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~The present~
"I want a divorce."
"What?"
"Is there any connection problem, Rowan? Did you not hear me clearly? Should I text you instead?" I sass, rolling my eyes.
"I think there is, Aurora. Because you clearly could not have just said what I think you did." Obviously, what I said must have gotten rid of all of his sleep because his voice is clear and alert now.
"Try listening more carefully now Rowan. I said I want a divorce."
"Excuse me?" The indignancy in his voice makes me almost want to snort. He is reacting as if he did not see that coming despite his actions.
"You heard what I said, Rowan." I roll my eyes again as I take the turn to our penthouse. "I am going into the apartment and packing my bags right now."
"We signed a contract!" There is shuffling on the other side and panic in his voice.
He cannot get a divorce now, because if he did, then Simon will pull out all the investments he has made for the new project.
It is one of the reasons why I dealt with the humiliation and bullshit that came with being Rowan's wife. But I am done now. I am so done.
"The contract was void the moment you decided to disrespect our marriage in public, mister. I had told you, whatever you do, do it privately." I laugh as I enter the apartment compound. "I am leaving. And you should deal with the repercussions yourself because frankly, I am done cleaning up after you." With that, I hang up. Haaa... That felt good.
I park my car in my spot but don't get out. I just sit there, staring at the concrete wall in front of me without a purpose.
I should say that I actually feel proud of myself. I am finally freeing myself from this torture of a marriage.
It took me two years but here I am, finally ready to break free and move on.
"Get it together, Rory." I say to myself as soon as I feel the prickling in the corners of my eyes.
There is nothing to cry over. There was no real relationship to end, to begin with. It's not worth it.
A sob escapes my pursed lips, and suddenly the floodgates all blast open in full force.
"Stop crying!" I yell at myself in desperation, banging on the steering wheel, exasperated at myself. At how weak I am.
It's over.
It's all over.
And for the best.
It takes me another ten minutes to finally take control of my emotions. And I feel like a pathetic fool inside my mask of apathy.
"Fake it till you make it." I say to myself before opening the door and walking towards the elevator.
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My phone rings as soon as I plop down on the couch.
I take it out of my pocket to see that it is Ashton Ames, Rowan's best friend and one of our board members.
"Hey, Ashton..." I sigh.
"Ouch, your tone tells me I won't be able to talk you out of it this time."
I chuckle.
"I am sorry Ashton," I said.
The divorce is going to be as disadvantageous to Ashton as it will be to Rowan but this time, I am not backing down.
For two years, I cared about other people's feelings and played the perfect wife and daughter-in-law but now, I have to think about myself. It is time to start a new chapter in my life and for that, I have to put an end to this one which has been dragging on for too long.
"No, I understand," Ashton said. "You gave it your best and you have been nothing but nice and patient. It's selfish of me to convince you to stay in this relationship for my business' sake. I respect your decision Rory, and I apologize to you on that idiot's behalf."
Ashton is such an amazing person. How the hell is he friends with my asshole of a husband? Well, soon-to-be ex-husband.
"Thank you, Ashton," I say and I hang up. I don't have anything else to say to him and I have hell a lot of packing to do. So I busy myself with it. I need to get myself out of this place as soon as I can.
My phone rings again while I am trying to close my suitcase; I am sitting on top of it to shut it.
Bianca's face lights up on the screen and I swipe my finger over the accept button and am met with her angry glare.
"Do you want me to go to France and castrate him? Just say the word and I will do it." She is fuming, not because she doesn't know that our relationship is just on paper but because I have to deal with all the humiliation and gossip that came with his 'infidelity'.
Ophelia is his seventh girlfriend in the last two years. Honestly, I don't even know how a woman can be with someone whom she knows is already married. But then again, why is she to be blamed when the married man himself doesn't give a damn about the relationship?
"I am divorcing him." I tell her. "I already let him know of it."
A wide smile appears on her face instantly. "Finally!"
"Babe, get the champagne. A celebration is in order!" She calls out to Roselyn who hurries into the frame with her huge belly. The two of them are now happily married and have turned to artificial insemination for their own bundle of joy.
Bundles of joy because they are having twins, which put Zoe, Kevin, Eric, and me at ease because well, we didn't have to fight over who gets to be the godparents. Eric and I are going to be the godparents of little Fiona and Zoe and Kevin are going to be the godparents of baby Jamie.
