He Threw His Pregnant Wife Out on Christmas Eve for His Mistress – A Private Helicopter Landed for Her in Minutes.
The Lie of Christmas Eve
She looked at her suitcase sitting by the front door. Brown leather, the one she had gotten for their honeymoon in Italy. It was packed, zipped closed, ready to go. He had done this while she was at her doctor’s appointment. While Doctor Sloan was checking on the baby, while Charlotte was looking at ultrasound images and crying happy tears because her daughter was healthy and strong. Derek had been here, packing her things, planning this moment.
“You planned this?” Charlotte said. Her voice was steadier now. Something was hardening inside her; some protective wall was going up. “You waited until Christmas Eve. You knew my grandmother is in Switzerland for the holidays. You knew my brother Theodore is in Tokyo on business. You knew I would have nowhere to go,”.
Derek smiled. It was not a nice smile. It was the smile of a man who had just won a game, a man who had outmaneuvered his opponent. “You were always smarter than you let on, Charlotte,”. “Yes, I planned it. I planned every detail and now I need you to leave. You are ruining my Christmas,”.
Ruining his Christmas. Charlotte almost laughed. She was standing in her own foyer, eight months pregnant, being thrown out into a snowstorm, and she was ruining his Christmas. Vanessa pressed closer to Derek. Her body language was triumphant, possessive. She had won and she wanted Charlotte to know it.
“Derek, maybe we should just let her stay in the guest house until the storm passes,” Vanessa said. Her voice was sweet, saccharin, dripping with false concern. “I mean, she is pregnant. It seems cruel to just throw her out,”.
“No,” Derek’s voice was sharp, final. “She leaves tonight. That was the deal,”.
Charlotte caught something in those words: that was the deal. What deal? With whom?. But her mind could not focus. The baby was kicking frantically now. Her heart pounded so hard she could hear it in her ears. The cold from the open front door seeped into her bones, into her blood, into her soul. She had to think; she had to be smart. She had to figure out what to do next.
But all she could see was Vanessa in her robe, Vanessa wearing her grandmother’s pearls, Vanessa standing in the spot where Charlotte had stood for eight years. In the home Charlotte had decorated, in the life Charlotte had built.
“My things,” Charlotte said. Her voice sounded far away, like it belonged to someone else. “My clothes, my mother’s jewelry, my photographs, my—”.
“I packed what you need,” Derek said. He nodded toward the suitcase. “The rest stays. This is still my house, my furniture, my life,”.
“Our house. We bought it together. We decorated it together. We built a life here together,”. “With my money,” Derek’s voice was cold, cutting. “You work at a non profit, Charlotte. Let us be honest about who paid for what around here. Your little charity salary would not even cover the property taxes,”.
The cruelty of it took her breath away. She had worked at that nonprofit by choice. She had hidden her family’s wealth. She had driven a Honda instead of a Mercedes. She had worn clothes from regular stores instead of designer boutiques. Because she wanted Derek to love her for herself. Not for her name, not for her money, not for the Ashford legacy that stretched back five generations. She had wanted to be just Charlotte. A woman who worked hard and loved deeply and believed in the goodness of people.
And now Derek was using that choice against her, weaponizing her humility, turning her sacrifice into evidence of her worthlessness.
You Are Nobody
Charlotte pulled out her phone. Her hand shook so badly she almost dropped it. She scrolled through her contacts with numb fingers. Grandmother Eleanor in Switzerland: 11 at night there, probably asleep. Brother Theodore in Tokyo already. Tomorrow morning there, in meetings all day. Best friend Maggie working a double shift at the hospital, delivering other people’s babies while Charlotte’s world fell apart.
She checked her messages, nothing new. She refreshed the screen, pulled down with her thumb, watched the little spinning wheel. Still nothing. The screen stayed dark, empty, mocking her. She was completely alone.
“Who would I call?” Derek, her voice cracked on his name. “It is Christmas Eve. Everyone I love is thousands of miles away. My grandmother is across an ocean. My brother is on the other side of the world. My best friend is saving lives at the hospital,”.
She looked at him, this man she had loved, this man she had married, this man whose child grew inside her, kicking and squirming, sensing its mother’s distress. “You made sure of that, did you not? You made sure I had no one to turn to, no one to help me, no one to witness what you are doing right now,”.
Derek glanced at his watch. Actual gold Rolex, a gift from Charlotte last Christmas. She had saved for months to buy it for him, had thought it would make him happy. “You have five minutes,” he said. “Pack whatever else you want from that suitcase. Then get out,”. “If you are not gone by 8:15, I am calling the police to remove you from my property,”.
“Your property? My name is on the deed,”. “Charlotte, you wanted everything in my name, remember? Said it was more romantic that way. Said you trusted me completely,”.
She had said that. She remembered now. They had been sitting with the real estate lawyer three years ago, signing papers for this house. Derek had suggested putting everything in both their names. Charlotte had said no, had insisted his name alone was fine. Because she trusted him, because she loved him. Because she never imagined she would need legal protection from the man who held her heart. God, she had been stupid.
Charlotte stared at Derek, really looked at him. Tried to see past the handsome face and the charming smile, to the creature underneath. She did not recognize him anymore. Maybe she never had. Maybe the man she fell in love with had never existed at all.
She bent down slowly; her pregnant belly made everything awkward. Picked up her suitcase. It was heavy, too heavy for a woman eight months pregnant with swollen ankles and an aching back. But she would not ask for help. Not from him, never from him again.
She straightened her spine, lifted her chin, met his eyes one last time. “You will regret this, Derek,” her voice was steady now. The wall inside her had finished forming: hard and cold and protective. “Not because of anything I will do. Not because of revenge or retaliation. But because you have no idea who you just threw away,”.
Derek laughed. The sound echoed through the marble foyer, bounced off the expensive walls and the custom chandelier, and all the beautiful things Charlotte had chosen for this house. “Right. The girl who worked at the non profit when I met her. The girl who drives a ten year old Honda. The girl whose grandmother lives in a modest cottage somewhere on the coast,”.
He leaned close. His breath smelled like the whiskey he had been drinking, expensive whiskey, from the bottle Charlotte had bought for their anniversary. “I know exactly who you are, Charlotte. You are nobody. You have always been nobody, and now you are going to disappear, just like you should have years ago,”.
