My Husband Called Me Disgusting

Chapter 4

I kept recording until Nathaniel and Clara walked into the hotel, fingers interlaced, and the doors closed behind them. Then I stopped.

I sat in the car for a long time, waiting for something inside me to settle, before I drove home.

That night, I dreamed of the beginning.

Nathaniel and I hadn't been in the same department, but during freshman orientation camp our training groups shared the same grounds. He walked up to me holding a can of Yoo-hoo, trying to start a conversation. I was guarded back then, and I didn't take the drink or give him an opening. He kept at it anyway, and somewhere along the way his sincerity wore me down.

After we got together, he was devoted in a way that felt almost relentless, like he was always searching for something better to give me. Sophie used to say that if there were only one good man left in the world, it would be Nathaniel.

When he proposed, his voice broke. "Evie, thank you for saying yes. I swear I will spend the rest of my life making you the happiest person in the world."

Now all of that happiness lay in pieces around me.

I woke up alone. The pillow was damp, and there were messages from Nathaniel sent in the middle of the night, telling me something had come up, that he wouldn't make it back, that Ryan was with him.

I closed the conversation and called my childhood friend, a lawyer, and asked him to draft a divorce agreement. I sent him the video I'd recorded and the screenshots Clara had forwarded to me, and asked him to prepare a petition for divorce as well, in case Nathaniel refused an amicable divorce and I needed to file in case of adultery.

Then I filled out the application for the fellowship in Aveloria.

The opportunity had come up once before, early in my career, and I had turned it down for Nathaniel. My mentor and my supervisor had both been quietly disappointed. So when it appeared again a week ago and my supervisor started making his case with unusual persistence, I had still been hesitating. I wasn't hesitating anymore. I wasn't giving up my future for Nathaniel again.

The Evelyn of before had been willing to sacrifice her future for love. The Evelyn of now was going to fight for her own.

Looking back and looking forward, I had no regrets about any of it.