"What?" Roselyn sits down beside Bianca, confused.
"Did Rowan finally come to his senses after the latest scandal?" She asks.
Bianca rolls her eyes while I shake my head.
That, my friend, is never going to happen. And even if it does now, it is not going to make any difference. It's all too late now.
"More like, our dear friend here came to her senses and is finally freeing herself from the clutches of that deranged monstrous asshole and the marriage of futile vows and utter humiliation that she has been entrapped in for so long!" Bianca is in her full-on melodramatic mode again, putting her fist up in the air and looking at the ceiling as she speaks.
"Alright Shakespeare, come back down to earth." Roselyn grabs Bianca's face and makes her look down at her. She then turns to me with a sympathetic smile on her face. "You know we are here for you, right?"
I smile. I know that. But I just do not want this sympathy right now.
"Oh please, she is not some helpless tortured puppy for you to be so sympathetic towards her." Bianca says, making me smile honestly. That's my best friend, people. "She is Aurora Lewis and she is more than capable of getting through this. And knowing her, she will be up and rocking in no time."
I feel my heart swell with happiness when I hear what my best friend has to say about me, and all the more because I am cent percent sure that she isn't saying it to console me because Bianca Stanley never did that.
"Okay, I gotta go now. I didn't realize I had so much stuff until I decided to pack it all up." I sigh. "Seriously, I really need to cut back on the number of socks I own."
Bianca laughs out loud. "It was the same when we were moving out of our dorms, remember? You had way too much stuff that wouldn't fit your moving boxes which you had brought when you moved in. And you say I have a shopping disorder."
"Yeah, yeah." I pout as I turn to all my stuff scattered around the room. I need to learn to be a bit more organized.
"Oh, we will come over to help." Roselyn pipes in.
Bianca nods even though she says, "Rose will supervise us while we do the work."
Roselyn gives her a look while I grin, nodding. I think I have said this a hundred times but someone, please, please find me someone, after this wretched marriage is over, who will look at me and be with me the way Bianca is with Roselyn and Roselyn with Bianca. I ask for nothing more.
I hang up the phone and get back to the task at hand, anticipating their arrival.
I could use some help right now. And some company.
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_________________________...Bianca and Roselyn wanted me to move in with them until I find a place for myself. They said that it is my apartment and Bianca and I used to share the place before my marriage. But I refused, feeling that I should not invade the privacy of the married couple. And also because I may be the landlady but they are tenants who pay their rent on time.My first thought was to stay at a hotel until I found a place, but then I realized – why should I pay to stay somewhere when I have a friend with a uselessly big condo all to himself?Eric is out of town due to a conference but on calling him, he informed the security guard to let me borrow the spare key he had. The idiot asked me to try to clean up the place while I am staying over, but I have a feeling that he was saying that just to lighten the mood.He might be a monkey and a complete womanizer – worse than my ex-husband-to-be – but he is an amazing friend and he knows to respect people, unlike my ex-husban
_______________________...I wake up to twelve missed calls and twenty-nine new messages. Wow, this is probably more than all the calls and messages he has made to me in the last two years.I am contemplating whether to call back and see what he wants or let him worry some more about the fate of his company when the doorbell rings.I stand up from the couch and with my hand wrapped firmly around my phone, make my way to the door, pressing on the security cam button.I raise a brow when I see that it is Joshua Steelman, Rowan's secretary. The dude is so desperate to get in contact with me now that he sent his secretary looking for me huh?I open the door."Joshua." I smile at the middle-aged man but get no smile in return. Like Boss, like secretary!"Mrs. Keller." He addresses me, his lips in a thin line. I have told him one million times that my name is Ms. Lewis, not Mrs. Keller, but the man just does not learn.This dude is a total ass-kisser and does whatever Rowan wants him to.
