Chapter 1

Valerie:

“Shit…” He groaned as he moved against me before reaching his own climax.

I whimpered, tightening my arms around him as he rested his forehead against my shoulder.

He wrote the two of us off, but it didn't take long. He simply pulled out of me. And I watched as he got up.

The sheets were still warm. My body's still sweating as I heaved with every breath.

And for a moment, I wanted to call for him to stay, but when I saw him walking towards his phone, the phone that was ringing, it had been for the past few minutes. My chest ached and I knew who was calling him.

I pulled the blanket tighter around myself, watching his broad back as he crossed to the dresser. Xavier didn’t glance at me, didn’t even acknowledge I was awake. He picked up his phone, thumb swiping across the screen, and his voice shifted into something softer than I’d heard all night.

“Annalise.” His lips curved, low and intimate. “I told you I’d call. You don't need to keep calling me whenever I disappear for an hour.”

“Even the idea of you being with her bothers me. You are sharing her bed, I can feel it.” She said, and I looked down at my lap. “It is not like you want anything to do with her. I cannot understand why you still find it in yourself to touch her. Duties are not tied out that she would go around saying that you haven't touched her in months. It is not like she should care.”

“Now, now, Annalise, you know that as her husband, I have my duties towards her.”

“Yes, your duties towards her are simply to spite me whenever the two of us argue.” She said, and I could picture her rolling her eyes. Xavier did not respond. If anything, he did not even comment at all.

Every word cracked against my chest like glass. Every word they spoke felt like it was stabbing me deeper in the chest, insulting me more by the day.

“I am going to see you soon, right?” She asked, her voice softening as she spoke. “The two of us ended things last time with a fight and I do not want things to proceed the way that they are. I want to be with you. I want you by my side.”

Xavier did not bother commenting or telling her that she was wrong. If anything, he simply indulged every word that she said, loving it even.

I wasn’t surprised. Not anymore. I’d lost count of how many nights I’d woken to an empty bed, how many times I’d smelled another woman on his skin. But hearing him call her while I was still there, tangled in our sheets, was a new kind of cruelty. It was a new kind of disrespect, especially towards everything that the two of us have been through.

He chuckled, running a hand through his dark hair. “Tomorrow night then. I’ll make time. But this time, you are going to be the one to wait for my call. You cannot call whenever you find it convenient.”

“I am your woman, and if I do not call you, who will?” Her voice softened as she asked. Again, Xavier chuckled. “And it is time for us to go back to that. I don't not want to stay away from you longer than this.”

My fingers curled into the blanket. I should have screamed, thrown something, clawed that smug phone out of his hand. I should have put a stop to this madness the second that it started. But I didn’t.

I waited.

Just like I always did.

Only this time, I had other plans in mind.

When he finally ended the call and set the phone down, I lifted my chin. My voice was steady, sharper than I expected.

“I want a divorce.”

The room stilled.

He turned, his storm-gray eyes locking on me, unreadable. For a moment, I thought I saw the flicker of surprise, then it was gone, replaced with that cold, infuriating calm he always wore.

“Excuse me?” His voice was silk wrapped around steel. “What did you just say?”

“You heard me.” I said, getting up from the bed, holding the sheets tightly around my body as I walked towards the dresser. I opened the drawer and pulled out the divorce paper, handing it to him. His eyes darkened. “I want a divorce…”