Chapter 2
1061 Words
I felt the cab driver's disgust as I caught his eyes through the rear view mirror. Maybe I had
a little more to drink but I deserved it. Maybe I wasn't the elegant woman I’d been a few
hours ago but being publicly humiliated by the man who was supposed to love and protect you would do that to you. He could have chosen any other day. He could have served me at
home. He… we could have found a way to work it out. I didn’t do anything to deserve this.
“Here,” I slurred, pointing at the house I used to call home.
He parked and I sat, dreading going in. Dreading the lingerie I lay out on the bed
for when we got back home. He could have done this any other day.
"Miss?" The driver queried.
"Sorry. I'm just… I'll get out of your hair." A part of me hoped he'd tell me to take all the time I
needed but the vice-grip he had on the steering wheel told me all I needed to know.
I stumbled out of his car as fast as I could, which wasn’t fast at all. I looked down at my
beautiful white dresses stained with a huge blotch of crimson down the front, a reflection of
the current state of marriage.
The house was quiet when I walked in. Silent, except for my clinking pieces of my shattered
heart. I didn't do anything to deserve that. I didn't know the love of my life could humiliate in
the worst way possible. Divorcing me on our wedding anniversary? And in the presence of
so many people. The pitying looks made me want to shrivel up an whither away. What the
hell did I do to deserve that?
Moments from that evening played in my mind on repeat. I'd wanted him there so bad until
he arrived, and then I wanted him to never have come. I wanted the clock to go back to
before I had my whole world turned upside down.
I clutched my chest and my knees gave out. I couldn't bear the pain. I loved this man with
everything I had. I stuck with his through all the turmoil, the drama with his family. I did what
a good woman – a good wife was supposed to do. And still there I was, crying my eyes out
on a cashmere rug. I couldn't believe my life.
Thankfully Grace wasn't home. She at least had the decency to let me pack in peace. Or
maybe she hadn't heard. No, she definitely was with him when he filed – or told him to file.
No way she would miss the opportunity.
With a heavy heart, I pulled out my suitcase from the back of my former walk-in closet and
started stuffing it with as many hoodies and sweaters as I could. Where I was headed, I
knew I wouldn't be attending any dinner parties. I didn't even know where I was headed.
I felt so alone, so unworthy of love. I felt like a dirty rag, so easily discarded after serving its
purpose. My heartached so for my husband for the love I'd lost. The love that was never
really mine.
I felt like a little girl again, sitting on the floor against white stucco walls. My collarbone
stinging from a cut I didn't know how I got. I can't even remember how I got there what I was
doing there but I know I felt utterly alone.Here I am again, a lifetime later and I've been abandoned yet again.
Fuck my life. I guess some people a destined to be alone.
I'm jolted back to my reality by the clacking of heels against the tiled floor. A cold sweat ran
down my back as my eyes widened like saucers. I smelt her perfume before she opened the
door - jasmine and sandalwood. Such a lovely scent wanted on a putrid person. The wicked
witch had arrived.
I tried to wipe my tears and get up off the floor but I couldn't. All my strength had leaked out
of me, leaving me a barely functional husk of pain. I wept for myself. I wept for how weak I
was.
The door slammed open and there she was. Through my tears, I was able to make out her
figure. She was radiant and slutty in a floral dress that barely covered her thighs. Despite her
age, she had a figure men would die for. And she knew it.
A cackle startled me. "Why the hell are you still here, you dumb cow? Shouldn't you be
halfway down whatever hole you crawled up from?"
I couldn't – just couldn't. My face was drenched in salty tears and it wouldn't stop pouring.
"Look at you," she continued. "Did you really think you could keep a man like Auden? Did
you think you had what it took to be a trophy wife. Because that's all you ever were." She
laughed again. "You're like Icarus, trying to get to a place you don't belong."
"I'm glad he opened his eyes and saw you for the gold digger you really are." She walked up
to me and I flinched. She reached into my suitcase. "Just like a gold digger. What the hell are
you doing with this bag? You plan to use it as a pillow while you sleep under a bridge?"
I curled into a feral ball on the cold floor.
I heard the retreating clicking of her heels. "I'll come back in the morning. Don't be here."
SLAM.
I'd had this dream before. But in my dream, Auden was there to defend me, to keep the
snapping jackals at bay.
She never liked me, never pretended to. And he knew it. He would tell me how she would
come around and learn to love me. She never did. Eventually, her hatred for me started to
rub off on him, and his energy towards me shifted. My more morning kisses, no more
late-night snuggles. He became the stereotypical workaholic businessman who never had
time for his wife.
But he loved me once. He used to make me feel so desired, so cherished. So whole. With eyelids laden with lead, I sunk into darkness, dreaming of a time before it all went down the drain.
- Writer
