FOUR

JOLENE’s POV

"Are you suggesting an open marriage?"

He cocked a brow at me and then wipe his nose like I struck him. 

“The will says we have to be married for a year,” he continued, voice going cold again. “It doesn’t say anything about me being faithful.”

“You can have your own rooms. Your own life,” he resumed moving his eyes everywhere but me. “But when we’re in public, we’re a unit. When we’re at home...” He gestured vaguely toward the second floor. “She stays in the west wing.”

I turned blind not even knowing where to begin.

“And if I have a problem with that?”

“Then you forfeit the five million.” His answer came immediately with no hesitation. “And Stacy’s surgery debt becomes yours. All fifty thousand of it.”

Stacy.

My younger sister. In a hospital bed waiting for a kidney that Logan had paid for.

I understood then. This wasn’t about Logan wanting us together. This was about Logan chaining us both.

Jake must have seen it on my face because his expression changed.

He walked to the door now, like he couldn't even stand the chance of me, then paused with his hand on the knob.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. But he didn’t sound sorry. He sounded like he resigned.

“Don’t be.” I forced the words out. Straightened my spine. “You’re right. It’s business."

“Business,” he echoed.

For a moment neither of us moved. The distance between us felt like miles and inches at the same time.

Then he stepped back. 

“The car leaves at eight for the charity gala, in two days” he announced, all business again. “Wear something appropriate. Maya will be there too.”

Of course she would and it definitely means I wouldn't be seeing him for two days.

At least, he got me prepared that I'd be seeing her.

“Jo.”

I looked up already shattered and barely breathing.

“I’m not your enemy.” 

“So don’t make this difficult. In 12 months we divorce. And I marry her.”

I watched him leave while my bandaged hands were on my chest.

And I stood there in his study, holding onto the one good thing he’d done for me... Right before he used it to break me. My tears at the verge of falling but I held them back. 

***

Two days came like flash as though they wanted to receive my reaction when I meet with Maya.

Maya arrived at 7:30. In a white dress that cost more than my yearly salary. With Jake’s hand on the small of her back like he’d invented the gesture.

The way Rebecca and Hailey welcomed her like a queen made me realize I might not stand a chance.

Their kind gestures had me watching.

The gala was a cage made of crystal and cameras.

I smoothed black silk over my thighs for the third time. The dress Logan had bought me three years ago still fit. 

Barely at least.

“Mrs. Henderson.”

A voice slithered and I needed know to see that it was Maya.For a moment, I wanted to be invisible.

She glided toward me and the diamond at her throat was blinding.

Jake’s hand was still resting at the curve of her back and it made my heart bleed because he never treated me this special.

“God, this place is freezing,” she compains, shivering theatrically. Jake’s arm immediately came around her shoulders, pulling her in. “Better?” he murmured into her hair.

She melted against him. “Much.”

My fingers curled into my palms. The ring on my left hand felt like it was burning.

“Jolene.” Jake’s gaze hovered over me like he accessed me. “You remember Maya Carter.”

I wasn't comfortable seeing them together.

“Of course,” Maya purred, stepping forward. She smelled like vanilla and money. “We went to NYU together. Didn’t we, Jo?”

The nickname from her mouth was poisonous.

“Med school,” she added, for the benefit of the couple next to us. “Such a shame what happened. But nursing is respectable too, right?”

The couple’s eyes widened. A camera flash went off.

Jake didn’t correct her. He just sipped his whiskey and my heart pounded for what was to happen.

"It's time for the red carpet" someone announced distracting us and just to avoid these two.

On getting to the red carpet, the flashbulbs exploded and reported were shouting names.

Jake walked between us. On his right was Maya clinging to his arm, laughing at something he whispered.

On his left was me, his wife. One foot behind, like an afterthought.

“Mr. Henderson! Who’s the woman?” A reporter if I'm not mistaken asked.

Jake turned, all teeth and charm. “This is my wife, Jolene. And this is my... associate, Maya Carter. She’s consulting on Apex’s new wellness line.”

Associate.

I was annoyed because he coated it like it matters.

Maya leaned into him for another photo. Her hand drifted down to rest on his chest, right over his heart.

“Smile, Jo,” she whispered to me, without moving her lips. “You’re supposed to look happy.”

I shot a glare at her but it barely made an effect and I ended up faking a smile, for Jake.

Because this meant more than anything for him.

But my cheeks ache for it.

I could survive a year.

Couldn't I?

The next place was the dinning and I hated this involvement that had me looking like I shouldn't exist.

The dining arena had a long table, with hundreds of guests like it was a last supper.

It was my first time in such a place and no one even wanted to associate with me, despite the introduction.

They running after her, Maya.

Jake’s chair was empty on one side of me. Occupied on the other and I intended to meet him.

