered across the marble floor like the remains of shattered hopes.

I took a deep breath, wiped my tears away with the back of my hand, and looked directly at the man who had bound my life for the past three years.

“Don’t keep me here if my presence only brings me pain, Michael. Separation is the best thing for both of us. You get your freedom, and I... I can start rebuilding my broken life.”

Michael stood motionless.

His clenched fists at his sides slowly loosened, but the look in his eyes did not soften in the slightest.

A long silence crept between us once again, thick and suffocating.

He kept his mouth tightly shut, refusing to reveal the reason behind his illogical refusal.

“I don’t care what you say, Ara,” Michael finally replied.

His voice was cold, flat, yet absolutely unquestionable.

He turned his back on me and started walking toward the staircase without another glance.

“I still won’t divorce you.”

I stared at his broad back as it slowly disappeared around the bend of the stairs, my heart growing colder with every second.

The storm inside this house had only just begun.

***

Chapter 4:

POV : Arrabella

My hand tightened around the handle of the fabric suitcase resting on the marble floor.

Its wheels creaked softly as I dragged it past the shredded pieces of the divorce papers still scattered near the sofa.

I no longer cared about Michael’s arrogance.

If he refused to sign them now, I would ask the orphanage’s lawyer to handle the matter through legal means.

I had to leave today.

Just as my foot reached the first step leading toward the front door, a rough grip closed around my wrist.

“Let go, Michael!” I shouted, trying to shake his hand off.

Michael said nothing.

Instead of releasing me, he slipped one arm beneath my knees and the other behind my back.

In one swift movement, my body was lifted into the air.

He carried me by force.

“Michael, what are you doing?! Put me down!” I yelled, pounding my fists against his broad chest.

My struggle did nothing to slow his steady strides as he carried me back upstairs toward the master bedroom.

Bang!

The bedroom door was kicked open and then slammed shut just as roughly.

Michael strode toward the king-sized bed and tossed me onto it without the slightest hint of gentleness.

The mattress bounced beneath me, making my head spin slightly.

“Where are you going, Ara?” Michael asked.

His voice was low, hoarse, and filled with menace.

He immediately caged me in, bracing both hands beside my head, leaving me no room to escape.

“Away from your life! Away from this hell!” I shouted.

My breath caught in my throat as I saw the furious redness in his eyes.

I truly could not understand his behavior.

Why had he become so rough and possessive?

The way he acted today was completely different from that night two years ago—the first night after a year of our dull marriage when he had finally touched me as a husband should.

That night, Michael had been incredibly gentle and patient, as though he were afraid of hurting me, even though he returned to acting normal the next day.

But now?

The man standing before me looked like a stranger possessed by vengeance.

“I already told you,” Michael hissed. “You’re not going anywhere.”

Before I could reply, he lowered his face abruptly.

His lips silenced mine in a rough, demanding kiss filled with explosive emotion.

The scent of mint mixed with his strong cologne overwhelmed my senses.

I tried to resist and turn away, but his hand quickly gripped my jaw, forcing me to endure his relentless assault.

“Mmhh... Mi... chael...” I gasped between the forced kisses.

Every touch Michael gave me seemed to burn my skin.

Tears streamed from the corners of my eyes, dampening the pillow, yet my body betrayed my own mind.

Every time his warm fingers brushed against me, I lost the strength to resist.

The invisible bond forged over three years made my body respond to his touch as though I had been created solely to belong to him.

My coat fell to the floor.

The cold room suddenly transformed into a suffocating sea of fire.

For the first time in our three years of marriage, Michael crossed every boundary he had previously maintained between us.

There were no barriers left.

His actions carried a demanding intensity, ignoring every small sob that escaped my lips, as though he were trying to carve an undeniable mark of possession upon me so that I could never step beyond the line he had drawn.

Two hours passed in exhausting silence.

The room now smelled of sweat and despair.

Michael lay beside me, sleeping deeply from exhaustion.

His breathing was steady, rising and falling peacefully against the tangled sheets.

Slowly, I sat up and pulled the blanket around myself.

My eyes stared blankly at the ceiling as I mourned my own foolishness for surrendering once again to the same man.

Bzzzt... Bzzzt... Bzzzt...

The vibration of a phone on the nightstand beside Michael shattered the silence.

I glanced toward the illuminated screen.

The name “Sophia” flashed repeatedly.

I turned to look at Michael, who remained completely undisturbed in his deep sleep.

Moving carefully so as not to wake the sleeping lion, I reached out and picked up my husband’s phone.

My fingers trembled briefly before sliding the green button to answer.

I pressed the phone to my ear without saying a word.

“Michael? Have you finished dealing with that woman?”

Sophia’s voice immediately came through the line.

Her tone was no longer sweet and affectionate like it had been in the living room.

It sounded sharp and certain.

I remained silent, holding my breath.

“Michael, listen to me,” Sophia continued, believing she was speaking to him. “I know why you refused to divorce Ara right now. You did it on purpose, didn’t you? You want revenge on her for what she did three years ago.”

Thump.

My heart seemed to stop beating.

Every joint in my body suddenly turned weak.

“You’re deliberately keeping her in that house just to hurt her little by little, aren’t you?”

Sophia chuckled softly, a laugh that sounded horrifying to my ears.

“I know how your mind works, Michael. And I agree with your method. I’ll patiently wait here until you’re satisfied with destroying her. Ara is evil. She used the orphanage to separate us back then. She deserves every bit of that pain.”

Beep.

I immediately ended the call with trembling fingers.

The phone slipped from my grasp and landed softly on the bed.

My world collapsed.

It shattered into countless pieces that could never be put back together.

Oh.

So now I knew.

I finally understood the reason behind his furious outburst and absolute refusal in the living room earlier.

Tears flowed again without restraint, streaming down my pale cheeks.

I clutched my chest, which felt unbearably tight, as though all the oxygen in the room had vanished.

Silent sobs escaped my constricted throat.

Fool.

I truly was the most foolish woman in the world.

A few hours ago, when he tore up the divorce papers and looked at me with that flash of anger in his eyes, a ridiculous thought had crossed my mind.

For a moment, I had believed...

Maybe, just maybe, there was a little love or attachment that made Michael unwilling to let me go.

I had thought my husband might feel the same way.

It turned out I was completely wrong.

His refusal had nothing to do with love.

It was driven by the vengeance burning inside him.

He was keeping me here only to make me a target for his resentment because he believed I had driven Sophia away three years ago.

He wanted to destroy my heart and mind as revenge.

I turned and looked at Michael’s sleeping face beside me.

The face I had once adored now looked like a deadly chain ready to strangle me at any moment.

Everything that had happened earlier... all of it felt like part of his cruel plan to keep me trapped within a circle of suffering.

I wiped away my tears harshly, transforming them into a determination as cold as ice.

The pain in my body was nothing compared to the devastation inside my chest.

“Fine, Michael,” I whispered into the darkness of the room.

My voice was hoarse, yet sharp.

“If this is the game you want to play, I refuse to be your toy.”

Slowly, I lowered my feet to the floor, ignoring the ache spreading through my body.

I put my scattered clothes back on one by one.

It was time for me to leave.

This time, nothing would stop me.

Not Michael.

Not even the entire world.

I would never allow anyone to keep me trapped in this hell again.