Novels by CeeJey

Jonatha's POV "Is she really gone?" I uttered under my breath, staring deeply into the thin air.Mrs. Hale glanced at me from across the kitchen counter. She held a dish towel in her hand. "She left last night," she said. "With one suitcase and her travel bag."I glanced at the kitchen doorway, then back at Mrs. Hale. "Is that all she took?""That's all she had, Mr. Jonathan."I didn’t know what to say to her. So, I walked out. The house remained the same way and that was strange about everything. Every room looked exactly as it had always been. The furniture was where it belonged. The art on the walls hadn’t moved an inch. Did she really take anything with her?As I walked through the corridor, I felt a small discomfort snagging at me, like a loose thread from a shirt. I couldn't pinpoint where exactly, and it was too discomforting to ignore.I stopped in the dining room. The table was already set for one...Me. It was all adjusted by Mrs. Hale I stood there for a while, staring at

PENELOPE'S POV"You're pregnant."The doctor said it and then kept talking about early weeks, prenatal vitamins, and setting up a follow-up. I sat on that paper-covered bed and what filled my mind were just those two words that kept repeating themselves.'You're pregnant.'I looked down at the small printout she gave me and all I could see was a confirmation that something had changed inside me without asking for my consent. Well...not exactly since I can remember being intimate with Jonathan."Ms. Penelope?" The doctor leaned in closer. "Do you have any questions?""No," I replied. "Thank you."She studied me for a moment, the way doctors do when they aren’t sure if you’re alright but have other patients waiting."Take your time before you leave," she said. "The nurse outside will give you information on what to do next."Then she pulled back the curtain and left.Adrian was still in the waiting room. He stood when he saw me enter, his coat folded over one arm, his posture relaxed an

Penelope's POV***"You don't have to do this tonight." Mrs. Hale stood in the doorway of my bedroom, her hands clasped together. Her eyes showed how worried she was."I know," I said."At least wait until morning, Penelope. It's nearly ten o'clock.""I'm fine, Mrs. Hale."She lingered in the doorway for a moment, then walked in and began folding the blouse I had left on the bed. Her movements were slow and deliberate, as if she hoped that by helping, I might choose to stay.I didn't tell her to stop. Packing takes a long time to do, and I needed a little help.I've spent three years in that house and I filled only one suitcase and a travel bag. Just one. Most of what was in that house doesn't belong to me. The furniture came with the rooms. The art on the walls was Jonathan's. The good dishes, the expensive decor, the small decorative items that made a house feel lived-in, aren't mine to choose or to keep.I opened my own side of the wardrobe and the only things I possessed were clot

Jonathan's POV 'Now that Seraphina is back, how do I get rid of Penelope?'I thought to myself for a very long time even when everyone had gone to bed.Whenever I have this kind of thought, I try to bury it. I press it down deep into my memory where it wouldn't embarrass me. Because overreacting will create a scene and I'm not ready for drama.Then I cleared my mind, I stood at the window of my room, and looked out at the city lights below. I tried to remember who I was before everything became the way they are. I am twenty-seven years old. I run a real estate company worth more than most governments. I make business decisions every day that change the global market.Yet, I had spent three years married to a woman I resented, waiting for a woman I truly wanted. Now that she is back, I don't know how to handle the guilt sitting in my chest about feeling relieved. ***Seraphina looks exactly the way she looked two years ago. That was the thing. Two years had passed, yet she wa

Penelope's POV Five minutes later, Seraphina walked in boldly without a wheelchair or crutches. No sign of anything that had kept her away for two years. She stood in the dining room doorway in a cream dress that sat perfectly on her curvy body, her dark hair loose, her skin glowing like she had spent the last twenty-four months at a spa instead of whatever she had always been.She looked at the table full of shocked faces and smiled. "Did I miss dinner?" Margaret was the first to move. She pushed her chair back so fast it scraped against the floor and crossed the room. Her pearl necklace was dangling as she did so. "Seraphina, my darling." "Margaret." Seraphina hugged her close enough to feel each other's warmth. Gloria pressed a hand to her chest. "Oh my goodness. Oh, look at you." Then Jonathan stood up. I watched him from my seat. I didn't move. I don't think I can breathe anymore.He pulled Seraphina into his arms before she had time to turn fully toward him. She went into

Penelope's POV'When she comes back...everything will go back to how it should be.' The words echoed longer than they should have in my head. I could feel the weight of my heart shattering into pieces.I stood outside his door until I felt the tingling and numbness in my feet on the cold marble floor.Then I walked upstairs, got into my bed, and stared at the ceiling until morning arrived.I didn’t sleep. Not because I was scared, but because I already knew, and knowing is so much worse than not knowing.***I was sixteen the night Jonathan married me.No, wait. I was twenty-two. But I felt sixteen. I was small, confused, and unable to make my own decisions without it being approved by them because they treated me like furniture.On that particular day, Jonathan stood across from me in that registry office with rage all over his face. Not the loud kind of rage but the quiet kind that sits behind a man’s eyes and makes you want to surrender immediately."You will pay for what your fami