_______________________...I am shocked to see the condition my mother is in when I visit my parents. I just arrived in New York yesterday night and the only reason why I got to get any rest is because they needed it too, otherwise, it does not look like my father cares even the tiniest about me. Well, it's not like he ever did. "She really asked for a divorce?" She asks. "She really left your home?""Yes, she did." Dad looks almost annoyed at my mother, though it is nothing compared to the death glare he has etched on his face every time he glances over at me. "What else did you expect, Beth? That poor kid must have gotten fed up of everything that she has had to put up with because of her wretched marriage to this insolent brat of yours! It was a long time coming and you knew it so no need to pretend to be all shocked now.""But I wish she would just talk to me. Maybe I could have talked her out of her decision!" My Mom continues to wail. As much as I did not want my Mom to eve
___________________________...What the hell was I thinking?Seriously, what the living hell was I thinking?I stare at the picture of the two of us taken on our wedding day. And it is safe to say that it was the only moment in the whole of my marriage when he was the reason for my smile. He has only left bitterness in this marriage now. And I don't understand why I sit and ponder on the same things over and over again. Rowan and I were nothing but a business deal and all through the two years of hell that everyone including myself called a marriage, he made sure that I remembered my place in his life - or to be more specific, he made sure that I remembered that I had NO place in his life."What are you looking at?" Roselyn's voice breaks me out of the series of bizarre and nightmarish thoughts in my head.I show her my phone."Walking down that aisle was the last beautiful memory of my life." I sigh. Well, that is a bit dramatic - I have had good memories in the last two years e
___________________________...Pathetic.I just feel so pathetic that I cannot even look my friend in the eyes even though she is just trying to comfort me.How can I be so freaking pathetic?"Calm down Rory, it's alright. It's going to be alright." Roselyn rubs my back as I cry into her shoulder, her bump in the way. I felt the babies kick one or two times and Roselyn told me that even my niece and nephew were worried about me. But that just made me cry even harder."I do not need your permission to see my wife!" Rowan sounds so angry and he is so freaking loud that the both of us jump. My wife? Really?After all that he has done in the past two years, he is really going to stand there and assert his relationship with me? I know that Bianca is a match for him. Actually, Rowan is not a match for Bianca. She can do more damage with words than anyone can physically. She is that bitch who will spit fire to protect her loved ones."Oh yeah, but you need permission to enter this cond
__________________________...Bianca was so mad at me that she refused to speak to me. Roselyn wanted to know if there was something that I was hiding from them, but I could not tell them or anyone what I was going through right now. I was facing a dilemma that I could not overcome. It was safe to say that I was at an impasse. It was safe to say that I had become a puppet and I had handed all the strings to Rowan Keller.Fuck.How did this come to be?I wish someone would just take me away from all of this!"What the hell are you thinking, Rory?" Gabriella is screaming through the video call while I unpack my bags. Yep, I am back at the penthouse, and I feel so utterly humiliated and as if all of my self-esteem were thrown onto the floor and trampled upon.Rowan and I know what is the thing that is keeping me from getting a divorce, but to the rest of the world, I am the spineless wife who took back her husband without putting up a fight or showing anything that a woman with minim
___________________________..."Who said I am putting up a show?" He smiles an innocent smile, one that makes me too confused."Huh?"What is this shit planning now? Language, Rory! Seriously, this guy is programmed to bring out the worst in me. I think that should be a sign enough for me to run for the hills but here I am, being an idiot and repeating the mistakes of my life again and again. "I am genuinely trying to give our relationship a chance, wifey." He pouts.I narrow my eyes at him. "What next? Cars have started to run on water? Penguins are migrating to Mexico?"Rowan gives his smile one more time – shake out of it Rory, he is doing that on purpose. "Why don't you believe me?""I would believe scammers over you," I state without skipping a beat."Ouch, you hurt my feelings." He clutches his chest dramatically.The old me would have found all of this ultra cute but after what happened today, there was nothing he could do to get me to feel any of what I used to feel for h
_____________________________..."You bitch!" I can't help but snort like a pig when I hear her voice. She is so angry that I wonder if she herself would expose Rowan. If she does, then it has nothing to do with me. I am keeping my end of the deal which includes not getting a divorce and clearing his name – he never said anything about not dragging Ophelia in the dirt so that is exactly what I am doing.A few backdated complaints on her name, a fake restriction order and a statement from a psychiatrist proving that she is unstable and obsessed with my oh-so-amazing husband, and another statement from the paparazzi saying that she had leaked the pictures herself and they were all morphed – it is pretty simple to turn tables."I only did what Rowan wanted me to do." I sip on my coffee, talking leisurely."That son of a bitch!" She shrieks again."I wouldn't scream so much if I were you, Ophelia. People already think you are crazy and if you start acting like one then-""I will get y