You without me

Postponing the inevitable

Olivia’s POV

I wake up and panic a little at the unfamiliar, yet familiar surroundings. You know that feeling when you wake somewhere different than you’re used to. Then I remember I’m in my old room. My family didn’t change it at all. I feel lighter today. This is the first time since Gran passed, maybe even earlier that I’m looking forward to my todays and tomorrows.

It’s 6 am, I have time for a shower and some breakfast before I have to meet Christian at the courthouse. Hopefully he’ll just sign the papers and we can both move on. I really don’t understand his reaction last night. I kind of thought that he’d be happy he could just be with Alexis now. Would that really be betraying Drew more than what he’s already done? I would think making her his side piece would be worse than making her his wife.

Oh well. With any luck in two more hours it won’t be my problem anymore. I take a nice long shower and get dressed in a mid calf black and green dress. I love the 3/4 sleeves and the way it shapes my body. It makes me feel cute and look professional but still comfortable.

As I leave my bedroom and look around I feel so at peace. This feels like home. It is home. I’m ready to start living for myself. Being single, and doing what I want.

As I come around the corner to the kitchen I see my dad sitting at the counter with a cup of coffee and a croissant, I can’t help but smile. That’s been his favorite breakfast for as long as I can remember. I would eat it on the mornings I felt particularly lonely.

“Hey sweetheart” my dad says with a smile, “one night of sleep at home and you already look better!” He teases.

“I feel better too, ready to get divorced!” I say, probably more excited than I should and my dad laughs.

“I wouldn’t get too ahead of yourself, I don’t think Christian plans to make this easy for you.” His face turns angry at Christians name.

“I really thought he would when I had a lawyer draw up the divorce papers. I didn’t ask for anything and wanted to get it done quietly. He’ll regret it if he wants to get messy.” I tell my dad firmly. Then I pull out my phone and pull up the text thread with all Alexis’s threats, insults, and pictures of the two of them, and hand him my phone.

My dad puts his glasses on and instantly looks angry at the phone, the more he scrolls the redder his face gets. At this point I’m almost expecting smoke to come out of his ears!

“Olivia! Why did you deal with this for so long! Why would you let her talk to you this way?” He asks angrily. Just then James walks in the kitchen and asks “let who talk to her what way?”

My dad hands him the phone and it’s like rewatching the same show over as my brother reads through. “That b***h, and scum of a man!” He yells. “Why didn’t you just leave Liv? I just don’t understand what was keeping you there!”

I sigh. “I don’t know either if I’m being honest. I guess I just didn’t want it all to be for nothing.” I say sadly. “I left you guys, I hadn’t seen you in years, and I guess part of me always hoped I’d be worth his love.” Tears start building in my eyes so I turn around to get some coffee hoping neither of them saw it. Then I smile at the cherry turnovers sitting on the counter by the coffee. They’ve always been my favorite.

“I hear we have a house guest.” My brother Thomas says as he walks into the kitchen with his big goofy smile and I drop what I’m doing and tackle him in a big hug.

“God I missed you!” I say, happy tears now filling my eyes at my brother familiar scent.

“I missed you too sis.” He says sadly. “There we’re so many nights I debated going and banging on your door and kidnapping you until you realized you deserve more than the life you had with him.”

“There were many nights it wouldn’t have been kidnapping” I smile at the thought. “But it needed to be my decision to leave, I had to lose all hope I had for us, I just wish it didn’t take so long.” I look at my family and hope they can see the regret I feel. “I wish I listened to you all, that I never married him in the first place, but all I can do now is move forward. Live life the way I want to.”

“Any ideas what you want to do?” James asks “We could always use you at the company, your talent with numbers would really put us ahead of the game.”

“I actually want to go into music. I was hoping you’d talk to Seth and see if he would help me put an album out. I have some songs I wrote over the years and I think they’re actually pretty good.” I say shyly.

“I’ll buy the whole damn recording studio, and record label if that’s what it takes!” My dad states, making me laugh. He’d do it too!

“So, I’m guess I’ll have three escorts to the courthouse?” I know them well enough to know that they are all planning on coming with me today.

“Damn straight” Thomas says as the others nod in agreement. I look at my dad, more serious now, a rock starting to form in my stomach.

“What do I do if he doesn’t show up, or won’t sign them?”

