A SECOND CHANCE AT LOVE WITH THE BILLIONAIRE CEO

“I’m divorcing you, Lacey.”

Cloud 9. Since the day she said ‘I do’ to Thomas, Lacey Thalmes had been on cloud 9. And she never wanted to leave. Today made it six months since she got married, and to some people, that might not seem like much, but to Lacey, it signified a lot of things. 

First, it was longer than her parents’ marriage, which had lasted four weeks. It had been an elopement that ended with her dad running off after finding out her mum was pregnant. Second, it gave Lacey a chance to bite back at all the people who called her crazy for getting married so young. She’d found out later that some of her classmates made a bet that the marriage wasn’t going to last up to a year. Lacey couldn’t wait to prove them wrong. 

Crazy was jumping off a helicopter, trusting that a parachute was going to make you land safely on the ground; crazy was going swimming with sharks. As for love, that wasn’t crazy, but if it turned out that it was, Lacey was glad she had that gift. 

“Sometimes it feels like someone’s going to pinch me awake from this dream,” Lacey whispered to herself as she wriggled her finger, her finger which wore her wedding ring, in front of the mirror. 

For their six month anniversary, their plan was to keep things simple. It obviously hadn’t been Lacey’s plan. Left to her, she would throw a big party and invite all their friends, but Thomas had recently gotten the role of a male lead in a series directed by an acclaimed director and beside an A-list actress, and he came home tired often. 

“Perfect dinner, check. Romantic, but personal dinner setting, check. Dessert, check. Second dessert.” Giggling to herself as she thought of the little surprise she had prepared for Thomas after dinner, Lacey took a picture of the setting, and sent it to Thomas with multiple heart emojis. 

There was no response, but she wasn’t expecting one anyway. A quick glance at the time told her Thomas would be home in less than five minutes. 

Five minutes later, the sound of the door keypad alerted Lacey to Thomas’s presence. She stood from the sofa, and walked to the door to welcome him.

“Welcome home, babe. Happy anniversary.” Not minding that he was sweaty, she kissed his cheek, then planted a full kiss on his lips. “I’ve been thinking of you all day.”

Waiting for Thomas to kiss her back like he always did, Lacey’s smile dropped when that didn’t happen. It was only then she took a proper look at her husband. His clothes were wrinkled like he’d been rolling around all day, but more importantly, he wasn’t smiling. There wasn’t even a hint of excitement in his eyes. 

“Babe?” Lacey’s eyes went round with concern. Her hands went up in a soft touch on both sides of Thomas’ face. “Did something happen at work?”

Placing his hands on Lacey’s shoulder, Thomas stared into her eyes for three seconds, before completely moving away from her touch. “Hmm.” Coming out of the doorway, he was heading to their room, when he suddenly stopped. 

“What is that?” 

Thomas’ voice didn’t hold any emotion, but Lacey’s excitement was still at about seventy perfect. All she wanted was to see Thomas’ pleased face after hearing how much effort she put into the dinner. Running to close the gap, Lacey threw an arm around her husband’s waist. 

“Do you like it? I made your favorites, including dinner.” After saying this, Lacey went on her tiptoes, so she could whisper this in Thomas’ ears, “If you’re good to me, I’ll be really good to you later.”

Thomas had always been affectionate and often told Lacey that her hugs after a long day always had a relieving effect on him, so it took Lacey by surprise when Thomas, for the second time that day, pushed her away from him. It was all the confirmation Lacey needed that something wasn’t right. 

“Right?” The concern in her voice also showed on her face. “Talk to me.”

“It’s…” With a strange look that might have been annoyance, Thomas regarded Lacey quietly. “I’m tired, okay? I’m just going to go to bed. Sorry. I’ll make it up to you later.” A whisper of a kiss was placed on Lacey’s forehead before Thomas disappeared to the room. 

For a minute after that, Lacey stood unmoving where she was. She was blinking furiously, willing the tears to go back, and her clogged throat to free up. The whirring of the air conditioner and the low sound coming from the television seemed to be mocking her. 

“You could have at least eaten a little.”

Her excitement had disappeared at that point. With a sigh, Lacey opened up her social media account, the one she opened mainly to be a part of Thomas’ twenty thousand followers, and posted the picture she took earlier. Six months anniversary. I love you even more, babe. 

The dinner lay on the table uneaten. Later, Lacey would pack up all the ones that could be refrigerated, but for now, she settled on lying on the ground. This was the first time Thomas had acted so cold to her. He was busy, Lacey understood that, but he could have at least hugged her back. Her sigh was heavy. 

Lacey planned to discuss her feelings with Thomas, but when she woke up on the ground the next day, Thomas was long gone, only leaving behind a note. {I’ll be gone for a while. After filming ends, I’ll be back}

Thomas being an actor, this wasn’t a strange occurrence. 

A month went by, then two, and there was still no news from Thomas. If it weren’t for the regular updates on his social media and the occasional lives, Lacey would have assumed something had happened to him. It was even worse to only have access to her husband through social media, but Lacey couldn’t tell anyone. 

It was two and a half months after Thomas left home that Lacey found out that the series he had been filming had finally been released. It was through her phone blowing up with messages from friends and old classmates, but still, there was absolute silence from the person Lacey wanted to hear from the most. A quick check of his social media showed a crazy increase in the number of his followers. 

When Lacey finally heard from Thomas, it wasn’t what she expected to hear at all. 

“I’m divorcing you, Lacey.”

Thomas’s words were flat. If one was asked to point out the difference between his tone and that of a weatherman reading out the difference, they would find it hard to do so.