---
Zainab's story was no longer silent.
Her fingers danced across the keyboard every night, pouring every emotion into a secret manuscript: a story about a young woman forced into a marriage with a powerful billionaire — and how she took her power back.
She titled it:
"The Real Wife."
---
Meanwhile, Yusuf noticed the shift.
She no longer flinched around him.
She dressed like confidence.
She walked like a queen.
And worst of all for him…
She didn't look at him with love anymore.
At dinner, he finally broke the silence.
"I want to fix this."
Zainab didn't even look up from her plate.
"You can't fix what you let break."
"I never meant to hurt you."
She gave him a cold smile.
"But you did. And now… I'm healing without you."
---
Later that week, Lana returned—with a lawyer.
She handed Yusuf a letter.
"I'm suing for paternity. I want your name on this baby's birth certificate… or I go to the press."
Yusuf clenched his jaw.
Zainab stood beside him, calm.
"Let her," Zainab said.
"Let the world see what kind of man she's clinging to."
Lana turned to her. "You think you're strong now? He'll always come back to me."
Zainab stepped closer, voice steady:
"Then why do you look so desperate every time you show up?"
Lana's smile cracked. And she stormed out.
---
That night, Yusuf came to her room again.
This time, not angry. Not arrogant.
Just… lost.
"I don't want to lose you," he said.
"Even if I never deserved you."
Zainab stared at him. The pain was still there… but so was something else.
Power.
She walked up to him slowly, ran a hand down his chest, and whispered:
"You had me. You broke me. And now, you'll watch me rise without you."
Then she closed the door in his face.
---
But outside that door, Yusuf swore to himself:
He was going to fight for her.
For real this time.
---