Chapter 4 What He Lost in Silence

Adrian didn't speak right away.

The gala continued around us-music swelling, laughter breaking out in small clusters-but the space between us felt sealed off, airtight. Like the rest of the world had been muted.

"Divorced," he repeated slowly, as if testing the word. "You're saying we're divorced."

"Yes."

I didn't soften it. I didn't explain it. I let it sit between us the way it had sat between us for three years-unacknowledged, unavoidable.

"That's impossible," he said. "There would have been notices. Lawyers. Meetings."

"You signed the papers," I replied.

His eyes narrowed. "I would remember signing divorce papers."

"You didn't read them."

The sentence landed quietly.

Too quietly.

I watched the realization move through him in stages-confusion giving way to doubt, doubt slipping into something dangerously close to shock.

"When?" he asked.

"Three years ago."

His breath caught, barely noticeable. "That was during the merger."

"I know."

"I was signing contracts nonstop. I trusted-" He stopped himself.

Trusted me, he almost said.

"You planned it," he said instead.

"Yes."

There was no shame in the answer. Only truth.

"You could have told me," he said.

"I did," I replied. "Every time you chose work over coming home. Every time you sent someone else to apologize for you. Every time you looked past me like I was furniture."

His jaw tightened.

"That's not fair."

"It's accurate."

He looked at me then, really looked, like he was trying to reconcile the woman in front of him with the one he thought he'd left behind.

"I didn't think you'd leave," he said quietly.

I nodded once. "That's why I had to."

Silence stretched again.

"You should come back," he said suddenly. "We can fix this."

I almost smiled.

"Fix what?" I asked. "The marriage you didn't notice ending?"

"That house is still yours."

"That house was never mine," I said. "I just lived in it."

His expression darkened. "You're acting like I abandoned you."

"You did," I replied. "Just slowly enough that you didn't feel it."

He stepped closer, lowering his voice.

"Why now?" he asked. "Why show up again?"

"I didn't show up for you," I said. "I showed up for myself."

His hand clenched at his side. "Are you with someone?"

I met his gaze steadily.

"That question doesn't belong to you anymore."

Something broke then.

Not loudly. Not dramatically.

But I saw it-in the way his shoulders stiffened, in the way his certainty faltered.

"You were my wife," he said.

I tilted my head. "And you were my husband. Once."

Past tense.

He exhaled slowly, like the air had been knocked from his chest.

When I turned to leave, he didn't stop me.

But his eyes followed me across the room, sharp and unsettled, as if he were watching something valuable slip through his fingers and realizing-too late-that it had always been his to lose.

The next morning, my phone lit up with an unfamiliar number.

Unknown:

We need to talk.

I stared at the screen, then set the phone down without replying.

Three years ago, I would have rearranged my life for that message.

Now, he could sit with the silence.

I already had.