Chapter 17 #2
Jessica pushed me. It was only then that I realized I had backed myself up against the wall.
She pushed me into the wall and stepped right up to me, raising her head up to meet my gaze, her lips only an inch from mine.
I turned my face away, but she followed, her lips brushing across mine as she attempted to kiss me.
“What is your problem?” I said as I turned away from the attempted seduction, feeling like I was trying to wrestle an animal off me. I pushed her away. “You’re like a wild animal in heat, Jessica. I don’t want you.”
“You haven’t let yourself realize what I can do for you,” Jessica said, her tone shifting from seductive to desperate, but still far from sincere. “She didn’t appreciate you like I could.”
“She doesn’t want you near me,” I said, feeling like the situation had spiraled beyond anything I was prepared to handle. “Neither do I. Stop it.”
She finally took a step back, her jaw tight as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You’ll change your mind. You’re hurt right now, but you’ll see I’m the one who’s been here all along.”
“I doubt that,” I said, already heading toward the exit, feeling more done with this day than I ever had in my life.
I didn’t want to have this conversation with Jessica.
It was inappropriate, out of line, and everything I didn’t want from her.
“And I think it’s time we rethink your involvement in this company. ”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ll get the lawyers to draw up the paperwork. I’m going to buy you out and you can take whatever money you have in the company to start your own firm.”
“You can’t fire me!” There was anger in her eyes, the first bit of honesty I’d heard from her in a while.
“I’m not firing you,” I responded calmly, the way a man does when he’s trying to stay in control. “I’m just recognizing that your ambitions don’t align with this company any longer.”
“I worked hard to get here!”
I knew she did. I didn’t doubt that for a moment.
But it wasn’t reason enough to keep her here.
“Then take those earnings and work somewhere that deserves them.” I wasn’t going to back down.
I’d let her get away with too much already.
And this was too far. If I had to choose between the company and my marriage, I would choose Beth.
But I was starting to think the marriage was over and the company might be all I had left.
So I would save that instead of Jessica.
“Now go home and wait for the contract.”
I turned and walked out the door, the tension in my shoulders slowly easing once I was free of her presence.
The silence of the hall felt like a relief compared to the suffocating conversation in the meeting room.
Jessica had been a friend, someone I trusted on a professional level for years.
But that line was blurring, and it felt more like a threat now than a helping hand.
I didn’t have the energy to deal with it.
Not when I still had no idea what the hell I was going to do about Beth.
This, whatever was going on with Jessica, would have to wait.
I needed a clear head and to make things right.
It felt as if everything from the past few weeks had come into perfect focus.
I hadn’t treated my wife like she was important.
I had always put the business ahead of her and had never tried to understand the dream she had for her life before we got together. It was unforgivable.
I left the office building in a daze, my mind too cluttered to think straight.
It was like being on autopilot, moving without direction, the weight of the day dragging me down.
I got into the car and drove through the city streets, watching as the neon lights blurred into a continuous stream of color.
What was I doing? I wasn’t sure anymore, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to change.
Maybe it had already started, and I was just catching up now.
By the time I arrived back at the empty penthouse, the loneliness was overwhelming.
The quiet in the space felt wrong, a constant reminder of Beth’s absence.
It was in the little things, the way the pillows still had a dent from where she used to sit, the way her favorite mug still sat in the cupboard, untouched.
It was like she had just left the room for a moment and would be back soon. I hated it.
I walked over to the closet, the door half-open.
Her clothes were still hanging there, neatly arranged, just as she had left them.
The clothes I had bought for her. That was an important distinction.
Beth left with what she needed. There was a reason my gifts hadn’t brought her home. They never meant anything to her.
There was no clear direction in my mind as I pulled a duffel bag from the top shelf of the closet.
I didn’t even know if this was the right move, or if I was just running in another direction, but I couldn’t stay in the city any longer.
I started packing, my movements mechanical, throwing clothes into the bag without caring what they were.
As I zipped up the bag, I noticed a box at the bottom of her closet, pushed to the side and half-forgotten.
It wasn’t a box of things she’d left behind.
I knew that already. I opened it carefully, almost afraid of what I might find, and there, tucked under a pile of sweaters, was an old journal.
Beth’s handwriting filled the pages. I sat on the edge of the bed, my fingers tracing over the faded ink as I flipped through the entries.
It was her dreams, the things she wanted before I had ever come into her life.
Pages and pages of plans she had made, goals she had set for herself.
It hit me harder than I expected, reading through the thoughts she’d kept private all these years.
There, in the very first entry, she talked about wanting to make a difference in the world, about wanting to build something meaningful with her own hands.
I could see it so clearly now. Beth hadn’t wanted the life I’d built for us.
She had been sacrificing that dream the moment she decided to be with me.
And now she was trying to take it back. And I had fought her on it like the world’s biggest idiot.
I slammed the journal shut, my chest tightening with the realization of how little I had known about the woman I was married to.
She wasn’t just leaving me because of what she didn’t have, she had been looking to reclaim the part of herself she thought I had stolen.
That truth stung. I closed my eyes, fighting back the lump forming in my throat.
I stood up, grabbing the duffel bag, but something made me hesitate.
I looked around the room one last time, taking in the emptiness, and knew I couldn’t keep going like this.
I couldn’t let Beth disappear from my life without fighting to understand her.
Without understanding why she felt like she couldn’t share these dreams with me.
I wasn’t ready to let go, not yet. So instead of staying in the penthouse, trying to force everything back into place, I left, determined to find out why I had driven my wife away in the first place.