Chapter Four: The Papers

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 walked back in as if time had simply paused for her.  

I remembered the first time I saw her. She was seventeen, laughing at something across a garden party, her head thrown back, completely unconcerned about who watched her, and I had been watching her.  

She was the one who pulled me out of that river when we were kids. She stayed with me until help came. She held my hand when I was too weak to move.  

That always meant more than I could explain to anyone who wasn't there.  

Then the road accident happened which paralysed her. She had disappeared and I was left with Penelope and a marriage that felt like a mistake from the very beginning.    

'This is the life you were meant to have.' 

I told myself clearly and deliberately, trying so hard to convince myself that Penelope is for me  

But now, Seraphina is back. She is healthy and very lively. 

It is time to fix what has been broken.  

***

I found Penelope in the upstairs hallway the next morning.  

She carried a small stack of books, her hair pulled back, wearing that gray cardigan she usually wore on some mornings. She looked up when she heard my footsteps. "Jonathan."  

"I need to speak with you," I muttered 

She shifted the books in her arms. "Alright."  

"Put those down."  

She set them on the hallway table without arguing, which was the unsettling thing about Penelope. She never argued. She absorbed. She adjusted. She kept moving in that quiet, relentless way that felt like an accusation even when she said nothing. 

"Seraphina being back changes everything," I said.  

"I know." She responded quickly.

"I don't think you fully understand what I mean."  

"Then say it clearly, Jonathan."  

I looked at her and saw how calm she was to my statement. Her face and body looked so relaxed.  

"This marriage was a mistake," I said. "You know that. It was never built on a real foundation, and I think we've both spent three years pretending otherwise."  

She didn't flinch. "Go on," she said.  

I reached into the folder I was carrying and pulled out the clean white already prepared papers. I had called my lawyer the night before and I've made some decisions. Once a decision is made, it would be better acted on quickly.  

I held them out to her. "I want a divorce."  

She looked at the papers, then at me. She didn't reach for them, she didn't even react. "You had these prepared overnight," she said.  

"I had them prepared this morning."  

"That is very fast."  

"I know what I want," I said 

She looked back at the papers. Her hands were at her sides. I watched her chest rise with one slow breath. "What about Seraphina?" she asked.  

"That's not your concern."  

"But she's my sister, Jonathan."  

"And she was my choice before everything went wrong. Before you..." I stopped, trying not to cause further damage.

"Before I what?"  

I didn't finish the sentence. It wasn't the right moment to pour out my frustration, but Penelope sensed the unfinished part anyway. I could see it in how her jaw shifted slightly, in how she raised her shoulders, indicating that she wanted to hear more.  

"Before I ruined everything," she finished the sentence for me, in a tone that showed that she was waiting for a long time to hear this from me.  

"I didn't say that," I added

"You didn't have to." She blinked severally trying to stop her tears from spilling but I could still see her teary eyes anyway.

I pushed the papers toward her again, this time I showed no remorse. "I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm trying to be honest. You deserve a life that's truly yours, not the one you were dragged into."  

She looked at me and something crossed her face so quickly I couldn't catch what it was.  

"That's almost kind of you," she said. "For calling it honesty."  

"Penelope..."  

"Do you remember what you said to me the morning we got married? You said it was temporary." She picked up the papers from my hand carefully.

 "You said I would pay for what my family did. You said I was a mistake you were forced to make." She looked down at the pages with careful observation.

I didn't know what to say to that, so I said nothing.  

Then she turned the first page and read something. Then she turned to the next.  

My lawyer had told me most people in her position would push back. They would negotiate. They would try to use emotion as leverage. He had warned me to prepare for a scene.  

Penelope flipped to the last page. Then she looked up at me and in the calmest voice I had ever heard from her, she said. "If you want a divorce." She held the papers steady in both hands. "Then I'll sign."