Chapter 6

Arlo Hatfield POV:

My hands gripped the steering wheel, knuckles white. The close call had rattled Brielle, her voice a sharp accusation in the car. "Arlo! Are you even paying attention anymore? You almost hit that truck! Think of the baby!"

I just grunted, the noise a low growl in my throat. "I'm fine, Brielle. Just distracted." Distracted by the ghost of a woman I barely knew, yet whose absence felt like a gaping wound. Distracted by the old emails on my phone, Corinne' s precise, intelligent queries about quantum physics, her subtle, almost poetic observations about the universe. I scrolled through them, searching for... something.

Brielle scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Distracted by what? Corinne's old nonsense? Honestly, Arlo, she always was so boring. Head in the clouds, totally impractical. It's probably a good thing she's gone, don't you think? Now we can focus on our future." She patted her belly, a saccharine smile on her face.

A jolt of something akin to anger shot through me. Boring? Corinne had a mind sharper than any executive I knew, a passion for discovery that dwarfed even my own ambition. She might have seemed quiet, but she was a supernova contained. I remembered how she' d quietly retreat to her study when I brought clients home, avoiding the superficial chatter. I' d always seen it as social awkwardness, a mild embarrassment. Now, a chilling thought struck me: she was just escaping me. Escaping my world. She had always found solace in her intellect, her books, her distant stars. It was her armor against my neglect.

The truth hit me with the force of a physical blow. Her quietness wasn't a flaw; it was a defense. Her passion wasn't impractical; it was simply not mine. And I had dismissed it all, over and over again. Her absence wasn't a relief; it was a gaping void. The mansion, once a symbol of my triumph, now felt like a mausoleum. Everything was too clean, too silent, too perfectly ordered. Brielle' s bright, artificial presence only highlighted the stark emptiness. I walked through the halls, expecting to hear the rustle of a page, the soft clatter of her tea cup. Nothing. Just silence.

"Are you even listening to me, Arlo?" Brielle' s voice snapped me back to the present. "You've been so irritable lately. What's wrong?"

I just shook my head. What was wrong? Everything. A profound, bone-deep unease had settled into my soul. My focus at work was shattered. Deals I would have closed in minutes now lingered, unresolved. Numbers that usually sang to me were just static.

Brielle, sensing my distraction, tried again. "It's just the stress of the baby, darling. Once our little one arrives, everything will be perfect. We'll be a real family." She reached for my hand, her manicured nails digging slightly into my palm. Her heavily made-up face, usually so vibrant, seemed to blur in my vision.

Our future. Our baby. The words felt hollow. I stared at her, feeling utterly numb. A flicker of Corinne's face, pale and resolute, flashed in my mind.

I found myself scrolling through those old emails again. The "grant application" she tricked me into signing. Chile. The Atacama. A remote desert. I had dismissed it, laughed it off. A hobby. My gut clenched. There was something more, something I had missed entirely. A cold dread, a terrifying premonition began to bloom in my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs.

Then, a knock on my office door. Mark, my assistant, entered, a stack of mail in his hand. He placed it on my desk, his eyes briefly flicking to the "grant application" still lying open near my keyboard. A subtle, almost imperceptible glance.

My gaze immediately fell on a pristine white envelope, thicker than the others, embossed with the familiar logo of one of the city's most prominent law firms. My heart leaped into my throat. The cold dread intensified, a suffocating wave of fear. I knew this firm. I knew what they handled.

My hand trembled as I reached for it. A sense of impending doom washed over me. This was it. The other shoe. I felt it in my bones.

The envelope felt impossibly heavy. My name, Arlo Hatfield, was printed in elegant, formal script. No "Mr. and Mrs." No casual address. Just me. Alone.

I tore it open. The paper inside was thick, expensive, with the same formal letterhead. My eyes scanned the words, cold and clinical, yet they struck me with the force of a physical blow.

"In re: Hatfield v. Preston... Final Decree of Dissolution... Signed and executed..."

My world stopped. The air left my lungs. The paper fluttered from my numb fingers.

It was done. The divorce was final. And my signature, obtained under a lie, sealed my fate.