Alpha Callum and The Broken Mate

Chapter One Tori POV Anger. Hurt. Betrayal. Sadness. These are all of the feelings I felt while I was signing the divorce papers my husband threw at me from across the kitchen table. Five years together and six months married and he was ready to throw away everything we had created in the blink of an eye. While I felt all of those emotions as I was doing it, I also felt some relief. The struggles he put us through, the fights that always turned on me, the guilt trips and two-faced personalities I constantly had to deal with from his family, the constant drinking… all over. Finally. There was anguish, sure. The fact that my marriage only lasted six months when I wholeheartedly believed that marriage is supposed to last for life, and that my first marriage would be my only marriage. I was devastated that the life we had built together the last five years was just over in the blink of an eye. Alex looked at me with disdain and crossed his arms while he waited for me to get through all of the pages of the agreement. I wanted nothing from him and he knew that. We were living in my house, not his, so there was no disagreement about who was moving out. We both had our own vehicles, so there was no splitting or selling there. We didn’t have any kids together, so there was no custody agreement. It only took me 5 minutes to read through all of the technicalities of property and assets shared, because we didn’t have any. After reading all of the fine print, I shakily signed my name. Victoria Raylynn Rhytie. Another sign I should have seen of this not working out is that I never legally changed my name to his. “Good. Glad you could do something right in our relationship.” Alex said as I handed him the papers back. My heart grew cold with those words and all of the hurt and anguish I was feeling disappeared. I have been called not good enough my entire life. I will be damned if I let this drunk of a mistake I made hurt me like everyone else did. So I did what I did best. I bottled all of the emotions I was feeling on the inside and I pushed them so far down not even Satan himself could find them and put on my stoic, non-emotional face. I had shut down. And that was for the best. “Have all of your stuff moved out of MY house by the end of the week.” I said back with a terrifyingly smooth tone. “Oh, and I don’t want to see you or anyone you take with to help, so make sure to get it done during my working hours.” He looked at me with a flustered look. “Here’s my schedule for this week. It’s Sunday, so you should have plenty of time.” And with that I walked out of my house, got in my car, and left. To where? I had no idea. I just needed to get out of this house with him in there. I couldn’t stand staring at his face any longer. As I drove around on the streets of my hometown, I couldn’t help but think of the little memories we created here. The first time he brought me to the only nice restaurant in this town and brought me flowers just for it, which no man had ever done before. The bars downtown where we first met and had a conversation with each other. The town park where we stayed out late together laying by the swings looking at the stars on a warm summer evening, talking about our futures and our plans we were making with each other. Everything in this town reminded me of him. And that’s when I knew I couldn’t stay here anymore. I had to leave. Because I knew that he wouldn’t. He would stick around here knowing that I would run into him from time to time, eventually with a new girl. Being a small town, there isn’t much breathing room. I turned back down the street to my house to see if he was still there and was relieved to see he had finally left. I looked at the clock and I had been driving around for 2 hours feeling sorry for myself. No. More. I decided to pack some things and take a trip. Somewhere I’ve always wanted to go. Somewhere that would inspire me. Somewhere that I could find myself again. Somewhere nobody knew me or my story and wouldn’t look at me with pity like I had already been dealing with the last month of our marriage because everyone could see it going downhill. I scrolled through my phone looking at tickets to random places after I got everything packed. I also called my lawyer to let him know what happened. “Beaker, Connor, and Bennett. How may I direct your call?” “Hi Janine, it’s Victoria calling for Ed can you put me through?” “Oh of course Mrs. Rhytie right away.” I laughed internally at the fact that Alex never got to call me Mrs. Malken officially but always had to refer to me by my maiden name in a professional setting. “Hey Tori! How’s my favorite client doing?!” Ed said when I was transferred through. “Well, not the best…” I said suddenly nervous. Ed was one of my mother’s favorite people growing up and a close family friend of ours. It only made sense to make him my lawyer when I started making a significant amount in my career. One reason the divorce papers were so easy to go through, I had an iron clad prenup made up by the one and only Ed Bennett. “Oh gosh, it’s Alex isn’t it. Hun, are you ok?” Ed said in a soft fatherly tone. My eyes started to well at the concern in his vice but I pushed them away. No time for emotions and crying I’ll have plenty of time to wallow in my self pity on the trip I take. I took a deep breath and sighed. “It is Alex, but I’m ok. I promise. I just wanted to let you know that the divorce is official now and that I plan on making a trip to clear my head for a bit, and wasn’t sure if I would be available during that time since I’m not sure where I’ll be or if I’ll have service.” “Oh sweetheart I know you. I know you’re putting up a tough front to get through this and I just want to tell you that it’s ok. Process however you need to process. Go on your trip and I’ll make sure if there are any hiccups or problems that I’ll take care of them.” Hearing those words made me feel better about my decision to disappear for a while. “Thank you so much Ed, I’m sure his lawyer will be emailing you a copy of the divorce papers. I have full trust that you can take care of it. Thank you again. For everything.” And with that I hung up. I continued scrolling through plane tickets and vacation packages. I had a mass of money saved up for ‘our’ future. Which was now not happening. I planned on starting college funds for our kids and budgets for the baby years that would never come. So I might as well go out on myself and use some of it now, so prices