The resounding noise of a hand striking someone echoed through the beautiful villa. Standing in front of each other were Nina and her husband, Jonathan.
Nina clasped her hand, feeling how her palm had numbed upon striking his face. Her eyes, however, burned with rage. Jonathan, on the other hand, simply touched the side of his mouth where her ring had cut him.
"Hah..." Jonathan scoffed, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth with his index finger. He snapped his eyes at the beautiful Nina, who was looking at him with equal disgust and fury.
"You..." Nina scoffed under her breath, almost in disbelief to the point where she didn’t know where to start. "Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Of all the places you could bring your woman, you’re going to take her to my house and screw her on my bed?!"
The more she spoke, the higher her voice became. By the end of her sentence, her voice echoed through the room.
"Hah!" Nina huffed, sneering at him in dismay. "Unbelievable. You disgust me."
Unfazed by his wife’s fury, Jonathan simply shrugged. "Nina, honey, I think there’s a misunderstanding—"
Another slap landed on his cheek before he could even finish his ridiculous excuse.
"A misunderstanding?" Nina laughed, brushing some stray hairs away from her face. "Jonathan, do you think I’m stupid? A stranger is sleeping on my bed, naked. How else would she end up in this house without being kicked out if not because of you?"
"But I wasn’t even there," he frowned.
"She’s sixteen—for God’s sake!" she roared, touching her head as she felt her anger rising to the top. "You promised... Jonathan, you promised not to mess around! I’m only out on a business trip for two days!"
Nina scoffed, her eyes getting teary with anger. She shook her head and took a few steps away from him. When he took a step to lessen their distance, she glared at him.
"Don’t touch me, don’t come near me, and don’t you dare show your face to me!" she screamed. "You... disgust me!"
After saying her piece, she turned her back on him and rushed to the master bedroom. At that point, she didn’t know why she had even dared to come into this room, which had the remnants of her husband and his affair. But when she arrived, she understood why this was the place she went to.
Kicking the door behind her, Nina set her eyes on the bed with fury. The longer she stared at it, the angrier she felt. Without thinking twice, she marched toward the walk-in closet and rummaged through all the drawers. When she found a pair of scissors, Nina grabbed them, walked back into the room, and went straight to the bed, stabbing the scissors into the mattress, pillows, sheets, and anywhere they could land.
"Disgusting! Disgusting!" she screamed while stabbing the pillow, ripping the cases with all her might. "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"
Nina vented her anger on the bed, with her husband and his other woman in mind, until she was panting for air and exhausted. Upon reaching her limit, everything was a mess. The feathers were scattered around the bed; the sheets were ripped, and the mattress now had holes in it.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she murdered the bed.
"Hah!" A huff escaped her as she looked around at the mess she had made. And yet, her heart was still not mended.
She might’ve ruined the bed and everything else, but the cut in her heart was still just as deep. In the end, Nina dropped the scissors and buried her face in her palms.
On the outside, her marriage was perfect. She was a successful woman with a career that many envied. Her husband was a member of the Pierson Family. Everyone in Nina’s circle wouldn’t stop talking about how they were a match made in heaven and how blessed Nina was. Because of this, many people wouldn’t even mention her birthright.
If anything, they all agreed that Nina was more suited to be the only daughter of the Bennets than Penny.
Initially, Nina agreed with everyone. She also thought she was blessed and that everything in her life was perfect. However, as this marriage slowly progressed, the story changed its path.
A marriage that she used to be proud of was slowly ruining her perfect life, which she had worked so hard for since childhood. It was slowly eroding the confidence she had painstakingly built because of her birthright.
"Haha..." A wicked laugh escaped her, tears still flowing down her cheeks. "How pathetic."
Nina ran her fingers through her messy hair, her eyes slowly dimming. She wiped her eyes, sporting a fierce look as she couldn’t stand looking so pathetic because of a man. Heaven and hell knew how Nina got to this point in life—heaven and hell knew just what she had to do to prove herself worthy of the Bennet name.
She couldn’t let this one simple affair ruin her.
"Nina..." Suddenly, a knock on the door was heard.
She gazed at the door, and a glint flickered across her eyes. ’I dated him because he’s a Pierson,’ she told herself. ’I shouldn’t cry about this because, at the end of the day, I’m now a Pierson. Don’t ask for more, Nina. You don’t need love.’
As long as she was Nina Pierson, someone who was respected and admired in the social circle, that was all that mattered.
It was a harsh reality Nina had to live and believe because, at the end of the day, her reputation was the most important thing for her. Even if her heart was bleeding from her husband’s affair, she couldn’t just leave or let him go.
She was benefiting from it.
With that thought in mind, Nina moved on. Even though she didn’t talk to him, days later, she forgave him.
She should’ve known this wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last, he would apologize for the same thing over and over again until she was losing her mind. Not only that, but eventually, Nina would have to see that his affairs weren’t Jonathan’s only problem; he was worse than that.
And in the end, there was only one question that would cross her mind: