Chapter 4
Maxwell
“I want a divorce.” Sophie’s voice was quiet, but the tone brooked no argument. That beautiful, wholesome farm girl, whose light rivaled that of anyone I had ever met, was sitting across from me like a stranger. Pale, shaken, depleted. What happened? What did I miss?
Everyone at the table looked at me pointedly as if I had a clue about what the fuck was going on. I was completely blindsided. Sophie had never once mentioned being upset or dissatisfied in our marriage.
“Sophie, what are you talking about? We have a baby together, a life together. Why are you doing this?” I asked.
I wasn’t sure if I cared about the answer.
Before, I would say it didn’t matter, but now?
Well, there was a strange feeling brewing inside me.
I never expected Sophie to turn against me.
To make a move I didn’t initiate. A follower, easily corralled.
Was it all a lie? A con? My mother bristled beside me, staring daggers at her.
“This is nonsense, Sophie. Where would you even go? How would you take care of a child? Maxwell supports the both of you completely.” My mother’s outrage radiated beside me, but my eyes never left Sophie, who just stared at my mother with a mix of anger and something else… Resolve? Fire?
“Well, that’s why I asked both of you to be here today.
I am so genuinely sorry that I got in between Max and Natalia.
I now understand how strong their connection is, and I do not want to be the reason they are apart any longer.
” A chill ran down my spine. I was careful, keeping my visits with Nat separate from my family life at home.
The way Sophie lingered over the sentence made her apology sound sincere, but her eyes told a different story.
“How dare you! How dare you slander Maxwell in front of his grandfather, of all people. Maxwell! I told you she was only ever after the money,” Mother hissed.
The entire room silenced, the temperature seeming to drop.
Grandfather’s lawyer and trusted friend, Brian Carmichael, sat off to the side of Sophie and Grandfather.
His eyes were cold, his jaw clenched as he eyed Mother and me like he was itching to drag us out of the room.
“That’s enough, Helen.” Grandfather finally spoke before shoving a folder across the table. As if in slow motion, several large pictures of Natalia and me, naked on the balcony of our last hotel room, slid out to land between us. Mother’s face turned red, her features morphing to stone.
“This should have been saved for a private conversation. She didn’t have to bring all of us in as witnesses to air out marital woes.
Mistakes happen. Discretion is key to moving forward,” Mother replied, grasping at straws.
The clench in her jaw and her death grip on her purse were the first signs that Mother’s perfect facade was cracking.
The cold, detached persona she always managed was shaken, and she was starting to get rattled.
I reached across the table for Sophie’s hands, but she yanked them away as if scalded.
My mouth was dry, and my heart was beating in my ears.
I licked my cracked lips before trying to get control of the situation.
“Sophie, please. Honey, don’t do this. We’re a family. I love you.” At that, she seemed to shatter. She took in a harsh, shaking breath before gripping the table, leaning forward.
“Don’t. Do not say you love me. Do not lie to me anymore. Please. Have the life you want, the one you always wanted. Sign the papers, and you can marry Natalia. I’m not asking for any money. I’m not trying to tell anyone about this.” Mother snorted, and Sophie shifted that green gaze to her.
“Trust me, the last thing I want is for this awful, humiliating story of being second-best, a placeholder, discussed around your friends’ dinner tables for a good joke.
I don’t need anyone else to know what a blind, naive fucking joke I was to think anything about this relationship was real.
I just want to end this charade. I want to live an honest life with my baby.
” Turning back to me, she sat down in her seat, seeming to deflate.
Grandfather grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
In a softer voice, rough with restrained emotion, Sophie forced herself to focus on me.
“Please, Max. If you felt anything for me—ever—you will do this. That’s all I ask,” she pleaded. Her eyes were watery, but she was fixed with resolve. I didn’t know what to say. I had no idea what she knew about Nat and me, but it clearly was much more than I’d thought.
“You’re going to sign those papers, and neither of you are going to give Sophie any trouble,” Grandfather said, looking at both of us with revulsion.
“Grandfather, I don’t know what Sophie thinks, or what she’s been telling you, but it’s not what it looks like.
She’s blowing things out of proportion.” I hedged, wondering what she could have said to cause so much anger in him.
Affairs were common in our world. I never treated Sophie poorly.
She had everything she ever wanted or could need. She never had to ask for a thing.
