Chapter Three: What Divorce?

The silence stretched for almost a minute, he looked around and saw the pack elders sitting in the same room as us, showering him glares and that’s when he realized it is that serious.

A minute was long enough for the confusion to settle across Nathan’s face. Long enough for me to watch him replay the judge’s words in his head.

And long enough for me to enjoy it.

“Excuse me?” Nathan finally faltered.

The judge remained composed with the same calmness I have in me.

“Mr. Whitmore, are you challenging the signature on the finalized divorce agreement?”

Nathan blinked twice, completely still like his feet were nailed on the floor. Then to our surprise, he laughed. A short, disbelieving sound that echoed across the room which was enough for me to realize how thick faced he is.

“I’m sorry,” he said, sat in his chair and still laughing as he leaned back on his chair.

“The what? What is this? A prank?” He was laughing his ass off and even pinched the arch of his nose.

The judge looked down at the documents again.

“The divorce agreement, Alpha Whitmore.”

The seriousness on the judge’s tone when he addressed him as Alpha made the smile on Nathan’s face instantly slip.

I just watched the entire thing like a movie screening with my coffee as the popcorn.

His expression shifted from amusement to disbelief, stammering and looking around like he was looking for someone who can side with him. But unfortunately for him, even his pack members are all on my side.

Then his disbelief shifted to suspicion.

His eyed landed on me, with a suspicious question, “What is he talking about?”

I took another sip of my coffee, looked at him and shrugged.

“Just like what he said. He’s talking about our divorce. Do you want me to explain that as well? Since when did the Whitmore Alpha get this, I don’t know, illiterate?”

Nathan’s wolf started growling and Nathan just stared at me.

I stared back.

The air in the room felt lesser and lesser like it could choke me, as the silence between us grew louder.

“What divorce?”

There it was, the question I’d been waiting thirty days to hear.

I set my coffee down on the table in front of me and fixed my blazer before sitting straight and gazing at him.

“The divorce papers you signed last month.” I tilted my head slightly to my right.

A crease appeared between his brows.

“I never signed any divorce papers?!” he protested.

“You did,” I stated.

“I would’ve remembered.”

A statement absurd enough to make me scoff once again, I smiled in the corner of my mouth and raised an eyebrow at him.

“No, Nathan. You would’ve read them and not remember,” I remarked.

The judge cleared his throat and a clerk slid a folder across the table towards Nathan. He accepted it without taking his eyes off me until he opened it.

The next thirty seconds of him going through the divorce papers were worth every sleepless night, every ignored anniversary, every empty seat at dinner, every tear I had alone in our room, every pain I had to endure in the pack, every promise that never ever had been made.

And for the first time since entering the room, Nathan looked genuinely rattled as he flipped through the pages again, then again, then once again.

As if the words there might magically change.

His gaze then snapped upward, straight at me, like I had completely disappointed him.

And the audacity of him to actually feel that.

“You tricked me.”

The words hung in the air, and I found myself strangely unsurprised being accused or by the words that harsh coming from my own husband.

Three years together, and he still thought I was the villain in stories he wrote himself.

I didn’t back down and said, “I asked you to read it.”

“You told me it was paperwork.”

“It was,” I responded.

“Genevieve,” he hissed.

My name sounded like a warning, or perhaps a plea in disguise of a threat. I honestly couldn’t tell anymore. Every disappointment from him eventually had stopped hurting months ago.

I kept my head up high, not answering him calling me.

“Why?” he asked, looking at me, and the divorce papers, back at me and vice versa.

That questions would’ve mattered to the old Genevieve. Months ago, it would’ve. But now, it simply felt empty.

It felt late.

Painfully late.

I looked at the man I had once loved more than myself, enough for me to give up a kingdom for, a reign, a throne. The man who had promised me forever. The man who couldn’t spare ten minutes to read a document from me before signing it. And the man who suddenly changed into someone I barely could recognize anymore.

And suddenly, I felt extremely tired and drained by the thought.

“Do you really want the answer?”

His expression hardened upon hearing my question.

“Yes, because if this is some sort of you trying to get my attention. It’s definitely working. But you? Doing all this for that? You don’t fit the title of a Luna.”

I smiled bitterly and almost laughed, but my lawyer tapped me on my shoulder briefly to keep my composure.

If he thought I would back down immediately like what I always did before.

I won’t. I would rather leave that title he’s bragging about.

My love, and my marriage had ended long before either of us walked into this courthouse.

I folded my hands neatly in my lap and then met his gaze in the most serious expression I could ever express.

“Tell me, Nathan.”

My voice remained calm, steady and composed while staring through his soul.

“Do you remember the times I had called you because I was injured? You said you were busy, but not busy enough to handle your colleague’s hospitalization?” I started.

“That was an emergency. You’re making it a big deal—”

“My injury was far worse than a paper cut, Nathan. I, and my wolf are injured and you’re more worried than a cut of someone else’s that barely even bled.”

“How’d you know that? You sent someone to follow me?!” he countered.

“You don’t speak while I talk, Mr. Whitmore,” I declared as my wolf and I glared at him with death in our eyes.

“Do you remember when I was accused of stealing something I didn’t even know existed? You sent me for house arrest without even investigating regardless of the idea that I am your Luna,” I continued.

“Do you remember when I asked you to celebrate my birthdays in which you always declined? Do you remember all the gifts I bought and made for you that you didn’t appreciate? Do you remember all the times I shield you from harm to the point I took a stab for you? Do you remember every night I spend alone because you were out for something more important than your wife alone at home?”

I took a deep breath.

“Do you remember all the sacrifices I made for you, without even considering my own benefit from them? Or were they all insignificant enough for you, for you not being able to recall even one of them?” I snapped.

I closed my eyes and recalled the night at the club.

“What do you mean? Genevieve? No way she’ll leave me. She acts like she sold her soul to me. She loves me too much, it’s too much it’s already choking me. Maybe even if she knew I’ve been seeing someone else behind her back, she’s just going to tuck her lips in, shut up, and let me while she wags her tail.” Nathan said with his arms still on the woman.

“Silly,” the woman beside her remarked as they all laughed all together.

I glanced at the woman.

And scoffed.

“Don’t worry, even if I take you back with me soon enough, she won’t be able to say no. As if she ever dared go against me. Plus, I’m the Alpha, she won’t be able to survive without me. She loves me too much, she will let her loved one be happy, isn’t she?”

I smiled bitterly and turned around.

I opened my eyes and looked at him with pure fury.

Looks like I won’t wag my tail, Alpha.

“Of course, I remember,” he stammered.

I looked at him with disbelief.

“Then tell me, when is our anniversary?”

Everyone waited for him to answer but all he did was to lower his head down.

The man I sacrificed my life for, had no answer.