Chapter 4

I stared at the divorce papers she'd prepared in advance, and for a moment I couldn't move.

Gillian's voice came from above me.

"Job, you and I have been married six years."

"You know how much I wanted this baby."

Her face twisted with pain. "You know I don't want this child born a bastard."

I let out a cold laugh and slammed my fist into the wall behind her.

"If you know that, then why bring this cursed thing into the world at all?"

"Gillian, you make me sick."

She turned her face aside.

She didn't argue.

"I'm keeping this child, no matter what."

"Job, you're too domineering. Being with you, I never felt any warmth."

"Haven't you noticed that this five-thousand-square-foot house of ours is like some big office building? It's never felt like a home at all."

"It's only in Hal's little apartment."

"That's the only place that ever felt like home to me."

Six years I drank until my stomach bled at those business dinners, half killing myself to earn that big house.

And Gillian told me it wasn't as warm as Hal's little apartment.

I closed my eyes.

"Fine. Have it your way."

"We'll get divorced."

Hearing that I'd finally given in and agreed to the divorce, Gillian froze.

"Really?"

She said it carefully, as if I might be faking, or playing some joke on her.

Only when she saw how serious my face was did she finally let out a breath.

"Job, I always knew you understood me. You've always known how to keep things clear-headed."

"Divorcing you is only so my child with Hal can have a proper name."

"Even without that certificate."

"We're still husband and wife. And of course, if it bothers you, we can be friends."

Before she left, she patted my shoulder and even added a considerate little reminder.

"I know you've been lonely all these years."

"If you can't stand it, you can always find someone else. Someone younger and more attentive."

"I won't mind."

I opened my eyes and leaned back, away from her touching hand. "That's none of your concern."

Gillian knew exactly how much I'd sacrificed for the business.

Apart from her, there had never been another woman in my eyes.

It was precisely because she was so confident of that, that she could say something like this to sicken me.

But what she didn't know was that this time.

The Sanchez Group she'd built with her own hands.

Had reached its end too.

Gillian took the divorce papers with my signature on them and left, exactly as she'd wanted.

From that day on, a clear change came over me too.

I stopped clinging to Hal the way I always had.

I stopped trying to make him suffer just to feel a little better myself.

So when Gillian threw an opening celebration for the new flower shop she'd set Hal up with.

I didn't go and trash the place the way I would have before.

I didn't do what I'd sworn out loud I'd do.

I didn't string up a banner reading something like "Hal Pruitt is the other man" and destroy every last shred of his dignity.

I'd just made peace with it, and let Gillian go.

I shut myself in my room for a whole day.

Dropped that hard shell I always wore.

Worked out like any ordinary man.

Ordered the crawfish boil I loved, turned off my phone, and let myself enjoy one plain, ordinary day.

I just didn't expect that by evening Gillian would come storming in, kicking my door open.

"Job! I actually thought you'd really learned to change. Why would you go and wreck the event like that, humiliate Hal?"