“Walter, this is between Maxwell and Sophie. We shouldn’t even be involved,” Mother interjected.
“That’s enough from both of you. I believe in the sanctity of marriage.
I know Thomas did as well. It is clear, Helen, that your feelings on this differ, and as a result, were taught to Maxwell.
Sophie didn’t come to me. I came to her.
When it became clear to me that Maxwell and Natalia had resumed their relationship, I decided to step in and take control of the family.
We don’t want a scandal. Isn’t that right, Helen? ”
Like a slap to the face, Grandfather didn’t even blink as he confessed to having me followed, revealing my affair to my wife, and airing my dirty laundry in front of everyone there.
Mother pursed her lips, silencing arguments I knew I wouldn’t hear the end of later.
She looked at Sophie murderously before stiffening her back and shifting gears, already replotting a course where she came out on top.
Looking at Grandfather and Sophie, she gave a nod, the only sign that she was getting on board with their plan.
“Good. Then you will sign the divorce papers. You will pay Sophie what she deserves to cover the care of your child. You two will co-parent amicably. Whoever asks, you will say it didn’t work out, that you two grew apart and wanted to break up now to maintain a good relationship for Eloise.
Once the divorce is official, you will marry Natalia.
You two can spin whatever bullshit fairy tale makes you feel best about your misdeeds. Everyone gets what they want.”
After my father died, I spent most of my time with my grandfather.
With Mother gone all the time, he took me under his wing, trained me.
He was the only one who supported me after Natalia left, encouraging me to picture a life without her.
The first to accept Sophie, to embrace her into the family.
But she wasn’t his family. I was. What did she do to earn such loyalty?
And how did I end up as the one backed into a corner?
“Fine. But she has to sign an NDA,” Mother insisted from beside me before I could even answer.
“Stop this! All of you! We are not getting divorced. Sophie, you will come home, and we will work this out. Whatever you need, whatever you want, I will give it to you, but enough of this nonsense.” I gripped the table—anything to ground me as it felt like my world was spinning out.
“What I want is to get away from you,” Sophie said, each word hitting me like a slap. She looked around the table before pushing her chair back and standing up.
“If you want me to sign an NDA, give it to my lawyer.” She spoke, her eyes on Mother.
“Once he approves, I’ll sign, as long as that ensures it ends the personal relationship between you and me.
What you tell your friends is up to you, but I will never have a conversation directly with you again.
” Mother started to squawk, but Sophie turned to me, swiftly dismissing her.
“There is no version where we work this out, where we stay together. I’ve known about you and Natalia for long enough now that I won’t ever be able to look at you the same.
The idea that I could move forward, that I could feel anything other than loathing and regret when I think about us, is unfathomable to me.
I don’t want your money or your gifts. I never have.
I just wanted loyalty, respect, and love.
That was asking too much, and I should have realized that before we got married. ”
My stomach dropped, the depth of how much I had hurt Sophie shocking me.
Never one to hide her feelings, every emotion was written on her face.
It looked as if it physically hurt her to look at me.
With every word she spoke, Grandfather looked angrier, as did the usually stoic Carmichael.
My mind spun, desperately trying to think of ways to stop this, to regain control of the situation.
“Sophie, please… I—”
“No. This is my time to speak. You’re not listening. You’re too busy thinking of what you want to say, planning a response, and you’re not HEARING me!” she yelled, and I sat back. Sophie never raised her voice. I had never heard her yell in all the time we had been together.
“All I can do now is move forward and try not to harbor so much hatred for you that it eats at me. I loved you. Everything I did in this relationship came from a place of honesty and trust. I don’t know how long it will take me to forgive myself for being such a fucking idiot for that.
But the only way I can start is if I get away from you and the company you prefer to keep.
There is one option here, and that is that you sign those papers.
The question is how quietly or loudly I file them.
That’s the only part of this decision you get to make.
” With that, she turned her back on me, facing her lawyer.
“Mr. Carmichael, please figure out whatever additional documents my ex requires, and we can reconvene later this week. I apologize, but I’m not feeling the best at the moment, so I will have to step out early.
Have a good day.” Without a backward glance, she left the room, leaving my mother and grandfather seething around me.
But I couldn’t find it in me to care. Everything was reeling inside me, my world flipped upside down.
Everything I’d ever wanted or had was just out of my grasp. How did this happen?