---- Chapter 9 Eliza Todd POV: After they were escorted out of the building, a strange silence fell over my life. Weeks turned into months, and | heard nothing from Dante or Kamala. It was unnerving. | had braced myself for a long, ugly war, but all | got was quiet. Dante's construction business, | heard through the grapevine, was in serious trouble. A major project had fallen through, and he was on the verge of bankruptcy. Then, one evening, my phone exploded with a barrage of texts from Kamala. Kamala: This is all your fault, you bitch. Kamala: He' s a different person since you left. He won' t even look at me. Kamala: He took back the apartment. He cancelled my credit cards. He said he needs the money for his business. After everything |' ve done for him! | read the messages, a slow, cold smile spreading across my face. | took a screenshot of her complaints and posted it to my long-dormant Instagram account. My caption: To my dear friends who have been asking: No, l am ---- not back with my ex-husband. He seems to be quite busy with his pregnant girlfriend, whose luxury apartment and lavish lifestyle are apparently being funded by the marital assets he refuses to divide in our divorce. Please, someone tell him to sign the papers. Some of us have moved on. #Divorce # StartingOver | tagged several of our mutual friends, the ones who had whispered about me at parties and offered me their pitying smiles. Let them see the truth. Let them pick a side. | put my phone down and went back to work. | had a birthday dinner date with Jace tonight, and | wanted to finish my quarterly report. As | was leaving the office, | saw him waiting for me across the street. Not Jace. Dante. He looked terrible. He' d lost weight, and his expensive suit hung off his frame. There were dark circles under his eyes. "Happy birthday, Eliza," he said, forcing a smile. He was holding a single, wilted-looking rose. "Let me take you to dinner." Just as | was about to tell him to get lost, a car pulled up, and Kamala and Dante' s mother got out. "So this is your plan?" | asked, an incredulous laugh escaping my lips. "A romantic birthday ambush featuring your pregnant girlfriend and my monster-in-law?" ---- Dante' s face fell. "Kamala, what are you doing here? | told you Kamala, now eight months pregnant and the size of a small planet, waddled over and hid behind his mother, her face streaked with fresh tears. "Dante, son!" his mother shrieked, her voice grating on my nerves. "How can you still be chasing after this barren woman when your son is about to be born?" She lunged at me, her nails outstretched like claws. Dante quickly stepped between us, holding her back. "She's put a curse on you!" his mother wailed, thrashing in his arms. It was the same accusation she' d hurled at me for years, every time another round of IVF failed. | used to let it break my heart. Now, | felt nothing but a profound sense of relief that this woman would soon be out of my life forever. "Enough, Mom!" Dante yelled, his voice cracking with exhaustion. His mother, a born drama queen, promptly threatened to throw herself into traffic. The scene was so absurd, so utterly chaotic, that people on the busy sidewalk started to stop and stare. As Dante and his mother wrestled on the curb, Kamala rushed forward to "help." | instinctively took a step back, wanting no part of the ---- impending explosion. It happened in slow motion. Kamala, in her haste, tripped over her own feet. She let out a piercing scream as she fell, her massive belly hitting the pavement with a sickening thud. For a split second, | thought she had done it on purpose, that she was trying to pin her fall on me. A cold dread washed over me. But then | saw the blood. A dark pool spreading out from under her on the gray concrete. She wasn't faking. Dante and his mother stopped their theatrics, their faces frozen in horror. They scrambled to her side, their panicked shouts blending into the city noise as they bundled her into their car and sped away, leaving me alone on the sidewalk. The chaos was gone. The noise had faded. And as | stood there, watching their car disappear into traffic, | felt a weight | hadn't even realized | was carrying lift from my shoulders. This, | thought with a strange sense of clarity, was the best birthday present | had ever received. In "A Relationship Kept in The Dark" by CrushReel, the storyline unfolds as renowned photographer Jane finds herself drawn to the charismatic rookie model, Hector. Little does she know that Hector harbors a secret—he is actually the heir to a powerful business empire. As their romance blossoms, Hector grapples with concealing his true identity to capture Jane's heart. 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