weren’t an issue. But where did I want to go? A ten day luxury stay in the Bahamas? No, I’m always terrified of becoming one of the lost girls that get taken on a tropical vacation. A seven day cabin trip in the Canadian forests? As much as I love nature, I need a rebound and a distraction, not to feel sorry for myself alone in a cabin for a week. Taiwan? No. Greece? No. France? No. Germany? Hell no. “UGH.” I groaned and shut my phone off feeling frustrated that I couldn’t just decide already. I wanted to get out of town, and fast. I needed to make a decision. Just when I was feeling like maybe it’s a sign to not go anywhere and to just hole up in my house for the next month or so, I hear a ping on my phone. I unlock it to see it was one of the travel apps telling me that a recommended trip was sent to me. I opened it up without much hope of me liking where they were suggesting. “All inclusive Alaskan sightseeing trip.” I read aloud to myself. That doesn’t sound half bad, I’ve always wanted to experience Alaska and see all of the animals and glaciers I’ve always read about up there. “Let’s see what this includes.” I read through all of the amenities it included. Kayaking with whales, a helicopter tour of the glaciers, fly fishing on the Kenai River which regularly saw bears. All five star accommodations as we travel and stay in different areas. All meals and alcohol included in the price. And a luxury train ride from place to place with our own cabins to be able to sightsee on our leisure, which I guess is the best way to see wildlife up there. Everything sounded amazing. It’s a ten day trip so that will give me plenty of time to clear my head. I started making plans, researching the weather in all of the places we were going so that I could pack accordingly and finally I booked my plane ticket. I’m flying out tomorrow at 10am. That gives me plenty of time to let my employees know I’ll be out and for the 2 hour drive to the only airport in the area. Ill call for a meeting tonight. I’m really doing this. I felt nervous, excited, giddy, and some other weird feeling I couldn’t discern. Almost like a pull there. Like this is where I was meant to go. It was 6 P.M. and I just got off the video call with my employees telling them I would be absent for the next 10-15 days factoring in travel times. They were all very understanding, I guess rumors really do travel fast in small towns. The company I had built was so efficient I wasn’t even worried about them knowing who to default to for a manager while I was gone. It was such an easy conversation that we were finished with it in about 10 minutes. After I graduated college I immediately started working at the local grocery store as the head manager. The owner of the store and I worked well together and he didn’t have any children or family so when he passed away he handed everything over to me. For the last 6 years I have built it to be more than Billy ever imagined it would be and have had an amazing success. At the age of 28, I owned a very prominent business here in our small town. With employees that love working there, customers that love going there, and a reputation as “The friendliest store in town”. I finished my packing and cleaned my house, getting it ready for the days I would be gone. Luckily I didn’t have any pets and I had no plants since I couldn’t grow even a cactus if I wanted to. That was one thing I didn’t inherit from my mother. Our house looked like a greenhouse all my life. I looked at my house and with a sigh laid down into bed, set my alarm for about 5:30 am, and closed my eyes. I slowly drifted off and dreamt about the Alaskan adventure I was going to have. I woke up to my alarm blaring. I shut it off and immediately jumped out of bed. I hopped in the shower, washed my hair and body quickly and just back out. I normally like to enjoy my showers but I knew I wanted to be on the road by 6. I threw a towel around my hair, threw on some light concealer, mascara, a thin line of eyeliner on top, and chapstick. My go-to’s. I grabbed the pair of lightly ripped skin tight but stretchy jeans, the lowcut floral tank top and my jean jacket and throw them on. I pull on my faded pair of trusty hiking boots, took my hair out of the towel and let it free to air dry. I looked at my watch and saw I still had about 10 minutes before I wanted to leave in order to get to the airport at a good time and I suddenly remembered I forgot to pack my makeup and toiletries. I didn’t need much as I wouldn’t be able to take any liquids with me on the plane but I definitely needed my makeup bag and hair styling tools. After I got those together and ready to pack, I really looked at myself in the mirror for the first time today. I never really considered myself some great beauty but I didn’t think I was a total lost cause either. My auburn brown hair came down to about the middle of my back, perpetually straight. I had a good sprinkling of freckles across my nose and cheeks with some stragglers on my forehead. I never knew where those came from as neither of my parents had them, nor anyone in my family that I had ever seen. I had a normal nose, nothing small nothing big, a little crooked from when my older brother accidentally broke it when I was nine, but it wasn’t unattractive. Full soft lips, I was 5 foot 4 inches, the same height since I was 12 and I actually liked being short, since I liked my men to always be taller than me and that was an easy feat when you’re small. My breasts and my ass were both decently voluptuous which always got me attention even when I didn’t want it. And finally my eyes. My mother’s eyes and my favorite feature about myself. They were a sparkling green with gold flecks and brown thrown in there, framed by thick dark lashes to accentuate them. Everyone in our small town knew exactly whose daughter I was with those eyes, they were unique. And I loved them. As I was looking at myself I felt a sadness wash over me. Alex always complimented my looks. Always told me I was the most beautiful woman in the world to him and that nobody could compete with me. Well clearly somebody could. The divorce papers were enough to prove that. I push away the negative thoughts about him and take a look at my watch. It was 10 minutes before I wanted to leave which was perfect. I get my bags packed in, making sure last minute I have everything I need and I start the drive. I take one last look at my house in the mirror and feel excited to get to my much needed getaway.