“I called Rich last night after you went to sleep, if Christian won’t cooperate, he will file the legal paperwork for you, we will do everything through him and keep you as far away from Christian as we can.” My dad says and grabs my hand. “We’ll get it taken care of, I promise.”

“Okay” I puff out a long breath, “I’m ready”.

Pulling up to the courthouse my heart is in my stomach. I feel nauseated and anxious.

“You and I will stay in the car. We’ll send James inside to see if he’s there, Thomas will wait outside.” My dad says and I nod, I’m so thankful he’s here to lead the way because I am an anxious mess right now.

Just as Thomas opens his door I see Christians car pull up in front of us.

“That’s him.” I say.

“Thomas and James, go talk to him. See if he’s here to sign the papers. Livy isn’t getting out of the car unless it’s happening.”

Usually I’d be annoyed at my dad taking over like that, but honestly right now it’s a relief. I’ve accommodated Christian for so long I’m afraid I’d do it again without even realizing it.

Christians POV

Pulling up to the courthouse I see the black car her dad picked her up in last night parked out front. “Of course he came” I think, annoyed that it’ll make it harder to get through to her. As I park I see James and his younger brother getting out of the car. Great, she made it a whole freaking family affair. What was the other brothers name again?

As I get out of the car they walk towards me, both looking more like body guards than billionaires. That family has never acted like they should with the status they have. Olivia has a mouth on her that no other high class woman would dare. I always found it both intriguing and irritating.

“Are you here the sign the papers or waste our time?” The one that isn’t James asks, why can’t I remember his name.

“I’m not signing anything, I’m here to get my wife.”

“Well as far as we’re concerned, you don’t have a wife anymore” James says glaring at me. “Just sign the papers and move on, we’ve seen the pictures, you clearly didn’t take this marriage seriously anyways.” Thomas looks at him confused for a second before recovering to his former bodyguard look.

“I have no clue what pictures you’re talking about, but as far as I’m concerned, your sister is still my wife and I have no intention of letting that change. Let me talk to her.” I say while glaring into the car I know she’s sitting in.

“That’s not going to happen, if you’re not going to sign then we’re done here. Our lawyer will be in contact.” The other brother says. They both turn towards the car and shake their heads no. I start to follow them towards the car.

“I need to talk to her.”

“No. You don’t.” James stops and turns to face me. “Let’s be really clear about something, you had your chance and you blew it. You don’t get to talk to her again. Hell, you don’t even get to look at her. If I could control it, I would make it so you can’t even think about it. God knows you didn’t before now. You should watch yourself Christian. How would it look if the pictures of you in bed with another woman came out? Especially considering the same woman is photographed with you in public more than your own wife. You really don’t want the press we can bring you.”

I pause confused. What pictures in bed with another woman? I haven’t shared a bed with anyone so how could they have pictures of that.

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about, you can’t have pictures of something that didn’t happen.”

“Yeah, that’s our point.” He says as he opens the car door. The back is too tinted to see her, so I go to reach for the door, but the other brother blocks me. Then we both hear the door lock and James gives me a smug look.

“Leave her alone, this is the only warning you’re going to get.” He says as he gets in and shuts the door, he starts the car and pulls out, I have to jump back a little to avoid my foot getting run over.

What the hell! I get that maybe I haven’t been great to her, but they’re acting like I’ve been a cheat! Like I shouldn’t get a chance to fix this!

I get back in my car and slam the door. I need to get to the office. I call Devin on my drive.

“Devin, I need you the lawyers ready, I’ll be there in 20.” I say and then hang up.

“We need to talk about this” I send a text to Olivia, then start driving towards my building.

As I walk into my office and get settled, my phone starts vibrating, I check and see 10+ texts from Olivia, they’re screen shots, pictures of me in bed with Alexis, it looks like they were taken in her guest room. WHAT THE HELL! I look at other ones and they’re a text conversation, it’s Alexis’s number at the top, she sent the picture? Why would she do that? I read some of the texts.

“You may be his wife, but he’s sleeping in my bed.”

“That ring is the most you’ll ever get from him”

The more I read the more pissed off I’m starting to get. Would she really go so far as to fake these? It really doesn’t seem like something Liv would do, but Alexis wouldn’t send these, she is always apologizing for keeping me from home. I’m starting to get a headache.

“The lawyers are all gathered in the conference room.” Devin pulls me out of my thoughts.

“Look at these. What am I missing here?” I ask him and hand my phone over. He carefully looks at all the screen shots Liv sent and then looks at me cautiously, but doesn’t speak.

