He Destroyed My Life, But Broke Down When I Took The Pills

Even though I knew Julian didn't love me, I still married him for a family business merger. On our wedding day, I caught him hooking up with his young stepmother, Veronica, in the restroom. To get back at him, I crawled into his best friend Carter's bed on our wedding night. When Julian found out, he wasn't angry at all. He just laughed about it with Carter over drinks. "Julian, gotta admit, your wife is damn wild in bed. You really not tempted?" "You like her? Go sleep with her again tonight. I'm never touching her anyway." I lost my mind and smashed our brand-new penthouse to pieces. For the next five years, we lived in pure mutual hatred. He systematically destroyed my family's business until we went bankrupt. My father was thrown into prison. My brother died in a horrific car crash. And my mother, who had once treated me like a princess, yanked my hair and screamed through hysterical tears: "This is all your fault! If you hadn't provoked Julian, our family would never have ended up like this!" "You got your brother killed! You're the one who should be dead!" That was the moment I finally broke. I agreed to the divorce. And I agreed with my mother. The one who deserved to die was me. When I got home that evening, I searched the house and gathered every single sleeping pill I could find. Suddenly, Julian walked in. I quickly shoved the pill bottle under my pillow. Tears soaked the pillowcase, but Julian didn't notice. He roughly unbuttoned my nightgown. "Daisy, you've fought me for five years. It's time you learned to behave." Behave... My eyes flickered. If this were the past, I would have shoved him off like a maniac, slapped him across the face, and sworn that I'd never let him know peace for the rest of his life. Now, just as he said, I was done. I lay there like a dead fish, letting him do whatever he wanted. Seeing that I wasn't fighting back, Julian paused. He frowned, a flash of surprise in his eyes. "Since when did you become so boring?" "Weren't you screaming plenty loud in Carter's bed back then?" He grabbed my chin and forced my face toward him, only to feel the wetness on my cheeks. Julian froze. "What are you crying for?" The scent of Veronica's perfume clinging to him made my stomach churn. I looked at him. From his unbuttoned collar to his moving throat, to the lips that had just bruised mine, and finally into his dark eyes. Our gazes met for a split second before I looked away. I parted my dry lips. "If you want to use me to get off, hurry up." "I want to sleep." Julian's grip on my jaw tightened violently, the mocking look in his eyes instantly turning dark and dangerous. "What did you just say?" He was angry. My throat tightened. What did he have to be angry about? Wasn't this what he wanted? For me to finally be quiet? Julian stared down at me in silence for a long time. Seeing that I wouldn't react, his grip gradually slackened. Finally, he let out a cold sneer. "Daisy, you really never run out of tricks. Now you're playing hard to get?" He stood up and straightened his clothes. A small, square box bulged in his trouser pocket. Julian hesitated for a second, then tossed it onto the bed in front of me, looking down at me with disdain. "Seeing as you're still my legal wife, I figured I should compensate you with something after bankrupting your family." "Be a good girl, Daisy, and the title of Mrs. Vance is still yours." The corner of the velvet box hit my shoulder when it landed, sending a dull ache through my skin. I didn't move. I didn't even glance at it. Julian stared at me for a few beats, then scoffed. "Your family brought this on themselves. You have to take what's coming to you, so wipe that dead expression off your face." "Take the gift or leave it. I don't give a damn." He grabbed his suit jacket and walked out. Long after the front door clicked shut, I pulled the bottle of pills from under my pillow and stared at it blankly. When should I take them? Tomorrow night, I decided. Tomorrow was my mother's birthday. I would go see her one last time.The next afternoon, I carried a cake to the psychiatric hospital. When I saw my mother, I forced a smile onto my face. "Mom, I came to see you." Her back stiffened against the bed, but she didn't turn around. I swallowed the lump in my throat, opened the box, and set it on the small table. "Mom, it's your birthday today. It's strawberry, your favorite." "Have a little piece, okay?" I spent four hours baking it. Just take one bite, Mom. This is the last time... Before I