The Divorce

Chapter 3

Nathan

~•~

As she stepped into the bathroom, I couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t argue back or ask me why I’d wanted to divorce her. She was so calm and it pissed me off.

Had she been expecting it all along? Was she having an affair? Several thoughts lingered on my mind as I waited for her to come out of the bathroom.

I sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the door. The sound of running water hummed from the other side, soft and steady, but I didn’t hear anything else. No crying. No yelling. No questions.

I thought she’d fight. I thought she’d demand answers, scream at me, call me a coward. But she didn’t. She just left.

My chest tightened as I rubbed my palms together, restless. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

I rose to my feet, stepping toward the door before I could stop myself. My knuckles hovered over the wood. “Emily?”

Silence.

A drop of something cold slid down my spine. I pushed the door open without thinking.

She sat on the floor, back against the tub, legs stretched out. Her arms rested limply at her sides, and her eyes red-rimmed but dry stared at nothing.

She didn’t flinch when she saw me. Didn’t even blink.

“Emily.” My throat closed around her name.

“You divorced me.” Her voice was quiet, even. Not a question. Just a fact.

I swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

She tilted her head slightly as if considering this. Then, with the faintest flicker of something unreadable in her gaze, she asked, “Are you waiting for me to ask why?”

I exhaled sharply. “You don’t want to know?”

She didn’t answer right away. She just watched me, studying my face like I’m some stranger she just met.

Then, finally, she shrugged her shoulders. “No.”

The word punched through me, knocking the breath from my lungs.

I shouldn’t feel this way. She deserved it. I stared at her for a while as I loosened the tie around my neck. It made me uncomfortable that she wasn’t saying anything.

I let out a deep sigh before heading back into the room. The feeling of betrayal was something I couldn’t shake off. No matter how much I was going to miss Emily. She deserved everything I had done to her.

I watched as she stepped out of the bathroom, her damp hair clinging to her shoulders, her face serene, almost indifferent.

She didn’t look at me. She didn’t hesitate. She simply walked past me, as if we were nothing, as if the years we had spent together had evaporated like steam curling from the shower she had just taken.

My jaw tightened.

She was good at this. Pretending. Acting like she didn’t know what she had done. Like she wasn’t the reason I stood in front of everyone and declared our marriage over.

Betrayal wasn’t always loud. Sometimes, it was quiet. Subtle. Sometimes, it looked like a woman you loved swearing up and down that she was innocent when you knew better.

I had given her a chance. I had looked her in the eye and asked for the truth. I had waited, heart pounding, hands clenched, hoping, praying she would just say it. That she would admit what she had done but she didn’t.

Instead, she stared at me with those wide, confused eyes, acting as if she had no idea what I was talking about. As if I was the reason our marriage fell apart.

So I’d done what any man would do when faced with a lie so deep it threatened to drown him. I let her go. Publicly. Let the world know that it was done, that we were no longer a couple.

And here we were, in the private villa I’d booked for us with nothing but a shared animosity in the air.

My fingers curled into a fist at my side as Emily moved past me without a word.

Did she not know?

Or was this just another lie?

I didn’t know what pissed me off more. The fact that my wife had betrayed me or the fact that she was acting blind over everything. Several thoughts flooded my mind and I decided that I was going to confront her.

“Emily,” I said with a commanding tone.

She turned to me looking surprised, I could see the shock in her eyes. “How dare you pretend like you’re innocent? You lying, conniving little girl. After everything I had done for you. You were practically starving before I took you in and made you my wife. You’re not the woman I fell in love with, you’re a complete stranger.”

I watched as Emily’s countenance fell with every word I uttered but she remained silent. The only difference was that her eyes had swelled up with tears. I wasn’t going to let her go to sleep quietly, I was determined to hurt her feelings and get her to confess what she had done.

I took a few steps towards Emily who was still in a robe. With every step I took, I could feel her trembling. I had never hurt her physically during our marriage, not once did I ever feel the need to but she knew how I treated those who betrayed me and that left her with a terrible feeling of helplessness.

“Tell me, was it worth it? Was it worth losing me?” I said to her with our faces only a few inches away that I could practically smell her perfume.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Nathan.”

“Oh, bullshit!” I scoffed. “Enough with the innocent wife act, we’re alone now. You can put on your mask without judgment, I know who you are,” I said as I pointed my finger in her face.

“Get your finger away from my face.” She replied as she smacked my finger. “Don’t ever talk to me like that okay? After everything I’d done for you, I equally sacrificed myself for you.” She shot back.

She glared at me before she continued. “I took care of you when you were bedridden because you had gotten into an accident. I stayed with you after finding out that you were in constant communication with your ex-girlfriend and when I confronted you, you said I was overreacting and there was nothing between you guys.”

I was shocked as I watched her speak.

“Now I don’t even care if you trust me or not, I just want to get away from you as much as possible.” She crossed her arms around herself as a form of protest.

For the first time in the night, I started to feel bad like I could have handled it better. Emily gave me a snarky look before she went over to the closet, put on her pajama set, and lay on the floor.

“Get up, I don’t want you to die of a cold,” I said.

“That’s none of your business Nathan and stop talking to me”.

“Fine, sleep on the bed and I’ll sleep on the couch, it’s a suite after all.” I took a deep breath after seeing how stubborn she was and grabbed two pillows before heading towards the living room of the suite.

It felt weird but it was better this way.

By morning we’d be back in New York and I’d be working there so I’d barely get to see Emily till our divorce is finalized. I tried to fall asleep but I couldn’t, I turned left, then right then left again.

The couch wasn’t so bad, it was the memories we had shared that kept me awake. It was hard to believe that the love of my life was slipping away but I couldn’t shake the betrayal.

She’d deserved it I said as I tried to make myself comfortable on the couch. It felt like everything we shared was a lie.

That’s the thing about betrayal. Once it hits you, the relationship can never be the same again. I was willing to live with the loneliness and pain as long as she was far away from me