My heart prayed he'd even look at me but he was busy talking with some guest.

Maya slid into it ten minutes into the first course.

“Babe, the salmon is dry,” she complained, cutting a piece off his plate with his fork. “Here, try mine."

Babe?

Did anyone hear that from her?

I couldn't even pretend I didn't care because it affected me in everywhere.

And right in my presence, she fed him from her plate. Leaned in to wipe a speck of sauce from the corner of his mouth with her thumb.

Jake let her and that was worst because it killed me.

Across the table, Rebecca watched with thin satisfaction. Hailey filmed it on her phone.

I stared at my own plate until the food turned sour in my mouth.

A server refilled my water, when I didn't even need it “Are you alright, Mrs. Henderson?” he murmured.

I nodded unable to speak because what could I do?

I needed air, because the walls were becoming a restraint, nothing of what the MC says registered in my ear, neither did I have an appetite for the meal.

In a haste, I moved out to the terrace, there at least I'd be invisible.

Manhattan glittered below me and it was cold.

But then before I could think of the scene from earlier, the door opened behind me.

Their fragrance was the first thing that greeted me as though they were after my life.

Jake and Maya.

“—told you she wouldn’t make a scene,” Maya was saying, in a light tone “She’s too desperate to lose the money."

But they stopped when they saw me.

Jake looked irritated as my eyes stayed on them

“Maya was cold,” he muttered, like that explained it, like I asked. 

He shrugged out of his tuxedo jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

She sighed, burrowing into it. “Thank you, baby.”Everything felt weird and she calling him baby stole my breath away.

Jake’s eyes met mine over her head. So empty.

“We’re going back in,” he whispered not giving me a chance to speak. “Stay out here as long as you need.”

He took Maya’s hand and their fingers interlaced.Everything suffocates, they wouldn't even let me have a bit of peace like they knew i'd be taunted.

I hated myself for not responding, for breaking Everytime and even when they left, only his image occupied my head.

In few minutes, I was back after letting the wind strip off the heat from my skin.

But then, the meeting was over, everyone seems to be rounding up, others exchanged final words while I searched for my family.

That was if they considered me theirs.Fortunately, I got to find the Bentley we drove in and I sat at the back left.

Driver up front, Maya in the middle and Jake on the right. I felt like it was suddenly my duty to monitor them.

Maya’s head found Jake’s shoulder ten minutes in.

She was asleep. Or pretending to be.

Jake didn’t push her off. He adjusted, so she’d be more comfortable. His hand came up, absent, to brush hair from her face.

The gesture was so familiar it gutted me. He used to do that to me. When I’d dozed off studying in the library.

But I concealed every pain.

Maya stirred. Without opening her eyes, her hand found Jake’s thigh and squeezed.

Jake’s gaze cut to me, he caught me watching but didn't move her hand like he was enjoying every bit of my reaction.

He just looked at me. And then looked away.

At 2:05AM we arrived at the mansion, my silence continued like I didn't even know what happened.

They weren't worth my tears or worries even though my heart screamed.

I was the last to leave the car, as he had carried her in his arms.I was halfway up the stairs when I heard it.

Maya's laughter like she didn't pretend to be asleep minutes ago.

It was so unrestricted from the west wing.

I froze as a door opened and closed. Then Jake's voice came in “Shh. The staff—”

Maya cut him off. “Let them hear.”

My feet moved were already moving before I could thinking.

I shouldn’t have. God, I knew I shouldn’t have.

But I stopped outside the west wing. Through the carved door, I heard a muffled;

“You’re unbelievable,” Maya stated “Married to her and still—"

“It’s just the contract.” Jake stopped her as there was a sudden silence.

I had my heart inside my mouth, thinking of nothing else but how they'd be pictured.

“Then prove it,” Maya whispered, my hand had already held the door knob “Show me it means nothing.”My heart stopped breathing as the next thing I heard was a sound I recognized, a sound that was meant to be mine.

An ache coursed through my chest. A voice sang in my ear that I should break in because I couldn't imagine what was happening in there.

It only left me wrecked.

My knees buckled. I pressed a hand to my mouth to choke back the sob.

I turned and ran, back to my room, the guest room.

The one that used to be the sewing room where they chose to keep me despite him claiming I could have anywhere.

I locked the door and fell to the floor, breathing hard.

I couldn't do this because finally, I let myself fall apart.

Because it wasn’t Rebecca’s cruelty that was killing me. It was Jake’s indifference.

It was watching the man who’d once promised to protect me from the world, invite the world to watch him destroy me.

It was knowing that in twelve months, I’d hand him the divorce papers.

And he’d marry her.

And if I had to watch this for 364 more days, I wouldn’t survive.