The End Of Lady Rhea Montgomery

The large hallway was deathly silent as the Lady of the house marched down it, maids and butlers parting like the sea for the enraged woman.

The doors up ahead that lead to her Lord-husband's study grew closer and Rhea sped up, her heels clicking loudly against the pristine floorboards.

"My lady!" A man yelled as he rushed past her and then placed himself between her and the door.

"What is the meaning of this...."

"You can't go in there." He insisted, his expression blank and shoulders tense, as if preparing for a fight.

Rhea's lips parted in shock at his behaviour, her perfectly plucked brows lifting as she processed what his protectiveness over the room meant.

All her suspicions, fears, and the ugly whispers that trailed after her wherever she went, for the past couple of months, were being proven true and she struggled to come to terms with it.

"Get out of my way, Fredrick." She commanded while glaring up at the man.

"Lord Lonan instructed that he is not to be disturbed...."

"I am his wife." She interrupted, sharply. "I am the one person in this manor who holds as much authority as he does so I command you to get out of my way before I exercise that authority and have you removed from my property."

The butler hesitated, his loyalty to his Lord battling with his loyalty to his Lady.

Finally, he moved aside with a defeated sigh.

"I am so sorry, Lady Rhea." He apologised with his head handing low, too ashamed to look her in the eye.

Rhea looked away from him and placed her hands on the doorknob, her heart beating in her chest as she pressed down and pushed the door open.

"Lonan," Rhea called out to her husband as her eyes searched the room until they finally landed on a sight she had never once thought she would see.

Disgust twisted Rhea's face as the two adults hurriedly pulled apart and scrambled to fetch their clothes, flung carelessly around the Count's study, and cover their nudity

"I thought I said I did not wish to be disturbed?" Lonan quarrelled with ferocity as he helped his partner gather her colourful clothes from the floor.

A thousand emotions raged inside Rhea as she made her way closer to the pair, her eyes tracking their nervous movements.

The young woman froze when Rhea finally came to a stop in front of her and she glanced nervously at her partner in crime.

"My Lady..."

"How long?" Rhea interrupted, sharply.

"Lord Lonan and I love each other...."

"How long?" Rhea repeated, impatiently, turning to her husband for an answer.

Lonan pursed his lips, his handsome face growing wrinkled from how hard he was frowning. "Long enough."

Tears gathered in Rhea's eyes and she quickly wiped them away with her handkerchief, fighting hard to hide how hard the betrayal had gotten to her.

"H-how could you do this to me?" She whimpered, choking on a sob.

"Rhea," he sighed, tiredly, running a hand through his blond hair.

"Seven years. I have given you seven years of my life!" She screamed, dainty fingers held up to emphasise her point.

"...that I never asked for," he said with a humourless scoff, his lips curling in a sneer.

Rhea flinched like she had been slapped, her wet eyes going wide with disbelief.

"Oh, do not act so shocked. Hardly a month had gone by before we married and our 'I dos' were the only words we said to each other on the damn day!" He ranted, passionately, emboldened by her silence.

"I do not know what had possessed me to want you then but the veil has been lifted from my eyes and I am done pretending otherwise."

His words tore into Rhea's heart like a thousand glass shards, and she did not realise when tears began streaming down her cheeks.

He always had a way of making her feel small and even in that moment, Rhea felt like she was somehow at fault.

"B-but.... Seven years, Lonan! Seven years has to mean something to you!" She pleaded, desperately, all her anger forgotten.

He scoffed and turned to his desk with a narrowed gaze as if he could see something she couldn't.

"You are right, Rhea. Seven years does mean something to me," he agreed with a nod, turning to stare at her.

Rhea smiled, her heart swelling with fragile hope that was quickly crushed when she saw disgusted sneer marring his features.

"It means seven years of misery and depression. Seven years of loathing the body that I let sleep next to me. Seven years of wishing I could place my pillow over your face and press down until you stop twitching....."

"Lonan," she gasped, shocked by his painful words. "Why... You could have said something. We could have- No, we can work through ... "

"And most importantly," he interrupted with a finger raised to silence her, "It means seven years of holding you while you cried by an empty crib in an empty nursery that is just as old and sad as our marriage."

Tears blurred Rhea's vision as her trembling arm wrapped around her flat belly she had once been proud of, in her girlhood, but now served as a constant reminder of her failure as a woman and a wife.

"I am trying," she whispered, brokenly, almost pleading with him to understand.

"Not enough if I need to find another woman to carry out your responsibility." Lonan accused with that easy cruelty he possessed and then turned around, making his way back to his desk.

Brows furrowed in confusion, Rhea turned to the woman who had been silently watching their exchange and the puzzle pieces slowly came together when her gaze fell on the woman's midsection.

There was a swell, small but firm enough to stand out on her slender figure. The protective hand that was placed on the bump, when she noticed Rhea's attention confirmed her observation and the young Countess felt what was left of her sanity shatter.

"How could you?!" Rhea wailed, turning to her husband who was now approaching her with a file in hand. "After all we have been through together! The sacrifice..."

"I am Lord of Riverian, Rhea." He informed her, matter-of-factly. "I can not afford to wait for my barren wife to give me an heir."

"I am not barren! It is just taking time but it will happen!" She cried, trying desperately to reason with him.

"And how much longer do I have to wait? Ten years? Twenty years? Or maybe thirty when I'm too old to enjoy fatherhood?" He mocked with a small laugh, his eyes staring cruelly into hers.

"No. I am done waiting." Lonan declared to the room. "And I am done with this joke of a marriage."

He held the file out to her and Rhea stared at it like it was some strange, otherworldly creature.

Rhea knew what it was, she would be foolish not to after hearing his confessions, yet her mind refused to accept that Lonan, her Lord-husband, the man who was her everything was so willing to end them.

"You will be duly compensated for your time as Countess of Riverian, and I will even allow you have the summer house in the valley, alongside some other properties and a share in whatever investments we made during the course of our marriage. Enough that you do not have to work a day in your life." He assured, like some money and a handful of property would make up for the heartbreak and humiliation of what he had done.

Rhea shook her head, her fists tightening at her sides as she refused to accept the papers.

With a roll of his eyes, he let go and it flopped down to the carpet with a soft thud, the sound deafeningly loud in the quiet room.

"Sign it and have it on my desk by tomorrow morning," he commanded, strictly as he made his way over to his younger lover. "And have your things packed and ready before the end of the week. I wish to avoid this becoming an ugly or bitter affair as most Lords and Ladies tend to make divorce."

"Lonan. Please, don't do this," Rhea begged one last time as she watched her husband guide the woman, whose name she had not even been graced to learn, out of the room.

But, she was left with no repsonse from the disappearing man, her bruised heart the the only remains of their empty marriage.

Alone and abandoned, the heartbroken woman dropped to her knees beside the wretched papers and broke into shuddering sobs, desperately trying to the nightmare that had become her life.