could finish, a sudden weight struck the back of my head. The next second, my face was shoved violently into the cake. "Get out!" My mother shoved me frantically toward the door. "Go die! Go die and keep Leo company!" The frosting smeared across my eyes, nose, and mouth, thick and suffocating, making it hard to breathe. I tried to speak through the sticky cream. "Mom..." My foot caught on the threshold, and my body slammed against the doorframe. My mother screamed hysterically: "So what if Julian was sleeping with Veronica? You should have just pretended you didn't know! Why did you have to throw a tantrum, Daisy?" "How did I raise such an ungrateful, useless bitch!" "Daisy, go die! Just hurry up and die!" Tears broke free, spilling hot down my sticky cheeks. My hands shook uncontrollably. Once, she had loved me more than anyone in the world. She used to hold me close and say, "No matter what you want to do, Daisy, our family will always have your back." Now, she hated me to the point of madness. She wanted me dead. Was everything I did over the last five years really a mistake? I kept my head down, staring at the linoleum floor. It took me a long time to find my voice. "Okay." I'll listen to you. I'll die. Maybe it was the utter lifelessness in my voice, but she froze for a second. Then, with a loud slam, she shut the door in my face. I stood frozen in the hallway for what felt like hours until feeling returned to my limbs. Step by step, I dragged myself to the public restroom to wash the frosting off my face. As the freezing tap water splashed against my skin, my mind cleared. I stared at the pale, hollow face in the mirror. Marrying Julian five years ago was the biggest mistake of my life. Tonight, that mistake would finally end. When I walked out of the hospital, the sky had turned grey and heavy with rain. I had no umbrella, and I didn't bother calling an Uber. I walked aimlessly through the cold drizzle. By the time my clothes were soaked through and my teeth were chattering, a tall shadow stepped in front of me. The rain abruptly stopped falling on my head. I looked up. Julian was holding an umbrella, his dark eyes staring down at me with an unreadable expression. Behind him, through the floor-to-ceiling glass of an upscale lounge, sat Carter, Veronica, and several of their wealthy friends.Julian dragged me straight into their VIP booth. "Well, well. Look at that. Has the ruined princess fallen so low she can't even afford an umbrella?" Carter leaned back on the plush sofa, a mocking smirk on his lips. "Sleep with me one more time, Daisy, and I'll buy you one." Laughter erupted around the room. One of the guys nudged Carter's shoulder, chuckling crudely: "Come on, man. Just how wild was Daisy in bed that you're still obsessing over her five years later?" "Hey, Julian, since you don't care about her anyway, why not let her service the rest of us? We can afford to pay." Disgusting, degrading comments flew across the table one after another. Julian sat in the center of the booth, swishing the amber whiskey in his glass. After a long pause, the corner of his mouth curved up into a cold smirk. "Be my guest." The booth erupted into rowdy cheers. Veronica's smile turned triumphant, though she put on a show of lightly slapping Julian's arm. "Stop it, you guys. What kind of men pick on a defenseless girl?" She leaned close to Julian, pressing against him. "Technically, Daisy is my stepdaughter-in-law. You two have been married for five years, and I never gave you a proper welcome gift." At her words, Julian's expression darkened, an undeniable hint of jealousy flashing in his eyes. In the past, seeing them like this would have driven me to tear the room apart. Now, the fire inside me was completely extinguished. I just wanted it all to be over. I turned to leave, but Veronica stood up and grabbed my wrist. "Since we ran into each other today, take the Vance family heirloom bracelet." With that, she slipped a heavy jade bangle from her wrist and tried to force it onto mine. The next second, the jade shattered on the marble floor! Veronica stumbled back with a gasp, collapsing straight into Julian's arms. Tears instantly welled in her eyes. "Daisy, I know you don't like me, but I'm still your mother-in-law by law. You didn't have to push me and break the family heirloom..." Her voice choked up with manufactured pain: "Julian, I think I sprained my ankle." The same old trick. Over the past five years, Veronica had framed me like this countless times. Her acting was clumsy, her excuses paper-thin. Yet Julian