Black Widow | 18+

22 | Gut Instinct

Clementina 

Everything had been great. 

And then she came along. 

Artemisia just walked into our life, knocking everything over, leaving the broken pieces of my relationship, engagement, marriage in my lap. 

I never thought there would be anyone else for Leandro. When we'd first started dating Angela had been overjoyed, saying that she had never seen him so calm and comfortable with someone. 

Her comment took me by surprise, because when I saw how Leo acted around me it didn't strike me as different to any other normal man in a relationship. 

But then I remembered that he wasn't a normal man. Nothing about this life was normal, and nothing about this life was beautiful, even if the things that came with it were what most girls of my age would dream of. 

I had more than enough in the grand scheme of things; I had the luxury, the friends, the ability to do as I pleased within measure, the ability to have things provided for me. 

It wasn't my dream, I had wanted to work and earn for myself, but the family I had been born into didn't allow for things like that so I settled for the next best thing in my eyes. The things I wanted to work for were given to me on tap, so ultimately the outcome was the same. 

But I didn't feel fulfilled for a long time, not until Leo and I really became close, not until we were in a relationship without feeling like we had been forced into it. Or without him feeling like he had been forced into it. 

And then it was all taken away, by her. 

I wasn't an idiot, I knew they had been sleeping together, and I figured it out when I found out that Artemisia was the one Leo was supposed to marry originally. 

Angela had been refusing to tell me but I cornered her and threatened to raise hell if she kept on denying me the truth.

I hated Artemisia. I hated the fact that even after no one in the family had wanted her back, she managed to weave her way into a life that was meant to be mine with Leandro. 

I hated the fact that on my honeymoon, I could tell Leandro was thinking about her the entire time. 

I hated the fact that Anton Zhelkin wanted her just as much as Leandro did. 

I refused to be like my mother, just letting it happen without another word.

I wanted her gone, so I put the effort in. 

Everyone saw me as a trophy wife, the smart and pretty young woman who could play piano and host lovely dinners, rode horses and spent the mornings playing tennis at the club before lunching with my friends. 

I was driven, but no one wanted to give me the chance to be. 

I proved them wrong though, right under their noses.

I did some digging and eavesdropping, yearning to find something that would drive Artemisia away. My plan was to find it and then hand it over to Anton, he knew that I wanted her out of my life, and I knew that he wanted her in his. 

Maybe I was threatening Leandro's entire empire by doing this, handing over the ruthless women that they all claimed for her to be, but she was just like my husband and Anton.

Artemisia lost her edge when she was being driven by emotion, so I really didn't think she would be the threat her reputation provided. 

Either way though, she would leave Leandro and I would have him back. He would realise that she would never want him, and everything would be put to bed when he realised that I was good for him and Artemisia was definitely not.