Chapter 5

But anger smoldering in my chest refused to go away.

Maya stopped messaging Dad, but she started sending me photos of herself and Caleb looking intimately close.

[Quinn Grant, you're the only idiot who ever thought this was a game.]

[Caleb never forgot me. We got back together a long time ago. All those times he made you angry, he was just messing with you.]

One photo after another came through, each stamped with a date and time.

When I compared them to what I remembered, the truth became impossible to ignore.

Two months ago, I'd been so sick with a fever that I could barely stand. I had called Caleb, but he told me he was away on a business trip. According to the photos, he'd actually been celebrating Maya's birthday with her.

Last month, on my birthday, he stood me up. He claimed a client had called him away at the last minute and he couldn't get out of it. In reality, he'd been at the movies with Maya.

Then, just last week, on our anniversary, he'd told me something had gone wrong with a project and promised we'd celebrate another day.

That time, he had actually been taking care of Maya because she was sick.

Taken together, there was no denying it. Caleb cared more about his first love than he did about his own wife.

I'd always believed he simply enjoyed provoking me. I had believed all his talk about making me angry to prove how much I loved him.

Now I finally understood that those explanations had been lies. He had been playing me all along.

And like an idiot, I'd let him do it for years. I'd actually convinced myself he loved me, that there was nothing wrong with his feelings, only with the twisted way he expressed them.

It was almost laughable.

Right after Maya finished sending the photos, one of Caleb's friends forwarded me screenshots from their group chat.

[Quinn, hang in there a little longer. At least wait until I win my bet before you lose your temper and give in. Otherwise I'm going to lose an entire month's paycheck.]

Among the messages was a video montage of all the times I'd lost my temper. The clips played on a loop, and beneath them was an empty space clearly reserved for my next outburst.

Someone had even asked Caleb whether he was worried I might actually leave.

His answer had been completely certain.

[She won't. She can't bear to leave me. She's just gotten older and more temperamental. Let her carry on for a few more days. Once I give her an excuse to come back, she'll come running.]

I opened a drawer and found two copies of a divorce agreement inside.

Caleb had drawn them up the year before just to make me angry.

At the time, I'd completely lost my temper. He'd happily wrapped his arms around me afterward and apologized, saying that if I was that furious, I had to be hopelessly in love with him.

I'd been too stunned to answer. Later, I'd left the papers at my parents' house and forgotten to throw them away.

Now they were finally useful.

On the day Dad was discharged from the hospital, Caleb sent me a video of himself on a date with Maya, clearly trying to provoke me again.

[Quinn Grant, if you're angry, I'll stop playing these games from now on.]

I ignored him and focused on spending time with my parents.

When Caleb still didn't get a reply, he finally started getting anxious.

His friends stepped in with more ideas, telling him he needed to push harder if he wanted a reaction out of me.

Eventually, they convinced him to take wedding portraits with Maya.

"Caleb, trust me. This will definitely work. No woman can stand watching her husband take wedding pictures with someone else. She'll lose it."

Caleb wasn't entirely convinced, but he went along with it.

He was just about to send me the photos when a courier called out to him.

"Mr. Jones? I have a delivery for you. Ms. Grant specifically requested that these documents be handed directly to you because they're important."

The moment his friends heard that, they burst out laughing.

"See? We told you she wouldn't be able to hold out!"

"Come on, Caleb. Guess what's inside."

Caleb was thinking exactly the same thing they were.

Full of anticipation, he opened the envelope.

The moment he saw the finalized divorce papers, he froze.

The package slipped from his hand and fell silently to the ground, just as quietly as I had walked out of his life.