The Groom I Never Married

PART 3 — The Truth Behind Seven Years

Three days after our wedding, I discovered that Kirill had not accepted our separation.

My phone was filled with messages from his relatives and mutual friends.

Some accused me of abandoning him.

Others claimed I had deliberately married a billionaire to make him jealous.

Then Kirill sent me a message.

We need to talk. Come to the restaurant where we celebrated our fifth anniversary. Alone.

I showed it to Matvey.

He read the message without changing his expression.

“Do you want to go?”

“I want to know why he’s still bothering me.”

Matvey nodded.

“Then I’ll take you. But I’ll wait outside.”

That evening, I entered the restaurant wearing a cream-colored dress.

Kirill was already there.

He stood up immediately.

“Sonya, you look beautiful.”

“Please get to the point.”

His smile disappeared.

“Are you really planning to stay married to Matvey?”

“Yes.”

“For how long? A month? A year? You don’t even love him.”

I looked at him quietly.

“You don’t get to decide whom I love anymore.”

Kirill leaned forward.

“Larisa and I made a mistake. I thought I could give my son a proper family, but things aren’t working out.”

I almost laughed.

“So now you want me back?”

“I still love you.”

Before I could respond, my phone vibrated.

A message from Matvey appeared.

Everything okay? I’m right outside.

Kirill noticed the screen.

“Does he monitor you already?”

“No. He cares whether I’m comfortable.”

Kirill looked away.

Then he pulled a document from his jacket.

“I want you to see something.”

It was a copy of an old financial agreement.

My name appeared on several pages.

I frowned.

“What is this?”

“Remember the apartment we bought together? The money you invested in my company? I need you to sign a statement confirming that those were gifts.”

I stared at him.

Seven years earlier, I had used nearly all my savings to help Kirill establish his engineering business.

He had promised to return the money after the company became profitable.

Now he wanted me to give it up?

“You brought me here to ask for my money?”

“Don’t be selfish, Sonya. Larisa and I have a child now. We need stability.”

I pushed the papers back.

“You should have thought about stability before marrying her.”

His face turned red.

“You’ve changed.”

“No, Kirill. I finally stopped making excuses for you.”

I stood up.

Just then, Larisa appeared behind him.

She looked nervous.

“Kirill, we should leave.”

He turned sharply.

“Not now!”

Larisa glanced at me before speaking.

“Sonya, there’s something you should know. Kirill told me he was going to marry you only temporarily because he needed access to your family’s property.”

My blood ran cold.

“What?”

Kirill immediately stood up.

“Larisa, shut up!”

But she continued.

“He said your family owned land near the new development project. He planned to marry you, obtain the property rights, and then settle down with me once everything was secured.”

I couldn’t breathe.

I remembered the countless times Kirill had asked about my late father’s land.

He had always said he was merely interested in its history.

Now everything made sense.

I looked at him.

“Was any of it real?”

Kirill said nothing.

That silence was enough.

I walked toward the exit.

Matvey was waiting beside his car.

The moment he saw my face, he opened his arms.

I buried my face against his chest.

“Was I really that stupid?”

He gently stroked my hair.

“No. You trusted someone who didn’t deserve it. That’s not the same thing.”

The following morning, Matvey’s legal team began investigating Kirill’s company and the documents he had asked me to sign.

They discovered several suspicious transfers involving a property development project.

But the biggest surprise came two days later.

Kirill’s company had been using my father’s land as collateral without my permission.

When Matvey placed the documents in front of me, I stared at the signatures.

They looked like mine.

But I had never signed them.

Matvey closed the folder.

“He didn’t just betray you, Sonya. He may have committed fraud.”

I looked out of the office window.

For seven years, I had thought my greatest mistake was loving Kirill too much.

Now I realized he had been using that love for something far worse.

I took Matvey’s hand.

“I’m not going to hide anymore.”

He smiled slightly.

“Good. Because tomorrow, we’re going to make sure everyone hears the truth.”

And across the city, Kirill received an unexpected invitation.

<PRIVATE_PERSON> Seversky Holdings was requesting his presence at an emergency shareholders’ meeting.

He had no idea that the woman he had abandoned at the marriage registry was about to become the person who could destroy everything he had built.