Chapter 2

With the signed divorce papers in hand, Penelope could go straight to court and file. In less than two weeks, the divorce would be final. After finalizing the details with her lawyers, she went upstairs in a daze to begin packing. For years, her life had been so tightly entwined with Damian's that letting go of him felt like cutting away half of herself. Halfway through, she felt a sudden warm rush between her legs. Her period had started. Her 108th round of IVF had failed. Ever since the miscarriage five years ago, she hadn't been able to conceive again. Damian had always told her it didn't matter, that they could be happy without children. It'd just be the two of them. But Penelope knew the truth that he wanted a child desperately. More than once after the miscarriage, she had caught him holding her old ultrasound printouts, staring at them in silence. With Emma's constant pressure weighing on her, Penelope suggested IVF after two years of failed attempts to conceive naturally. Egg retrievals, embryo transfers—three relentless years of it had left her physically and emotionally drained, yet she never stopped trying. She wanted to give Damian a complete family. It was not just for herself but for him. Now, none of it mattered. Damain had turned her five years of pain and sacrifice into a cruel joke. That evening, Damian sent a driver to take her to the party. Before she even stepped into the private room, she could hear the voices inside, taunting. "I'm telling you, Damian, you've got some nerve. One wife at home isn't enough—you've got another family on the side. Aren't you afraid she'll find out?" Through the crack in the door, Penelope saw Damian tapping his lighter against the table, again and again. His voice held a sharpness she rarely heard from him. "If any of you dare run your mouth in front of Penelope, don't expect me to show mercy." Leroy Jackson chuckled, trying to break the tension. "Come on! Everyone knows Penelope is your whole world. If anyone was going to spill something, they would've done it five years ago when she lost the baby—not now." Penelope's breath caught. Five years ago… So, while she had been lying awake night after night, drowning in grief over their lost child, he had already been sleeping with Jasmine? "But you've gotta admit, those twins of yours are adorable. If they were mine, I'd be proud too," Leroy continued. That seemed to strike the right chord with Damian. A faint smile curved his lips, and even his eyes softened. "Then go have your own." "Still, I've got to hand it to you. To make sure those twins would inherit all that you have someday, you went as far as swapping Penelope's prenatal vitamins for birth control pills. And those failed IVF attempts? I'm guessing you had a word with the clinic about that too?" Damian's gaze flickered. "As long as Penelope doesn't have children, Samson and Sienna will always have a place in the Ingram family." Penelope's fingers trembled, pain tearing through her chest like a blade slicing her open, inch by inch. For Jasmine and those twins, Damian had used her feelings and her body like bargaining chips. She thought of all those times over the past five years when he had told her, "It's okay. It'll work the next time." The memory now made her sick. He had given her hope again and again, only to crush it with his own hands. He had watched her struggle, break, and fight for five long years, and he hadn't felt even the faintest shred of guilt. Penelope closed her eyes slowly, willing the tears not to fall. A man like Damian wasn't worth it. He wasn't the boy she had once known. Her phone rang at just the right moment. "Honey, where are you? Why aren't you here yet?" Penelope pressed a hand against the dull ache in her abdomen. "My period started. I'm not feeling well, so I just went home." Damian didn't question her. He only told her to rest. By the time Penelope got home, she felt so drained that she didn't even want to speak. Lying in bed, she stared blankly at Damian's Instagram profile picture. Almost without thinking, she opened her blocked list and pulled up Jasmine's account. That was when she saw it—matching profile photos. Her hands trembled as she tapped into Jasmine's feed. The most recent post was made just ten minutes ago. "Surrounded at the party with my babies. No one understands a mom's pride in moments like this!" Nine photos. In every one, Damian was holding the kids, smiling as if he didn't have a care in the world. The tears Penelope had been holding back finally spilled over, splashing onto her phone screen. So, after she decided to skip the party, he wasted no time calling Jasmine to take her place. She kept scrolling. Jasmine's feed was filled almost entirely with photos of the children and Damian. All those nights, he had been with Jasmine. Even last year, when her mother was dying and Penelope had called him over and over with no answer, he had been with Jasmine, celebrating her birthday. Penelope turned off her phone. Her expression was blank, a bitter smile tugging at her lips. "Damian… just how much more have you been hiding from me?" she thought.