Chapter 2: The Aftermath

Eva Wilson, Flora’s closest friend, rolled her eyes heavily as she went through the contents of the papers Flora had brought to her. After Flora had cried out the majority of her anger and grief at her marriage ending, she’d taken a minute to collect herself before packing the papers Henry had given to her and setting them neatly on the table.

As if on autopilot, Flora had robotically cleared the table of their cold abandoned food and put all the leftovers in the fridge. Then she’d washed the dishes and treated herself to a long hot bath to soothe her nerves. She was going to need all her strength to face the day.

There were no servants to help Flora, because mistakenly, she had assumed Henry would want to touch her after so long and dismissed all the maids employed in the summerhouse. How stupid she had been.

The signs had been there all along, but Flora had been too naïve to see them. When Henry had started keeping late nights, he had told her it was because his new promotion at work gave him much more responsibilities. Late nights turned into week-long business travels, and Henry had told her it was because he was taking on more international clients.

He had stopped touching her, and Flora had been afraid to ask him why, because she was secretly relieved. Soon enough, they stopped eating their meals together because Henry was so, so busy. Flora barely saw him twice a month.

She had suspected something wasn’t right, but she had pushed aside her doubts, clinging to the hope that it was all in her head. But now, it was so clear that what he had not been receiving at home, he’d been getting it from some other woman outside.

They must have probably talked about her at some point. What had Henry said? Had he insulted Flora to his mistress? Had he given all the compliments he had withheld from Flora to that other woman?

Eva snapped her fingers in front of Flora’s face. “Earth to you Flora. Did you hear what I just said?”

Flora shook her head to clear her thoughts. This was not the time for her to let her focus wander. She needed to pay attention. “What did you say?”

Eva waved the papers in front of her face. “Are you just going to sign these and let him off? He cheated on you Flora. Who knows how long it’s been going on? You don’t even know who his mistress is!”

She plopped down on the couch beside Flora, and pressed the remote in her hands to mute the television. “Listen to me, Flo. You could take him to court for everything he has because of his infidelity. Don’t you want him to feel the pain you’re feeling?”

Flora looked at her friend with tired eyes that were still red after crying so much. She knew Eva meant well. As soon as she’d rested and cleared her head, she knew the only person she could come to was Eva, her hotshot lawyer friend who had never lost a case in all her years after being called to bar.

If it had been Eva Henry had dared to cheat on like this, Flora knew that her friend would totally ruin him and use all her expertise to make sure he wouldn’t even have a penny left after she had dragged him to court.

But Flora wasn’t Eva. She wasn’t as strong as the friend she’d known since childhood. If she was, she would have confronted Henry when he had started behaving so suspiciously, not wait until he dumped her in such a humiliating way.

She rested her hand on Eva’s shoulder. “I know you mean well for me Eva, and I appreciate it. But right now, all I want is to sign these papers and put this nightmare of a marriage behind me. I’m hurt by what he’s done, but dragging this out only means that he’ll continue to have access to me. I don’t want to spend any more of my life thinking about him.”

Her friend leaned forward to envelope Flora in a hug. “Whatever you want Flo,” she said, patting Flora’s back gently. “Just know that I’m here for you.

They remained in that embrace for several minutes before Flora pulled away. She nodded at the papers in Eva’s hand. “What is he offering me after betraying me like this?”

Eva shook the papers out, and ran her hands across the words. “Forty percent of his assets. You’ll get the summerhouse, the villa in France and the mansion you currently live in as well as three luxury cars and a fixed amount of money every month which will become a total of fourteen million at the end of the year. So, fourteen million every year.”

Flora kept her eyes on the paper. It may have sounded like a lot but Flora was born into luxury and had married into more luxury. With the way Henry had ended things between them, all this just meant he was trying to buy her silence so she would not sell the sordid details to the paparazzi. “Is that all?”

Eva shook her head in disgust. “If you accept this, you have to sign an extra document agreeing you won’t go to the press about his affair. I don’t know how he got you to fall for him, Flo. He’s shameless.”

Flora took the documents from her, eager to end this chapter of her life. She had fallen out of love with Henry so long ago that this just felt like a formal close to everything. When they were dating, Henry had been the perfect gentleman.

He was that guy who pulled out your seat for you and opened the car door without needing to be asked. Every week he would surprise Flora with a bundle of lilies, her favorite flower and they would go on impromptu dates to cafes or beaches or movie theatres. He swept her off her feet with his promises and kisses.

That cold November evening when he had gotten on one knee to propose in an illusion museum had felt like the best day of her life.

But after they were married, things changed. It was like Flora had married not only Henry but also his commanding mother and two older sisters. Nothing Flora did was ever enough for them.

First, they had made her stop working, because it did not look good on Henry that his wife was an office worker. They had insisted that it made Henry look like he did not provide enough for her. In the privacy of their bedroom, Henry would tell her that he didn’t mind if she worked because he knew she liked her job but he never said anything to his family when they berated Flora.

After that, they changed the clothes she wore completely and took over her wardrobe. Suddenly, the clothes Flora wore were not classy enough for Henry’s mother – her jeans were too casual, her tops were too short and her suits were too faded.

Everything that was bought to replace her clothes were to the liking of Henry’s mother, not her. When Flora had complained to Henry, he’d insisted that his mother was an older woman who was set in her ways and it was just easier to go along with what she wanted instead of complaining.

Soon enough, everything about Flora was wrong. Her hair was too long, her voice was too loud, her laugh was too ugly. Even her food was too salty to them. She stopped complaining to Henry, because he rarely ever did anything, and when he did, he and his mother would scream at each other until they lost their voices and Henry would come home and blame her for making him fight with his mama.

His sisters would ring up her phone again and again and again, accusing her of changing their brother into a worse version of himself.

Everything was always her fault, according to her soon to be ex-husband and his family. It had never occurred to him that his wife was worth fighting for, that she was not the woman he had married because his horrible family had tortured her until she turned into a shell of herself.

And instead of finding out what had made his wife change so much, he’d gone out and cheated on her. Flora asked Eva for a pen, and quickly signed her signature in the places she was supposed to in the document.

Her marriage might not have ended in a way that she would have preferred but there was light at the end of the tunnel. It was finally over.