believed her every single time. Today was no different. Julian's face twisted with rage as his fingers clamped around my wrist like a vice. "Daisy, have I not broken you enough? Are you still completely unrepentant?" "Apologize to Veronica." I looked down at the hand bruising my wrist. "Fine," I said softly. I looked up into his eyes. "How do you want me to apologize?" "On my knees? Begging? Or by getting on my back for your friends?" Once, my pride was higher than the sky. But now, what did humiliation matter compared to death? I turned my eyes toward the men lounging in the booth. "If it's the last option, please hurry up. I want to be home before dark." "Daisy!" Julian shoved my hand away with sudden violence. The entire room fell dead silent. After several agonizing seconds, someone whispered, "Holy shit, she's actually psycho." The quiet murmur echoed loudly in the stillness. "Shut up." Julian shot the man a murderous glare. "Keep your damn mouths shut." He stared at me, his chest heaving, until Veronica tugged softly at his suit jacket, crying quietly: "Julian, it hurts so bad." Julian snapped back to reality. He scooped Veronica into his arms and headed for the exit. "I'm taking you to the hospital." Before walking out the door, he stopped and looked back at me over his shoulder for the very first time. His gaze was dark, conflicted, and strange. Not long after, my phone buzzed with a message on SnapChat. Julian: [Wait for me at home tonight. About what happened today... I'll let you explain.] The corners of my mouth curled into a hollow smile. Julian, you want an explanation. But tonight... I'm not waiting for you.Once Julian left, the others quickly cleared out, sensing the shift in the air. I was the only one left in the booth. I stared at the screen for a moment, then quietly blocked and deleted his contact. I took a cab back to our cold, empty house and began sorting through my things. Item by item. Box by box. When I reached the very bottom of the closet, my hands paused. It was a thick, worn stack of letters that had never been sent. They were love letters I wrote to Julian when we were teenagers. Everyone thought our marriage was purely a business deal. No one knew that I had secretly loved him for years. Even during the messiest, most miserable years of our marriage, I hadn't been able to let him go. I looked down at the bold, rebellious handwriting on the first page: [Julian Vance, just you wait. I'm going to make you fall in love with me.] It felt like another lifetime. Just a pile of useless paper. With a blank face, I tossed them toward the trash can, but a hand suddenly reached out from behind me and snatched them away. Carter stood there, flipping through the pages with a nasty, mocking glint in his eyes. I didn't care how or when he got into the house. I just held out an empty hand. "Give them back." He skimmed the letters, a sneer spreading across his face. "You want them?" "Daisy, so this was the filthy little secret behind all your tantrums over the years? Don't flatter yourself. To Julian, you're not even worth as much as a stray dog." Those words sounded familiar. I remembered a fight Julian and I had during our first year of marriage. He had looked at me with cold disgust and said: "Daisy, you throw all these fits just to get my attention, don't you?" "Do you think you're worthy? To me, you're just a pathetic dog begging for scraps." I stayed silent for a moment. When I spoke, my voice was as flat as stagnant water. "What do you want, Carter?" The smell of alcohol rolled off him as he stepped closer, his smile predatory. "Daisy... sleep with me again." He pulled out his phone, set it on the nightstand, and hit record. "Face the camera. Let's do it one more time." He shoved me down onto the mattress, leaning over me with a leering grin: "I've always regretted not recording it back then. You were screaming so loud." I didn't fight him. My hand slipped beneath the pillow, fingers wrapping tightly around the plastic pill bottle. ... Across town, Julian pulled up to the driveway of the villa. He checked his phone. Daisy hadn't replied to his message. She hadn't even sent her usual angry curses. He frowned and typed: [Daisy, I'm home.] [I told you that you're still Mrs. Vance. Stop throwing your spoiled tantrums.] The only response was a red exclamation mark. She had blocked him. "Daisy!" He stepped through the front entrance, and the sight of dark red smudges on the floor violently hit his eyes. Julian's pupils shrank to pinpricks. He kicked the door open with a violent slam.