Chapter 2
1503 Words
Adrian’s fingers tightened around Elena’s wrist.
“What is it that I don’t know?”
His voice was rough with sleep, but his grey eyes were sharp. They moved from her face to the glowing phone and then to the papers lying beside him.
Elena could hear her heart beating.
For one wild second, she considered telling him everything.
She could tell him about Vanessa’s message. She could tell him about the many calls Vanessa had answered on his behalf. She could tell him how tired she was of feeling like a visitor in her own marriage.
She could tell him that she had packed a suitcase.
But what would change?
Adrian had listened to her before. He had listened with one eye on his phone and his mind already inside his next meeting. He always promised they would talk later.
Later had become three years.
Elena looked down at his hand around her wrist.
“Let me go.”
Adrian’s eyebrows drew together.
“Elena—”
“Let me go, Adrian.”
Something in her voice made his grip loosen.
Elena pulled her hand away and rubbed the red mark his fingers had left. Adrian sat up slowly. The sheet fell to his waist, revealing the white shirt he had worn to bed instead of changing properly.
His gaze landed on the divorce papers.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Elena watched him read the first page.
She waited for shock.
She waited for fear.
She waited for him to look at her as if the thought of losing her had torn the ground beneath his feet.
Instead, his face became hard.
“What is this?”
The question hurt more than it should have.
“You know what it is.”
Adrian picked up the papers. Her wedding ring rolled across the page and stopped against his thumb.
His eyes fixed on it.
“You signed them.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“A minute ago.”
His head lifted quickly.
“You sat beside me and signed divorce papers while I was sleeping?”
Elena nearly laughed, but there was no joy inside her.
“You were sleeping beside me for the first time in almost two weeks. I had to use the chance.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“I have been working.”
“You are always working.”
“I told you the company is handling a major deal.”
“And I told you our marriage was falling apart.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No,” Elena said quietly. “To you, it was never as important.”
Adrian stared at her.
The phone screen went dark between them.
Elena glanced at it. Vanessa’s message disappeared behind the lock screen, but its words remained clear in her mind.
He still doesn’t know, does he?
Adrian followed her gaze.
“What did Vanessa mean?”
“I don’t know.”
It was not completely true.
Elena knew Vanessa was hiding something. She simply did not know what.
Adrian reached for the phone, but Elena spoke before he could open the message.
“Does it matter?”
His eyes narrowed. “You were staring at my phone.”
“It lit up beside me.”
“And Vanessa sent a strange message.”
“She sends you messages at two in the morning. That is not strange anymore.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“Elena, do not turn this into another argument about Vanessa.”
There it was.
The defence.
The wall he always built whenever Vanessa’s name entered the room.
Elena felt the final small piece of hope inside her disappear.
“I’m not turning it into anything,” she said. “I’m ending it.”
Adrian dropped the papers onto the bed.
“You are being emotional.”
Elena went still.
He had used that word many times.
When she cried because he missed her birthday dinner, she was emotional.
When she asked why Vanessa had a key to their penthouse, she was emotional.
When she told him she felt alone, she was emotional.
It was his favourite way of making her pain seem foolish.
“I waited for you tonight,” she said.
Adrian looked away for half a second.
“I was at a business dinner.”
“You promised to meet me.”
“The dinner became more important than I expected.”
“Vanessa was there.”
“She is connected to the Crane investment.”
“Of course she is.”
Adrian pushed a hand through his hair.
“I cannot keep explaining my work to you every time I attend an event.”
“I never asked you to explain your work. I asked you to remember your wife.”
“I know you are my wife.”
“No,” Elena whispered. “You know that you have one.”
The words silenced him.
Elena rose from the bed.
Her legs felt weak, but she forced herself to stand straight.
Adrian noticed the suitcase beside the wardrobe for the first time.
His eyes moved from it to the empty space inside the open closet.
“You packed.”
“Yes.”
“You planned this.”
“I have been planning it for weeks.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I said everything.”
Adrian stood.
“You never told me you were leaving.”
“I told you I was unhappy. I told you I felt invisible. I told you I could not keep living like this. You kept telling me we would talk later.”
“We can talk now.”
Elena shook her head.
“No. You want to talk now because there are papers beside you. Not because I was hurting.”
Adrian stepped closer.
His presence had always filled every room. He was taller than her, stronger than her, and powerful enough to make people obey with one look.
Once, Elena had felt safe beside him.
Tonight, she only felt tired.
“You are my wife,” he said.
“Not for much longer.”
“I did not agree to a divorce.”
“You do not have to agree that our marriage is broken for it to be broken.”
His eyes darkened.
“You cannot simply disappear.”
Elena looked at him for a long moment.
He did not know that disappearing was exactly what she planned to do.
Her lawyer had prepared everything. A car was waiting downstairs. Her new phone was hidden inside her handbag. By morning, she would be far from the penthouse, his company, and every street where she had once waited for him.
Adrian reached for her, but stopped before touching her face.
“Elena,” he said more softly. “Do not do this tonight.”
Her heart betrayed her by aching at the sound of her name.
“Why?”
“Because it is late. We are both tired.”
“I have been tired for three years.”
“Then sleep. We will talk in the morning.”
Morning.
Another promise for later.
Elena looked past him at the city lights.
Perhaps this was her last chance to demand that he choose her.
She could ask him to cancel his morning meeting. She could ask him to call Vanessa and end whatever strange connection existed between them. She could tell him that she needed him to fight for their marriage.
But she had asked in a hundred different ways already.
A person should not have to beg to matter.
Adrian returned to the bed and picked up the papers.
“I am not signing these.”
Elena’s eyes burned.
“That is your choice.”
“And you are not leaving tonight.”
“That is mine.”
He looked at her sharply.
For a moment, she thought he would block the door.
Instead, his phone rang.
The name on the screen was Vanessa Crane.
Adrian stared at it.
Elena stared at him.
“Do not answer,” she said.
Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
It was the last thing she would ever ask of him as his wife.
Adrian hesitated.
Then the phone rang again.
He looked at Elena, reached for it, and pressed the answer button.
“Vanessa,” he said. “What happened?”
Elena closed her eyes.
There was her answer.
She picked up her handbag and walked toward the door.
Behind her, Adrian spoke urgently into the phone.
Elena placed her hand on the bedroom handle, then turned and looked at him one last time.
He had his back to her.
Even now, he did not see her leaving.
Elena opened the door.
As she stepped into the dark hallway, Vanessa’s voice came clearly through the phone.
“Adrian, you need to come to Crane Medical Centre. It’s about Elena’s test results.”
Elena stopped breathing.
She had never taken any test at Crane Medical Centre.
- Writer
