Kneel, Darling, Your Trophy Wife Is Gone Chapter 04
When I woke again, it was already afternoon.
My body still felt heavy, like I’d been torn apart and stitched back together overnight. Something cold weighed against my left ring finger.
I lifted my hand slowly.
A ruby ring sat there silently.
Bigger than the last one. Brighter. More expensive. And somehow even more possessive.
I stared at it for several seconds, forcing myself not to rip it off before finally getting out of bed.
Breakfast had already been arranged on the dining table, delicate and extravagant enough to feel ceremonial.
The maid bowed respectfully the moment she saw me.
“Donna,” she said softly, “Don Moretti arranged for a massage therapist to come by this afternoon. He asked that you stay in and rest.”
I didn’t answer.
I only turned toward the window.
The roses in the courtyard were still there.
Endless waves of red, planted by Ethan with his own hands years ago.
“Dig them up,” I said quietly.
Arthur—the longtime butler of the Moretti estate—froze where he stood.
“Donna… Don Moretti planted those roses especially for you back then. He said they represented his feelings for you.”
A faint smile touched my lips.
“I know. I just don’t like them anymore.”
After a pause, I added softly, “People are the same.”
Arthur hesitated for a long time before finally obeying.
As the soil was turned over, the roots of the roses were ripped apart inch by inch, like memories being violently dragged out into the open.
After everything was cleared away, I had the staff pour gasoline over the garden.
The second the fire caught, heat and smoke rushed upward with the wind. The entire rose garden ignited instantly.
The roses burned fast, swallowed whole by the fire until nothing beautiful was left anymore.
I stood there silently, watching the fire consume everything.
And suddenly, I remembered something Ethan once said.
“Roses are gorgeous. Bright. Dangerous. Just like you. That’s why I want this place filled with them.”
Back then, the way he looked at me had felt so sincere. Almost real.
But later, I realized he spoke like that to every woman.
Lilies. Peonies. Orchids.
Every flower became another excuse for his version of love.
The fire was nearly out when I heard the sound of an engine outside.
Ethan was home.
He stepped out wearing a perfectly tailored black suit, Hazel beside him with a satisfied smile lingering on her face.
His gaze swept across the burned courtyard before finally settling on me.
He didn’t look surprised.
If anything, he looked like a man examining something he owned that had suddenly stopped behaving properly.
“So you even burned the roses.” His voice stayed calm. “Looks like you finally developed a temper, Nora.”
I met his eyes evenly.
“Miss Hazel is staying over tonight?” I asked softly. “Should I have someone prepare a room for her?”
Hazel’s smile deepened instantly.
But beside her, Ethan’s expression darkened little by little until the entire atmosphere turned cold.
The next second, he flung a stack of papers straight at me.
The documents scattered across the floor, pages sliding everywhere. Right at the top, in sharp black letters—
DIVORCE AGREEMENT.
For a moment, the entire room went silent.
Even my heartbeat seemed to stop.
Ethan stared at me, his voice low and dangerous beneath the fury barely restrained in his eyes.
“What the hell is this, Nora?”
I crouched down slowly and gathered the papers one by one.
My fingertips trembled slightly, but my face stayed calm. “I’ve wanted a divorce for a long time,” I said quietly. “You already knew that.”
Something sharp flickered across his expression.
“You want out of this marriage that badly?”
He started walking toward me step by step, the pressure in his gaze growing heavier with each one.
“Fine.”
“If you don’t want to be the Donna of the Moretti family anymore, then stop acting like one.”
He paused deliberately, making sure every word hit hard enough.
“From today on, you serve this house like the staff.”
“And the Donna position—”
Only then did he glance toward Hazel.
“She’ll take it.”
For some reason, I suddenly found it funny.
So a position really could be replaced that easily.
Like a ring. Like a woman. Like a promise.
I lowered my eyes.
“Okay.”
The answer left my mouth too fast. Too calm.
Fast enough that Ethan actually paused for half a second, like something had slipped outside his control.
His jaw tightened sharply, anger flashing darker in his eyes.
“Since you want to play obedient now,” he said coldly, “then start by serving her properly.”
His gaze locked onto me like an order already decided.
“Kneel.”
“Change her shoes.”