“We’ll?!” I ask irritated.

“I think you need to check Alexis’s phone and see if she really sent them. I really don’t think Olivia would fake these.” He says carefully. “But if she leaks them, it’s going to be a PR nightmare.”

“Get Alexis here.” I demand as I walk toward the conference room. Hopefully the lawyers will have a way to block the divorce from happening and getting public attention.

(A couple hours later)

I leave the conference room feeling drained. My lawyers think the best chance I have is to go through with the divorce quietly. There is no way to stop her side from progressing with things. Olivia knows that if I fight her, and we go through the courts it’ll become public news fast.

I sigh, I’m exhausted and angry.

As I approach my office so do Devin and Alexis.

“Christian!” Alexis exclaims once she sees me. “What’s this about? Devin called and woke me up saying you needed to see me? You know I had a rough night last night.” She acts like I put her through some horrible ordeal. I nod my head in the direction of the office. And we all go in.

“Let me see your phone.” I look at Alexis, she looks reluctant.

“Why?” She asks slowly.

“There was a bug in the most recent upgrade, he wants to make sure you don’t lose all your information” Devin interjects.

“Oh okay” She unlocks it hands it over to me, reluctantly still.

I check her messages and see mostly names from our circle, one under “the real mistress” catches my eye and I go to. The first thing I see is one of the pictures of her and I in bed that Olivia sent earlier, under it is a text “It doesn’t matter how many years you wear his ring, I’ll always be first”. The date is two nights ago, our anniversary. This was the catalyst, but as I scroll up I see more nasty texts and pictures. One says “Ha, he takes my side without even hearing yours, why don’t you just go away, he clearly doesn’t want you, I’ll get to be his date, while you stay home alone again.”

“What was happening March 19th?” I ask and look at Devin. He pulls out his phone and scrolls around for a few seconds.

“There was a charity banquet for the children’s hospital on the 21st.” Devin says and I think back.

(Flashback)

I’m just settling into my office after a long meeting with the board. They don’t agree with me on purchasing a tech company, I know we’ll regret passing on it, but the board has been pulling back some of their trust in me, they say that I don’t seem serious about my marriage, they never see me with Olivia. They think if I can’t be serious about my personal future I can’t be serious about my professional one. I think my work speaks for itself and they need to leave my personal life alone. What business is it of theirs? Our profit margins are constantly rising.

My phone starts vibrating, Alexis, of course.

“Hey.” I answer.

“Christian, I’m shopping for a dress for the banquet, and I ran into Olivia, she’s looking at the SAME dress that I want!” She whines.

“Alexis, I cut in, I’m busy, I don’t have time to mediate a dress, is it really that big of a deal?” I ask, then start to hear her sniffling on the other end.

“She told me this dress wouldn’t look good on me because I’m too fat, and I should consider something that’ll draw less attention.” She cried on the other end.

“Get the dress, I’ll talk to her” I sigh. Olivia knows Alexis is insecure since losing her high school sweetheart 7 years ago. She really needs to stop being such a b***h to her. I call her and she picks up on the first ring.

“How did I know you’d be calling” she says annoyed.

“You don’t need a dress, you won’t be coming to the banquet, leave Alexis alone. She hasn’t done anything to deserve this from you.”

She laughs and hangs up on me. I sigh. The board really isn’t going to like the fact that she’s not there, but it’s better than them seeing this drama.

(End flashback)

Olivia didn’t even try to defend herself. How long ago had she given up? I look down at the phone in my hand and wonder how many times this same scenario happened. How far back these awful texts go. How long has Alexis made it seem like we were something we have never been.

“Why are you looking at my texts!” She shrieks and grabs for the phone. I pull it away and hand it to Devin. I want to know everything, he grabs it from me and leaves the office.

“What the hell Christian that’s my property!”

“Is it Alexis, or is it my property? Because if I remember correctly, I bought it, and I pay the bill.”

“Why are you doing this? What’s going on?” She says, clearly losing confidence, knowing that I pay for everything she has and does.

“What is going on, that’s a great f*****g question?!” I flatly state. “Why is my wife trying to get a divorce and telling me to marry you instead?” I ask bluntly.

“I always told you that she was jealous of our relationship.” She whines.

“You know I’ve seen the texts and pictures you sent her, so stop with the acting Alexis, do I even know you anymore?” I ask, hurt and disgusted by what I saw in those texts.