The Wife Who Wallked Away Novels & Stories

My roommate, John Swift, asked in shock, “Pete, are you throwing that away? I thought you cherished that photo a lot.” I shook my head and cut Bella out of the family portrait. I tore it into pieces. John seemed to understand. “Pete, is your wife alive?” I pulled out my phone. Someone had sent me a text two weeks ago. [Bella’s still alive.] There was a photo attached to the message. It was a selfie of Bella and Carlson. Two weeks ago, I found out that my wife, who had supposedly been dead for five years, was still alive. When I first found out the news, I could not even sleep.

The words hang in the air and Madeline just stares at me, shock clear on her face, like she can’t quite process what she just heard, like it doesn’t fit into whatever version of me she’s been holding onto all these years. “Your wife,” she repeats softly, like the word itself is foreign. “Yes.” Silence falls between us again, but this time it’s colder, and I don’t wait for her to fill it, I don’t wait for whatever she might say next because I already know it won’t be anything I want to hear. So I turn and walk away.

The same smell of cooking, old wood and other people's lives in the stairwell. I went to the door. And knocked. Waited. Knocked again. Nothing. I knocked harder. "Nobody's there." I heard. I turned around and saw a woman from the next unit, leaning in her doorway with a wrapper tied around her chest and the expression of someone who had been watching the street long enough to know everything that happened on it. "What?" I said. "They moved out," she said. "Two days ago. The mother and your husband. Packed everything and left."

She'd been enjoying the man's company so much that she'd been oblivious to her husband standing only ten feet away watching them. At that moment, I had a choice. Either I could go to them, lift the man flirting so shamelessly with my wife into the air and hurl him out of a window or I could leave. I had left without looking back. My phone vibrated in my pocket, the third time it had rung. I pulled it out and, not looking at it, turned it off. I didn't want to speak to anyone. I didn't trust myself to speak to anyone now. I walked for miles, detouring through pavements. I slowed my pace as I walked the long driveway to my home and climbed the marble steps.

With Alice clinging to him? Nothing. Instead, it was Lucia's face that hit him. Her lips. That sweet, lingering taste... He jerked to his feet. Alice stumbled back into the seat, eyes wide with shock. Jared's voice went ice-cold. "Who said I'm divorcing Lucia? Until I sign those papers, she's still my wife." And with that, he stormed out—leaving Alice pale, speechless, and alone. *** Jared burst through the front door. "Lucia! Lucia, come out!" he shouted, voice echoing through the house.

In the end, I had to let him go since he had a lot of things to do on his own. It was a few more meters walk and the traffic made it more annoying. I am so late. “I’m going out,” I told my driver as I hopped out quickly and started walking briskly. I removed my coat on my way and somehow the walk lessened the pain in my head. I entered the restaurant and found my wife sitting alone on the spot that I reserved. She looked sullen. Why Hyacinth? I stopped from entering as I stared at my wife with a tired face. I wanted to dive into her thoughts. I wanted to know what she was thinking. I haven’t cleared things up with her, but not until I have all of the evidence.

Elina walked away from the dining table, thinking for to see Ethan whether his handsome little prince was asleep or still playing with Ara. The woman's footsteps stopped when she accidentally saw the silhouette of a tall man in front of the entrance. After confirming that it was Adam, her husband. Elina then walked quickly to Adam with a cheerful smile etched on her face, unable to see her husband who was angry like this morning. However, the woman's steps slowly stopped, the smile on her face began to fade when she saw that Adam did not come alone. He was with a woman. With slow and careful steps, Elina mustered up the courage to keep walking towards her husband Adam, right in front of her.

"What are we now, wife? You sound jealous over her." "Oh, please!" She retorted in an instant. "Am I jealous over Bella? The answer is clearly no! That is just wishful thinking on your part. I am not jealous. I don't get jealous; why would I? I never get jealous because I know my worth, my dear husband. And if anyone doesn't see my worth, I'll gladly walk away from him." Hearing her say those words, he can only say. "Then walk away from this marriage now, my dear wife."

Something flickered across Nathan's face, so quick Claire almost missed it. "Then we understand each other," he said, standing up. "Stay in your lane, and this will be easy for both of us." He walked past her without another word, and Claire stood there in the empty dining room, feeling smaller than she had ever felt in her life. Later that afternoon, a woman walked into the mansion without knocking, heels clicking loudly against the marble floor. Claire was in the hallway when she saw her, tall, beautiful, dressed in clothes that probably cost more than Claire's entire wardrobe combined.

The door closed after Leonard Ashcroft left. His footsteps slowly faded down the hospital corridor. And with those footsteps— Something inside Arabella died as well. She remained sitting weakly on the bed. Her hands still hadn’t fully recovered after signing the divorce papers only minutes earlier. So easy. Three years of marriage ended with nothing more than a few sheets of paper. Arabella slowly closed her eyes. Her chest felt hollow. Even tears were becoming difficult to shed. A soft knock sounded at the door.