Chapter 13 #2
And if I’m not careful, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
Taking my hand, he presses it against his bare chest just over his heart. “We both proved our points, so now we can start fresh. I’m sorry, Eden. Please, say you forgive me.”
When I shake my head but don’t say anything because I’m on the verge of crying, he continues. “This can’t go on. I miss you, and I know you miss me. Have you gotten all my messages? I’ve been texting every day. I’m sorry. You have to believe me.”
“You look like hell, Marius.”
He tries to smile, but it never really happens. “I haven’t been sleeping very well for the past few nights. I miss you, Duck. I’ve been miserable without you. You miss me, don’t you?”
Tears well in my eyes, making it hard to see as pull my hand away and say, “I wanted to go public about us, and what did you do? You brought that girl to the party.”
“You were with that guy. How is what I did any different?” he asks with so much hurt in his voice that I almost want to say I’m sorry.
I can’t stand here and talk about this with him right now. I have to go before I fall apart and everyone sees.
“Don’t follow me. I have to go say goodbye to everyone, and if you’re with me, I’m not going to be able to do it without crying.”
He follows me, even though I just told him not to, so it’s practically a herculean effort to act normal when I return to the party. I make a beeline for Ava in the hopes that I can bid my farewells and leave as soon as possible before anything more happens.
“Ava, I have to go. Thank you for a great time.”
She jumps up off the chaise lounge and gives me a hug. “Thank you for coming over. I’m so glad you were here.”
“Me too,” I say, barely holding back tears. Turning to everyone sitting at the table, I say, “Thanks for a good time, guys! Matthias, as always, thanks for letting me monopolize your wife’s time.”
They all say goodbye, but one King says nothing. He simply stands near the door to the house like he intends on intercepting me on my way out. Why can’t he just leave things alone? Doesn’t he understand I’m not ready to forgive?
As I make my way toward the house, Eleanor appears in the doorway with a man. Dammit. I forgot to tell her to come outside.
Behind me, Matthias asks her, “Is something wrong, Eleanor? Everything okay?”
I swallow hard and try to push past her and the man, but it’s no use.
“I’m fine, Matthias. This man is a process server.”
When I look back, Ava is wearing a worried expression. “What’s this about, honey?”
Matthias walks over to the man and smiles back at his wife. “Nothing to worry about. It’s par for the course when you run a company as big as King Industries. They usually serve me at my office in the city, though. This guy must be working overtime.”
It’s like everything begins to move in slow motion as the process server explains to Matthias he isn’t the King he’s there for. Confused, the oldest King looks around and asks, “Then who?”
And that’s when the entire world stops.
Walking out of the house, the man holds up the envelope containing the papers he’s been hired to serve. “I’m looking for Marius King.”
Never in my life have I felt like I wanted to burrow into the ground like I want to do right now. I don’t regret what I’ve done. I just assumed this would happen when nobody was around, not in the middle of one of Ava’s parties.
Marius looks at me with confusion and then back at the man. “I’m Marius King.”
As he hands him the yellow envelope, he says, “This is for you then. Have a good day.”
I don’t know how it’s possible, but I don’t faint dead away when Marius opens up the envelope and begins to read the papers. I want to run away from this house as fast as I can, but I’m not able to move my feet. It’s like they’re encased in concrete.
I’m stuck standing here watching the man I love read the words no man ever wants to see.
When he looks at me again, all I see is pure pain in his dark eyes.
Holding the papers up in front of him, he walks over to me and asks with so much hurt in his voice, “What’s this?”
I hang my head, and in a tiny voice, I answer, “Please, Marius. Don’t do this.”
“I could say the same thing to you. Why Duck?”
As much as I want to avoid meeting his gaze, I lift my head and say, “It’s okay. Sometimes things just don’t work out, even when you want them to more than anything. Don’t make a big deal about this. It’s just the way it is.”
Marius takes a step toward me, and I know he wants to reach out and touch me. “I don’t agree.”
“Just sign the papers, Marius. I don’t want anything. Sign them, and we’ll be done.”
