Chapter 18
FELIX
DIVORCE.
“Wha-what is this?” I asked, my voice shaky and unbelieving.
Without missing a beat, Stella placed another folder on top, blocking the words beneath. Yet, they were forever scored on my brain.
She continued to collect more files from her never-ending trunk, acting all nonchalant, as if I were a mere client rather than her fucking husband.
“Stella?” I managed to demand more forcibly.
She rolled her eyes. Rolled. Her. Fucking. Eyes.
“Well, the first one’s pretty self-explanatory. We’re getting divorced. And the second, well, those are papers for you to sign the company over to me.”
I waited for the punchline or the camera crew to tumble into the room and tell me it was all some elaborate prank.
But as the seconds ticked by, a heavy gravity seemed to pull me down further and further until I couldn’t breathe.
Alright, now I was on the verge of flipping from panic into a full-blown anxiety attack.
With what little breath I had left, I managed to mumble, “You’re serious?”
And with complete detachment, my beautiful wife replied, “Deadly.”
Who is this person? A complete stranger I have never met before. This isn’t my Stella, my best friend, my confidante.
Where did that person go? My person?
Thoughts ricocheted together in a jumbled mess, trying to make sense of the bizarre scenario. Terror was steadily taking over my body, my entire system malfunctioning due to the whiplash of conflicting emotions.
There was no explanation, except for one. The company—it always came down to money and power. Always.
I latched onto that flash of anger, letting it bolster me out of my initial shock. I never thought she could have used me like that—alas, she was patient, a fucking sleeper cell, awaiting my most vulnerable moment to rip everything away.
Old warnings from my dad suddenly pushed to the forefront. The multiple rants about women and how they were always after one thing.
And here is the proof, right in front of me.
With pure venom, I met my wife’s cold, unfeeling gaze and said, “My father tried to warn me you were a gold-digging whore.”
SLAP. Her assault was so fast, it took a few seconds for my cheek to register the burn from the impact.
“There’s only one whore in this marriage, Felix, and it’s not me.”
Stella swiftly followed up her words by slapping a photo on the cold, hard surface of the conference table. An incriminating and equally disgusting photo of Heather being fucked by me.
It was right there. In full technicolour. No editing required.
I sat stunned as Stella continued to slam photo after photo on top of one another.
Agony tore through me with the precision of a sniper rifle as each piece of evidence ricocheted like a bullet straight through my chest.
“You fucked this,” she snapped, her tone condemning and vicious.
Bang. A photo of Heather and me, realigning our clothes as we exited the photocopy room. I had been in a rush, trying to catch Alicia after she walked in on us.
“You fucked us.”
Bang. A photo of Heather in our house, her hand on my chest. It looked like an intimate gesture, when in reality, I was threatening her to get the hell out.
“You fucked up everything, Felix. You.” A small tinge of anguish rippled through her voice. And I couldn’t take it.
My wife was trying to be brave, trying to weather the category five disaster I had created.
I wet my dry lips in desperation, wanting to save my marriage. I’ll do anything to save my marriage.
“Sweetheart—”
“Don’t ever call me that again. When was the last time you fucked her, Felix? Tell me when.”
“I-I…”
Why is blackness creeping into the edge of my vision? Is that my heart palpitating uncontrollably in my chest? Why does it feel like the world is opening up before me?
“I’ll tell you when,” Stella finished, flicking the last photo, which happened to land perfectly in my lap. It was why I had missed Eli’s baseball final. Heather blackmailed me for money and a good fast fuck. Otherwise, she was going to run her mouth. I had no choice.
Fear had me so overridden that all the excuses and justifications I had accumulated rushed out of me all at once.
“Swee—Stella,” I corrected. “It’s not what it looks like—”
Slap. “Shut the fuck up! As if cheating wasn’t bad enough.
You were willing to put my health at risk!
Heather doesn’t care if you’re rich, famous or have a raging STI.
If you qualify for the first two, she’s happy to spread the third.
” Stella jumped to her feet, pacing back and forth.
“Thank fuck I haven’t been with you for months.
Otherwise, I think I legitimately would have killed you. ”
I cringed, self-disgust making me draw into myself as tears began free-falling down my face, saturating my crumbled shirt. STI? FUCK!
“It’s not possible,” I panted. Palms out and open, I fell to my knees, hoping and fucking praying she would hear me out. I wanted to grab her, but I still held some form of self-preservation.
“I never went bare with her,” I ranted. “I always used protection. I never even kissed her. That was always reserved for you. You, my sweet girl. We can still salvage this, salvage us. She means nothing to me. Never did.”
Stella came to a halt mid-step, then slowly sat back down, realigning herself, hands clasped neatly together. It was eerily silent, and I was petrified.
“Well,” she said, “due to your ‘no kissing’ affair, our marriage isn’t the only thing you imploded.
With the ironclad no fraternisation policy that you created, there’s no escaping this, Felix.
Not to mention the power imbalance between you two.
With your age gap and respective positions in the company, we’re already dealing with a logistical nightmare. ”
I wanted to vault over the table and pull her into me. She had to listen to my reasoning. Then, it would all make sense.
“She seduced me. I’m the victim in all this…” My sentence tapered off due to the murderous expression on my wife’s face. Victim? Yeah, I shouldn’t have said that.
Stella slowly leaned back all nonchalant, which was terrifying.
“I can’t save you this time. And I don’t want to. Do everyone a favour and sign the papers, Felix.”
“I’m not signing the divorce.”
I sifted through all the folders in rushed hysteria until I got to the required document, then proceeded to rip it down the middle. The scraps of paper fluttered to the ground.
“I’m not signing over the company.”
I followed through with the second contract, ensuring it was also ruined beyond comprehension.
“I’m not signing shit. I’m going to fight for us. Fight for everything.”
A sudden wave of hopelessness took me over as Stella’s blue eyes bled with sympathy—sympathy for me.
“Why bother, Felix? Due to your selfishness… you’ve already lost it all.” God, no! I could feel it slipping away—my centre of gravity. Slip, slip, slipping.
Stella laid one final folder on the table, untarnished and thick. “We haven’t even reached the worst part yet.”
“How can it possibly get any worse, Stells? Tell me how,” I said, voice drained of fight and any dignity. I was defeated and riddled with pain I couldn’t even comprehend. Make it stop.
“The reason you were arrested,” she said, tapping the middle of the document, daring me to open the first page to take a peek at my destruction within.
“Why was I arrested?” I muttered, ignoring her signal.
“That brings us to agenda number three—”
She was interrupted by a sharp knock on the conference door, and my instincts flared like a supernova. Don’t open that door. Whoever they are, don’t let them in.
Unperturbed, Stella checked her watch before a vicious gleam took over her features. “Oh, and here she is now.”