Chapter Thirty-four - Natalia
Chapter Thirty-four
Natalia
N atalia relaxed at the dining table, a glass of wine in front of her. She stroked her hair with her fingers and rubbed her temples. Her head ached just as much as her heart did, mostly from crying. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d considered giving up hope that her life would ever resemble anything normal, hope that the pain in her chest would ever subside. She kept having disturbing visions of Nic making mad, passionate love to Angelina. She envisioned him holding her in his arms and caressing her face with his fingertips, as he had to her. However, she couldn’t even envision herself with him anymore. Their life together had become a blur.
Her throat was dry, and she took a sip of the wine to quench her thirst, or maybe it was to rid her thoughts of Nic and Angelina. She wasn’t sure anymore. The reasons were beginning to run together like one big blurry mess. All she knew was that the Cabernet Sauvignon was helping her to erase her troubles, and she had opened this second bottle for that reason. Kenya had assured her that this too shall pass , but she wondered how quickly it would, because it seemed to be taking its sweet time. Her emotions were in a whirl.
She lifted the papers and read through them again, for the third time since she’d left her attorney’s office. She wasn’t asking for much—didn’t want anything from him—only the house on Cape May. And the furniture. Of course she wanted the furniture. Most of it included the Victorian antique pieces that she and Kenya had spent many Saturdays shopping for and restoring.
She had already changed the locks and left Nic’s belongings in the garage. She had peeked through the window and watched as he’d loaded them into the back of his SUV the night before. He had rung the doorbell and knocked, wanting to speak with her, perhaps to try to explain his side. However, from her point of view, his side was quite clear the night she found him with Angelina. There was no denying what she’d encountered in his office. Had it been secondhand information, there would be reason for conversation, but she’d seen it with her own eyes, and her eyes didn’t lie. She had declined to answer her phone and the door and instead watched as he pulled away from their home, quite possibly for the last time. He didn’t need to return. Their lives together had come to a painful end.
She swallowed more of the Cabernet, and then stood up and paced the floor. She needed to eat something but didn’t feel like the hassle of cooking. She hadn’t eaten a real meal since dinner at Lu’s on Friday night. When the doorbell rang, it startled her. Had Nic returned to torment her some more, to insist that she speak with him? Her heart started beating fast as she peeked through the curtains in the living room. Kenya.
“Hey.” She swung the door open wide.
“Hello, my dear. I brought dinner.” Kenya waltzed into the house and past Natalia, a brown paper bag in her hand. She headed for the kitchen.
“Hello to you, too.” She shut and locked the door and then followed Kenya to the kitchen.
“I know you haven’t eaten anything today.” She looked at Natalia, raised an eyebrow. “Have you?”
“Well, no, but . . .”
“Nat Pack, you have to eat or you’ll make yourself sick.” Kenya picked up the empty wine bottle from the island, held it into the air. “You need more nourishment than this. How many of these have you had?”
“I’ve lost count,” Natalia admitted and then hung her head.
Kenya walked over to the shelf and pulled down two plates. She handed one to Natalia. “I brought Chinese.” She opened the silverware drawer and retrieved a fork, then began to pile pork lo mein and an egg roll onto her plate. She took a seat at the island.
Natalia fixed herself a plate and joined Kenya. “I saw that lawyer today; the one you referred me to.”
“Danielle Curry.”
“We drew up the divorce papers. He’s going to be served at his office this week.”
“Good.” Kenya used chopsticks to load lo mein into her mouth. “Did he pick up his things?”
“Yesterday.”
“You didn’t let him in, did you?” Kenya asked.
“No. I didn’t answer the door, or my phone. Finally, he stopped knocking and calling.”
Kenya slid from the barstool, went to the fridge, and grabbed a bottle of water. Natalia went into the dining room and retrieved the copy of divorce papers and handed them over to Kenya.
Kenya slid back onto the barstool and scanned the paperwork. “You’re not asking for much. You sure you don’t want to ask for spousal support? Half his 401k or his savings? You’re certainly entitled to it.”
“I don’t want anything from him. I have my own money. I just want my home and my furniture. That’s it.” Natalia poured wine into her glass. “Wine?”
Kenya nodded a yes. “Sure, I’ll have some.”
Natalia pulled another wineglass from the shelf, poured Kenya a glass, and handed it to her. She slid back onto her barstool. “I feel so much hate and anger in my heart toward him.”
“I know, honey. That’s normal, even for you. What he did was despicable. I hate him for you.” Kenya sipped her wine. “I can’t believe he’s the same guy who was such a good friend to Glen.”
“Glen would be cursing him out right now!”
“Or talking some sense into him. They were close. Inseparable at times. I think Glen might’ve been the only one to get through to him.”
“I don’t think he ever stopped loving her. Angelina. Maybe I was his rebound.”
“You were not his rebound. I have no doubt that he loved you and still does, Nat Pack. He was just being a man,” Kenya assured her.
“Why wasn’t I enough?”
“Oh no, don’t do that. Don’t give him your power. You were more than enough. Look at you! You’re a beautiful, intelligent business owner. You’re talented, sweet as can be . . .”
“And barren. I couldn’t give him the one thing that he wanted so badly, another child.”
“That’s no reason to cheat!” Kenya sighed deeply, laid her chopsticks on her plate. “This is not your burden to bear, it’s his. He made this bed. You were a perfect wife to his undeserving ass. Don’t you dare blame yourself.”
A tear crept down the side of Natalia’s face. She wiped it away with her fingertips. “Thank you.”
Kenya stroked Natalia’s face. “I know it hurts right now, but I promise you’ll get through this.”
“I know I will.”
“I hate that he came back at all. You were starting to recover from the last blow of discovering those stupid letters. I felt like you were healing from that, and then boom! He came back and disrupted everything.”
“I had started growing accustomed to life without him. Got my groove back.”
“And you’ll get it back again. You’ll see.”
“Hope so.”
After dinner, Kenya left. Natalia cleaned up, put the leftover food away. She washed the plates and empty wineglasses, dried them and put them away. She glanced over at her phone lying on the counter and considered calling Nic. As the wine began to make her tipsy, she decided that she wanted answers to some of her burning questions, the first being why he had hurt her this way. Why had he led her to believe she was the one who was crazy? Why Angelina, of all the women in the world he could’ve chosen? She picked up the phone, pulled up his number. A few seconds later, she placed the phone back on the island.
“No,” she whispered. Instead, she headed upstairs and started the shower.
She held on to Kenya’s words. Made a mantra out of them: This too shall pass. This too shall pass. This too shall pass.