He shakes his head. “No. I won’t sign them.”
I have no choice. He didn’t want to make us public, but now his family is going to finally find out everything.
“I’ve waited for you, Marius. For the first year and a half that we were married, we didn’t even live together.
Maybe I’m partly to blame for this. I don’t know.
I went along with everything you wanted because I loved you.
I waited and waited, and every time I asked why we couldn’t tell everyone we were together, you said because you wanted a little more time.
What I want is for someone to choose me. You didn’t, so we’re done.”
I couldn’t stop the tears now if I tried. All week, all I’ve wanted to do was cry my eyes out. I couldn’t. Maybe because it wasn’t definite.
Now it is.
“Duck…Eden, I won’t let us end like this,” he says, and the agony in his voice makes me feel like someone’s squeezing my heart.
Unable to look at the hurt in his eyes any longer, I run into the house to escape. Ava catches up to me just as I reach my car parked out front. For a second, she just shakes her head, like she doesn’t know what to say.
Then, finally, she steps toward me and wraps her arms around me. That’s all it takes for the tears to come full force. I sob like a baby as my best friend hugs me, all the while likely wondering what the hell kind of friend I am to keep something so big hidden from her.
When I calm down, I step back and lean against my car. “So, yeah, I’ve been your sister-in-law for two years.”
Her mouth drops open, and she stares at me in pure shock. “What? How? I don’t…I don’t understand.”
I sniffle and try to think of a logical way to tell her the story of Marius and me. It’s quite a tale to tell.
“Do you remember when I went to Las Vegas for the week with Justin two years ago?”
She nods. “Yeah. You broke up with him because he was a jackass the whole time.”
I wipe the tears from under my eyes and finally tell her the truth. “I was only with him the day we arrived there. Marius was at the same hotel for a pool tournament. Justin got nasty with me, and Marius saw it.”
“What do you mean he got nasty with you?”
“Let’s say Justin got a little rough and pulled my hair because I wouldn’t do what he wanted.”
“He got rough? What the hell was wrong with him?” she asks in horror.
“Yeah. Marius saw, and he decked him, but in the middle of it all, I got punched in the eye. Then he got Justin thrown out of the hotel. I had nowhere to stay, so he invited me to his suite. One thing lead to another, and we slept together.”
Ava listens, but I can tell she wants me to cut to the chase. “Okay. That’s good, right?”
She’s always trying to be positive. I love that about her.
With a smile, I answer, “It was great. Really great. So great that he and I spent the entire week together. That Saturday, I was supposed to leave, but we were having a great time. It’s hard to explain, but I was in love within a few days, so when he suggested we get married, I said yes.”
“You got married in Vegas? Like an Elvis impersonator officiated?”
My best friend really is the sweetest person in the world. Only she would ask that question.
Shaking my head, I have to laugh. “No, it was a regular person, not some fake Elvis. Since then, we’ve been husband and wife.”
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t either of you tell any of us?”
This is the part I didn’t want to talk about. It’s too embarrassing to say.
Hanging my head, I answer, “He didn’t want to tell anyone. Maybe he was ashamed of me. Maybe it’s like he’s always said that he just wanted to keep us to us. I don’t know.”
I look up at her as tears begin to come again. “All I know is I can’t do that anymore. So I served him with divorce papers, as you just saw. I have to go now, Ava. I want to crawl back under the covers like I’ve been doing all week, but this time I’m not sure I want to ever come out again.”
Ava starts to cry and wraps her arms around me again. “You were my sister-in-law, and I didn’t even get to enjoy that. That’s not fair, Eden. It’s not fair.”
“I know, but life isn’t fair. Go back inside and enjoy that wonderful husband of yours and those two sweet babies. I need to go before Marius comes out here and wants to talk. I can’t talk to him anymore. I’ve got no more words left.”
We stand there at my car in the middle of a beautiful late September afternoon sobbing like babies ourselves. Ava cries for all the things she thinks she missed out on by not knowing I was married to Marius, but I cry for all the things I’m losing.
Even if I know what I’m doing is the right thing for me.