After Five Miscarriages, I Divorced Him

Chapter 2

His phone rang.

I caught a glimpse of the screen before he angled it away. Vivienne.

He stepped aside to take the call, and when he came back, his face was tight with urgency. "Clara, something's come up. I need to head back down. Do you want to come with me, or..."

I cut him off before he could finish, my voice perfectly cooperative. "Go ahead. I still want to say a prayer for us."

He was gone before the words had fully left my mouth, disappearing down the mountain with his whole entourage behind him.

I watched him go, and for the first time, he felt like a stranger.

That was what Vivienne meant to him. It didn't matter what he was doing or where he was. One call from her, and he would drop everything.

It made me think of a night, not long ago, when we were in bed together. His phone rang and he stopped, got up, and walked out without a single word of explanation. He was gone for three days.

I hadn't known until now where he had been.

After he left, I wandered into the nave where he had placed his offerings for Vivienne. A large box sat before the altar, filled to the brim with prayer notes he had written for her. My eyes stung.

The young monk approached and bowed. "You must be Mr. Calloway's wife, Ms. Hayes?"

"Mr. Calloway is a regular here. He comes every year to pray for his wife."

I gave a faint smile and said nothing. I was his wife. But I was not Vivienne Hayes.

Curiosity pulled me toward the box. I reached in and drew out one of the slips of paper.

October 9, 2020. I hope Viv stays safe and well, always happy, always at peace.

November 3, 2023. I hope Viv and I can be together. I hope she becomes my bride.

March 5, 2021. I hope Viv is happy forever. Whatever it takes to keep her safe and well, I will do it.

There were so many. Page after page, year after year, all for her.

My tears fell before I realized they had started.

The young monk, still unaware of the truth, leaned in with a kind smile. "You are very fortunate, you know. I believe you were in a car accident once, and Mr. Calloway came straight here to pray for you. He knelt in the nave for three days and three nights without eating a single bite, surviving on nothing but water. He said that if you woke up, he would give anything, even his own life."

The pain that moved through me then had no name.

The whole country had heard about the Hayes family's daughter and her car accident. What no one knew was that on the same day Vivienne crashed, I was in a hospital bed losing another pregnancy, hemorrhaging and terrified, reaching for his hand and begging him not to go. He told me the company needed him. He left, and he was gone for three days and three nights.

He had been here, on his knees, praying for her.

Sebastian, your love is nothing but a cage you built for yourself. If you never wanted me, why did you ever come for me at all?