His Three Minutes Cost Him His Wife Chapter 09

His Three Minutes Cost Him His Wife Chapter 09

Two more months ticked by before Serena appeared outside my studio one evening at dusk, streetlights only just flickering to life across the 

town square. 

I later learned she’d snuck out of the Alpine Rest 

Wellness Retreat in Switzerland without alerting 

her assigned trauma care team, prompting Nico to 

fly cross–country to track her down to my coastal 

town. 

She’d wasted away drastically since I last saw her, 

sharp cheekbones protruding beneath sunken eye 

sockets stained dark gray with exhaustion. 

She wrapped tight inside a full–length white winter 

parka zipped all the way up to her chin. 

She bore zero resemblance to the polished, 

delicate, sheltered girl who’d always hidden behind. 

Nico’s protective frame years prior. 

Tears spilled down her cheeks the second her 

eyes locked onto mine. 

“Clara.” 

I didn’t utter a single word in response. 

“I’m begging you to go back to Nico’s side. He refuses to speak to anyone else at all now. He 

forced me to leave the townhouse and cut all contact with me, signing all legal property documents over to my name just to keep me far away from him. He’s truly in love with you, you have to come back to him.” 

Her tears streamed faster, a single droplet clinging to the curve of her chin catching faint streetlamp glow. 

She stretched cold, short–nailed fingers out to grab the sleeve of my outer coat. 

“Have you said everything you came here to tell me? If so, I’m heading back inside.” 

“Clara, how can you be this heartless?” 

I pulled my arm free of her loose grip gently. 

“Serena. You’ve spent fifteen years fighting to claim Nico as yours. I’m handing him over to you fully now–take him, he’s all yours.” 

A black SUV screeched to an abrupt stop along the curb beside the plaza seconds after my words left my mouth. 

Nico threw the passenger door open and sprinted 

toward us, raw panic etched deep into every line of his face, pupils shrunk tight, lips trembling 

uncontrollably. 

He skidded to a halt between Serena and me, 

spotting her outstretched hand reaching for my clothing, then shoved her body backward with one 

sharp hard push. 

Serena crashed backward onto the concrete plaza 

steps, the back of her skull slamming brutally 

against the stone stair edge with a dull hollow 

crack sound. 

Dark red blood seeped through her hairline, 

dripping down the jaw to soak into the white 

parka’s shoulder fabric in a spreading dark stain. 

Building security sprinted out from the studio 

entrance to kneel beside her injured frame, while 

Nico’s hired driver pulled out his cell phone to dial 

emergency services dispatch for an ambulance. 

Nico didn’t spare Serena one single glance toward 

her bleeding body on the stone steps, all his 

frantic attention fixed entirely on me. 

“I have no remaining ties to Serena whatsoever, 

Clara, you have to believe that truth.” 

I stared down at Serena curled on the pavement 

clutching her bleeding skull wound. 

Her wide eyes locked on Nico filled with utter hopelessness instead of rage. Her lips moved silently, faint whispers too quiet for my ears to 

catch. 

“Nico.” 

“You shoved a woman you’ve cared for, protected, and prioritized for fifteen full years to the hard concrete ground directly in front of my eyes. Do 

you think this violent display will win my trust or make me admire your loyalty? All I feel is 

unshakable terror watching how quickly you 

discard people who once meant everything to you. 

If you’re capable of hurting her this easily, you’ll 

turn on me the exact same way someday down 

the line.” 

Nico’s entire body locked rigid in place as if ice 

water had been dumped over his head, frozen 

solid without a single muscle twitch. 

“Clara, I would never lay a hand on you to hurt you, 

I swear it.” 

I circled around his unmoving frame and walked 

straight to my parked sedan along the curb, 

ignoring his desperate shouts echoing behind me 

the whole way to the driver’s side door. 

I turned the engine on and pulled away from the 

plaza. 

My rearview mirror held two stationary figures 

trapped under fully illuminated streetlights- Nico 

rooted to the pavement, Serena crumpled and 

bleeding across the stone steps, their overlapping 

shadows stretching wide across concrete. 

That night once I returned to my apartment, I 

unblocked Nico’s contact number from my 

phone’s blacklist to send one final text before 

re–blocking him permanently once more. 

[Do not attempt to locate or contact me for any 

reason moving forward. If you show up anywhere 

near my home or studio again, I will file paperwork 

for a permanent civil protective order against you 

through county court.] 

After hitting send, I blocked his number a second 

time, unfollowed every social media account 

linked to his identity, and exited every shared 

group chat we’d ever joined together online. 

I set my phone face–down flat on the kitchen 

counter and filled a glass with room–temperature 

leftover boiled water from earlier that day. 

I sipped the cold liquid, the image of Nico violently pushing Serena replaying on a loop through my mind nonstop. 

I felt no pity toward her at all–only overwhelming absurdity at the entire messy cycle of their shared 

history. 

Eight years of nightly three–minute phone calls, 

fifteen years of devoted care and protection, and 

in a split second he’d thrown her aside without 

remorse to prove his loyalty to me. 

If he could discard her that fast after over a 

decade of attachment, I had zero desire to 

become the next person he’d abandon without 

hesitation. That kind of obsessive, conditional 

love wasn’t something I’d ever willingly accept 

again.