4. She Really Left

ALEXANDER:

The room was quiet when I pushed the door open. Weird. Usually, Harper heard me before I even stepped inside. She always appeared in the living room with that soft smile on her face like she had spent the whole evening waiting for me to come home.

Three years and she never missed a single day.

But tonight, nothing.

I loosened my tie and stepped further into the penthouse. The marble floors reflected the dim chandelier lights above me. No smell of food. No sound of her ridiculous romance shows playing in the background.

Nothing.

“Harper!”

The silence that answered me was almost insulting. I frowned. Maybe she was upstairs sleeping or waiting to start another argument the moment I walked in. Honestly, I was not in the mood for it tonight.

The last two days at the hospital had been exhausting enough. Rowena refused to sleep unless I stayed beside her. Every time I stood up to leave, she grabbed my hand, “Please stay.”

And I stayed. Because despite everything, despite the years apart, Rowena had always known how to pull me back in.

Harper on the other hand… she had been difficult lately. Too emotional. Too sensitive. She used to stay quiet whenever I came home late. She understood how demanding my work was.

She understood what it meant to be married to a Banks.

But these past few weeks? Asking questions I did not have time to answer.

I exhaled. I wasn’t going upstairs to check. Not yet.

I went to the fridge, grabbed a bottle of water and sat at the dining table. Took a long drink.

Then I saw the papers.

DIVORCE AGREEMENT.

The water splashed out of my mouth onto the papers.

“What the hell?”

I grabbed the folder and flipped it to the last page. Harper’s signature and beside it… my signature.

My stomach dropped. When did I sign this?

No. I didn’t. No fucking way.

I would remember signing divorce papers. Then suddenly…

“Fine. Give me the pen.”

The memory hit me hard. Two days ago. Harper standing in the kitchen holding papers toward me while Rowena was hurting.

I had signed without reading.

Because honestly, why would I read whatever nonsense she shoved in front of me? It was always the same… checks and bills.

My jaw tightened. I threw the folder on the table and stood up. “Harper!”

Nothing.

How dare she? How the hell did she think she could divorce me without even discussing it properly?

I stormed upstairs, two steps at a time.

“You think you can survive without me?” I screamed, pushing the bedroom door open. It was empty.

The bathroom too. Empty.

I laughed once under my breath. I dragged a hand through my hair and paced the room.

“She wants attention,” I muttered. “That’s all this is.”

It had to be. Harper was emotional. Every few months she got upset over something ridiculous and threatened to leave.

But she never actually left. Because where would she go? The woman depended on me for everything. Hell, she never even worked. I provided. That was my responsibility as her husband and I fulfilled it perfectly.

What more did she want from me? Flowers? Daily declarations of love? I scoffed. Real life didn’t work like the stupid movies she watched.

I grabbed my phone and called my assistant, James. “Have you been sending Harper her monthly allowance?”

“Yes, Sir.” James said. “Right on schedule.”

“When was the last transfer?”

“Three days ago.”

I ended the call. So it was not about money. Then what was this about? I started pacing again. Did someone say something to her? Was she angry because I stayed at the hospital?

“She’s my wife,” I muttered under my breath. “She should understand.”

I couldn’t abandon Rowena, not after our history. Wait… she had screamed at me over something to do with a voice note.

I pulled out my phone and scrolled to our messages. There was nothing there. So what exactly had she heard?

I had said a lot of things I shouldn’t have said.

Fine. Maybe that looked bad. But divorce? Over a voice note? That was ridiculous. She was being dramatic.

I opened her bedside drawer, looking for… honestly, I didn’t even know what I was searching for.

I froze.

Her bank card sat inside the drawer untouched. I picked it up slowly.

No. No.

She left the card? The black platinum account linked directly to me. Harper used that card for everything. She once spent ten thousand dollars on candles because she said they made the house “feel peaceful.”

And now she left it behind?

A laugh escaped me. “Wow. You’re really doing this.”

I shook my head slowly. I walked toward the closet. Her clothes were still there. Her car was still in the garage. She had nowhere else to go. No family. No job. No skills.

She would come back.

I called her. It went straight to voice mail. Again and again… Four times… I threw the phone on the bed.

“Fine. Have your tantrum. Let’s see how long you last.”

*****

Sunlight streamed in though the curtains, I picked up my phone on the nightstand. It was already ten? I hurried out of bed. Harper wasn’t still back.

Something uncomfortable twisted in my chest. Not pain. Definitely not pain.

I got dressed and stared at myself in the mirror. Then my mother’s voice came back to me.

“You want Banks Media? You will get it after Harper gives this family an heir.”

I stopped adjusting my tie. The company was mine. I had earned it. Expanded it and my mother still refused to hand it over because of Harper… Because she wanted grandchildren.

What if Harper really left?

No wife.

No heir.

No company.

“No,” I muttered immediately. Absolutely not. I grabbed my watch from the counter and headed downstairs.

The moment I reached the front door, a knock stopped me.

The corner of my lips pulled up in a smile. I knew it. Of course she came back.

I unlocked the door while shaking my head.

“Drama queen,” I mumbled. “I give you one day before you come running ba…”

I pulled the door open and the smile on my face disappeared. It wasn’t Harper. Rowena smiled brightly.

“Good morning,” she said, lifting two large suitcases. “I hope you don’t mind. Since you said I’d be staying here for a while, I brought everything.”