Too Late Mr. Sterling

Chapter 2

Elowen's POV

I waited for Alistair to respond, but the line went completely silent. I tightened my grip on the phone and forced myself to continue, even though my voice was already shaking.

“Maisie has Acute Leukemia, and Dr. Edmund Hale said she may only have about a month if her condition gets worse. There is also a clinical trial that could give her a chance, but we don't know if she'll qualify yet.”

Alistair suddenly interrupted me.

“What is this, Elowen?” he asked coldly. “Is this another one of your schemes? Are you really going to lie about something like this just to get my attention?”

I froze, my heart sinking at his words.

He always believed I was trying to manipulate him. In his mind, everything I said was another attempt to make him feel guilty or remind him that we were married. He had convinced himself that I had trapped him into this marriage, so he never trusted anything that came from me.

“I am not lying,” I whispered. “Why would I lie about our daughter being sick?”

“Because you always have an excuse when you want something from me,” he replied bitterly. “Don't do this, Elowen. I don't have time for your games.”

My eyes burned with tears.

“I'm not asking you for anything for myself,” I said. “I'm asking you to be there for Maisie.”

“Stop trying to get my attention.”

“But she's your daughter.”

“I know that.”

“Then please, Alistair. Just listen to me.”

“I've listened to you enough,” he snapped. “I already told you that I want a divorce. That is the only thing I want us to discuss. No more arguments, no more emotional games, and no more trying to make me feel responsible for a marriage I never wanted.”

My fingers tightened around the phone.

Then he added, “You know Seraphina is back.”

The mention of her name hurt more than I wanted to admit.

Seraphina Wren had been the woman Alistair loved before he married me. She had disappeared from his life years ago, but now she was back, and it was obvious that his feelings for her had never truly disappeared.

I looked down at the medical report lying on the table in front of me.

There was no point anymore.

Alistair had never wanted me, and now that Seraphina was back, he had even less reason to pretend that he did. For years, I had held on to this marriage because of Maisie, hoping that one day Alistair would look at our daughter and finally understand what she needed from him.

But Maisie was sick now, and I could not waste what little time she had left fighting over a man who had never loved me.

I pressed my hand over my mouth as the tears finally spilled down my cheeks.

“There is no point,” I whispered to myself. “There is no point fighting for a marriage that never truly existed.”

Alistair heard me crying and released an impatient sigh.

“Elowen.”

I quickly wiped my tears.

“Fine,” I said through clenched teeth. “I'll give you the divorce you want, but I have one condition.”

He went silent.

For years, I had refused to agree to a divorce, so my sudden acceptance clearly caught him off guard.

“What condition?” he finally asked.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to stay calm.

“You spend time with Maisie until her birthday. You come to her birthday party, and you be the father she needs, even if it's only for this one month.”

There was silence again.

I could almost imagine him wondering what I was planning.

“Is that all?” he asked suspiciously.

“Yes,” I replied. “That's all I want.”

He seemed relieved.

“Fine. Come to my office and collect the divorce papers. You can read through them before signing anything.”

I gave a bitter smile even though he couldn't see me.

He already had the divorce papers prepared.

He had probably been waiting for the day I finally stopped fighting him so he could remove me from his life as quickly as possible.

“Fine,” I said quietly. “I'll come.”

I ended the call and sat there for several minutes, staring at the medical report.

Alistair had always hated me because he believed I had taken advantage of him during the worst moment of his life.

It happened five years ago, on the night his father died. Alistair had been devastated, drunk, and barely able to think clearly. I had stayed with him that night because I didn't want him to be alone while he was grieving.

One mistake had changed both our lives.

When I became pregnant with Maisie, Alistair believed I had used that night to trap him into marrying me. He never believed that I had loved him long before that night, and he never believed that my pregnancy had been unexpected.

His mother had also played a major part in our marriage. Before she died, she made Alistair promise that he would marry me and take responsibility for the child.

Alistair kept that promise, but he never forgave me for it.

He had always believed that I manipulated his mother and used his father's death to secure my place in his life.

The truth was that I had never wanted a marriage built on guilt.

I had wanted Alistair to love me.

I had wanted my daughter to grow up with both parents.

But after Seraphina returned, even the small hope I had been holding on to disappeared.

Once I made sure Maisie was resting comfortably, I left home and went straight to Sterling Holdings.

Calloway Reed, Alistair's executive assistant and one of the few people in the company who had always treated me with kindness, gave me a sad smile when he saw me walking toward Alistair's office.

“Mrs. Sterling,” he said quietly. “You should probably make this quick. Seraphina is coming soon.”

I forced a smile.

“Don't worry, Calloway. I've accepted the divorce.”

His expression changed immediately.

“You really have?”

I nodded.

“Yes. I'm tired of begging someone to love me.”

Calloway looked as though he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself. Instead, he gave me a sympathetic look and nodded.

I thanked him before walking toward Alistair's office.

I was only a few steps away from the door when I heard voices coming from inside.

I stopped.

It was Alistair.

“Alistair,” Ambrose Whitaker, one of the senior executives at Sterling Holdings, said from inside the office, “now that Seraphina is back, what exactly are you planning to do?”

I stood completely still.

Alistair answered without hesitation.

“I'm going to do what I should have done years ago. I'm going to make her mine.”

My chest tightened.

Ambrose sounded surprised.

“After all these years?”

“Yes.”

Alistair's voice was calm, almost certain.

“She needs help right now. Seraphina is raising Ottilie alone, and she's struggling to manage everything by herself. I want to make sure she and her daughter have everything they need.”

I lowered my eyes.

He was ready to give Seraphina everything.

He was ready to step into Ottilie's life and become the man she needed.

Yet our own daughter had spent seven years waiting for him to do the same.

“Really?” Ambrose asked. “What about Elowen? She has a daughter too, and that daughter is yours.”

My heart stopped.

For a moment, I hoped Alistair would finally say something different.

Instead, his voice became cold.

“Don't mention that woman's name in here again.”

I bit my lip hard to stop it from trembling.

I had always known Alistair disliked me, but hearing him speak about me with such hatred still broke something inside me.

Ambrose was quiet for a moment before asking, “You really don't have any feelings for her? You've been married to her for five years, and you have a seven-year-old daughter together.”

Alistair gave a bitter laugh.

“Feelings?”

There was disgust in his voice.

“Every day, I wish I had never met her. I wish I had never married her. My mother forced me into that marriage before she died because Elowen manipulated her into believing I owed her a future.”

I covered my mouth as tears slipped down my cheeks.

He continued without knowing that I was standing outside his office.

“I never loved Elowen. I never will. The only woman I've ever loved is Seraphina, and nothing is going to change that.”

My vision blurred completely.

For seven years, I had tried to convince myself that there was still a small part of Alistair that cared about me.

I had been wrong.

Every hope I had carried was nothing but something I had created in my own heart because I was too afraid to accept the truth.

Alistair had never loved me.

Not even once.

I wiped my cheeks quickly and stepped away from the door before they could hear me.

My heart was breaking, but I refused to let myself fall apart in the middle of his office.

Not today.

I had a daughter waiting for me at home.

And for the little time Maisie had left, I would stop wasting my tears on a man who had already chosen someone else.