All Chapters of After the Divorce, the Highest-Paid Player Begs Me to Come Back: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Joe and I had been married five years. He was the team's most influential player, their biggest commercial asset.And yet, five years in the NFL, five years as his invisible wife.His teammates didn't know he was married. The fans thought he was single. Even the family section of his team media guide was blank....Breakfast time. I was in the kitchen frying eggs when my phone rang on the coffee table.Joe walked over and picked it up. "Housekeeping..."I bolted out of the kitchen and snatched the phone from his hand. "The backyard pipe's broken. I booked a plumber to come check it."Joe nodded, not a trace of suspicion. Of course—for five years, I'd handled everything in this house. Without me, he probably wouldn't even know which cabinet his socks were in."It's only because you're here that I feel at ease. Babe, I really can't do this without you." He wrapped his arms around me from behind, chin resting on my shoulder, nuzzling.I used to melt into his affection. But now, where he c

For ten days, Joe was busy at the training facility, prepping for the upcoming closed camp. We barely crossed paths. Sometimes he'd come home late and I'd already be asleep. Sometimes I'd wake at dawn and he'd already be gone. Occasionally, a sticky note would appear on the nightstand, scrawled in messy handwriting: "Breakfast's in the fridge" or "You looked too peaceful to wake."I used to find it sweet. I used to collect every note he wrote me, tuck them into a little box. Now I just looked at them, expressionless, and tossed them in the trash.Today was one of his rare days at home.I stood in the entryway, scanning the little home we'd built our memories in. The sofa we picked out together, off-white. The curtains I chose, linen. His half-finished protein shake cup still sat on the coffee table, a dried white ring on the rim. Game tapes stacked by the TV stand, arranged by season, neat as a row of silent soldiers.But I'd already quietly taken down the photos of the two of us from

Selena went quiet for two seconds, then her voice came through dripping with fury. "Last Thanksgiving. You were having dinner with Natalie. Vivian was alone in a hospital, signing her own surgical consent form, getting on that table by herself. Do you have any idea how terrified she was? She called you so many times. You never picked up!""She... she never told me..." Joe's head was splitting. Thanksgiving—he'd been celebrating with his teammates, drunk. His phone was on silent, stuffed in Natalie's bag. He hadn't heard a single ring."She wanted to tell you." Selena said. "But you always said Natalie needed you more. You always said Vivian was just naturally stronger than Natalie. Joe! She wasn't born strong—she was willing to do anything for you. And you—you were such a disappointment!"The line went dead.Joe stood on the street, dazed, the world around him terrifyingly quiet.He rushed home, exhausted, told Natalie to leave, and started tearing through every drawer.Bottom of the n

Joe boarded a flight to Seattle.On the plane, he kept scrolling through the messages on Vivian's old phone.Natalie's last message to Vivian: "His heart hasn't been with you for a long time. What are you still waiting for? How long has it been since he had dinner with you?"Attached was a photo of Natalie herself sitting in Joe's car, hands on the wheel. In the shot, Joe was asleep in the passenger seat, Natalie's work badge lanyard around his neck.Joe remembered.That day after training he'd been severely dehydrated. Natalie offered to drive him home. He fell asleep in the car. She didn't take him home. She drove around the city for two hours with him in the passenger seat, then snapped that photo while he was out.And sent it to Vivian.And Vivian at the time... He found a draft in the old phone's message folder: "Joe, Natalie says you two are together. But I believe you. Can we talk?"For some reason, that message was never sent.Joe locked the screen and leaned back against the s

Facing the reporters and the fans crowding in, Joe picked up the mic and said just one thing: "I spent five years finding my place on the field. Now I'm going to spend a lot longer finding the person I lost."The room erupted.A reporter called out: "Sir, the messages you cleared from your Instagram and the new ones you've been posting—are they for someone you miss?"He didn't answer a single question. Turned and walked off the stage. Behind him, shutters clicked and voices pressed. He left fast, without looking back.The next day, the NFL released an official notice: Natalie Reed's registered nutritionist credentials were permanently revoked for violating the league's ethics code. She was banned from entering any NFL team facility. The notice never mentioned Joe's name, but everyone in the industry knew what it was about.That same day, Joe sold the house in Kansas City.He packed everything. What could be donated, he donated. What could be given away, he gave away. The playbook, the