Kneel, Darling, Your Trophy Wife Is Gone Chapter 17
We booked the earliest flight home.
The next morning, Damien and I returned to New York together. The moment the plane landed, the familiar
scent of the city rushed toward me, but this time, I felt nothing at all.
Like I had finally taken a broken chapter of my life and placed it back where it belonged.
We went straight to City Hall.
But before we could even walk inside, someone stepped directly into our path.
Ethan.
He must’ve rushed there in a hurry. His clothes were wrinkled, his hair messy, not even close to the perfectly controlled Don Moretti image he always maintained.
And in his eyes-
panic.
“Nora.”
His voice sounded tight.
“Even if you’re angry at me, you don’t need to use marriage to punish me.”
He stepped toward me instinctively.
“I already apologized. I promised you there won’t be anyone else again.” His breathing grew uneven. “What
else do you want from me?”
Damien’s expression darkened immediately, but before he could speak, I lifted a hand to stop him.
Then I looked calmly at Ethan.
“Ethan,” I said quietly, “have you always believed Damien was beneath you?”
Ethan glanced reflexively at Damien, disdain flickering through his eyes.
He never answered.
But he didn’t need to.
The answer was obvious.
A faint smile tugged at my lips.
“Then what about all those women you slept with before?” I asked. “Which one of them matched your
standards for a ‘proper lady’?”
I tilted my head slightly.
“Did you think they were better than me?”
Ethan frowned immediately.
“How is that the same thing? They were entertainment.”
His voice lowered.
“You’re different.”
“I already admitted I was wrong. There’s no need to keep dragging up the past.”
I nodded slowly.
“See?”
I looked directly into his eyes.
“That’s the difference between you and him.”
Then I turned slightly toward Damien.
“He respects me.”
“And you never did.”
Ethan’s expression shifted instantly.
“No-”
“No?” I cut him off calmly. “What about the club?”
My voice stayed steady, but every word landed clearly.
“If I hadn’t jumped…” I asked softly, “what do you think would’ve happened to me?”
Ethan fell silent.
So I continued.
“You never actually thought about it, did you? You just believed you could control everything.”
“You wanted to tame me. You wanted me to become some emotionless Moretti wife who never fought back.”
I slowly rolled up my sleeve, exposing the scar along my arm beneath the light.
“This came from the day you shoved me,” I said quietly. “There are scars on my legs too. The doctors said
they’ll never fully disappear.”
Then finally, I said the thing Ethan had probably feared hearing most.
“Your love only left me with this.”
Color drained from his face little by little.
His voice turned hoarse.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you…” Pain flickered visibly in his eyes. “I was just too afraid of losing you.”
A quiet laugh escaped me.
Cold.
Exhausted.
“So hurting me becomes acceptable as long as you didn’t mean to?”
I looked at him one last time.
“Ethan. If this is what love looks like-then I don’t want it.”
“And I can’t survive it.”
He froze completely.
Then softly, I gave him the final answer.
“Don’t ever say you love me again.”
“Because it makes me sick.”
After that, I turned away without looking back.
As I walked into City Hall, I heard footsteps behind me. But I never turned around.
Because I already knew-in that moment, Ethan finally understood something.
I wasn’t leaving him.
I had stopped belonging to him a long time ago.
Three years later, Damien and I settled in Milan.
He was still a lawyer, and I opened my own jewelry design studio.
That afternoon, I stood onstage accepting an international design award. The host smiled and asked where my inspiration came from.
I looked toward the audience.
Damien sat quietly in the corner watching me.
And suddenly, I smiled too
“Someone once told me,” I said softly, “that people don’t have to spend their whole lives following rules”
“That we’re allowed to live in our own way.”
I paused briefly before my voice grew lighter. Stronger.
“Metamorphosis.”
“It means breaking out of the cocoon.”
“It means being reborn.”
My eyes swept slowly across the crowd.
“This collection is for everyone who’s ever been trapped.”
“And for myself.”
Applause erupted through the hall.
As I stepped offstage, my eyes briefly caught a familiar figure sitting far in the distance.
Ethan.
Older now. Quieter too.
Almost like a stranger.
I heard life hadn’t treated him kindly these past few years. Some people said he was punishing himself.
Others said he was still waiting for an answer that would never come.
Someone once asked me if I would ever go back to him.
I only smiled.
Because the answer had already become obvious long ago.
Never.
I already had a new life.
A new love.
And a new version of myself.
