34. Chapter 33
Chapter 33
Vic
I ’ve just about finished my end-of-year reports when my phone rings. It’s my personal cell phone instead of the office phone, so I dig it out of my purse to see Dad’s face on my screen.
My brows draw down as I stare at my phone for a moment. My dad doesn’t call me almost ever. If he does, he would never call during work hours. Then my heart clenches as I wonder if something has happened to Tanner.
“Dad?” I answer. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” he all but yells. “What’s wrong is your husband walked out. He left.”
“Tanner left work early?” That doesn’t make any sense at all. Tanner would only leave early if he’d cleared it ahead of time or if he was really sick. “Is he okay?”
“Not if I have anything to say about it. That man will never work in this industry again, is how he is. He left in the middle of a Board meeting. Something about never having wanted Sterling in the first place and trying to quit four times. He left. Packed up his things and walked out.”
“Tanner quit Sterling?” I say, noticing Derek on the way past my door. He stops when he hears me, peering in. I nod and he comes inside. I put the phone on speaker and he takes his cell phone out, sending a text. I assume to Spencer and Adalie.
“That’s what I said, isn’t it? Your husband walked out. I won’t be giving him any portion of my company now. If he thinks the transfer is going to go through after what he did today, he’s delusional.”
“You just said he said he never wanted it.”
Spencer and Adalie come into the office, so I’m surrounded by my friends.
“He’s lying. This is an amazing opportunity. He came from nothing. I’ve given him everything, and this is how he repays me?”
I blink, staring at my phone. “Are you for real right now?”
“Absolutely. I’m blacklisting that asshole. He’s never working again. And you’re going to divorce him.”
My eyes widen. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I’m not having someone in the family who can walk out on our business.”
“I’m sorry. Did you say our business? Because last I checked, I don’t work for Sterling.”
I feel it coming before he says anything. The manipulation. It’s exactly the same thing he would have done to Tanner all those months ago when he told Tanner to marry me.
“It can be.”
I meet my friends’ eyes. They’re watching me with various amounts of shock, anger, and disgust on their faces.
I cross my arms over my chest before I say the same words to my father that I said to Tanner all those months ago. “What, exactly, are you proposing, Dad?”
“You’ve always wanted in on Sterling, Victoria. Divorce Tanner, take back your maiden name, and I’ll make you CEO instead. I’ll hand the reins to you. After a short training period, of course.”
I huff a laugh. “Of course.”
“So you’ll do it?”
I let the question hang for a moment.
“No.”
“What did you say?”
Spencer grins. Derek smirks. Adalie has a hand over her mouth, probably to keep from laughing, judging by the sparkle in her eyes.
“I said no. No, I do not want Sterling. No, I will not divorce my husband. In the last few months, I’ve come to realize that I love Tanner, and I want nothing to do with your business. I have my own and I’m quite happy here.”
“What am I supposed to do? Your mother has a trip planned for this spring. She expects me to go with her.”
I shrug, even though he can’t see me. “That sounds like a you problem.”
He splutters and for the first time in my life I’ve rendered my father speechless. I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from grinning at the sound.
“I have work to do, Dick. I’ll talk to you later. Tanner and I will see you at the next family dinner. Goodbye.”
I hang up.
Adalie breaks into applause. Derek and Spencer join her. I stand and offer them a bow.
“Lis is going to be pissed she missed this,” Spencer says. “Especially the part where you called him Dick.”
I shake out my hands because I’m suddenly feeling the effects of adrenaline. I let out a huff of breath.
“Vic?” Adalie says, resting her hands on her pregnant belly. “Did you mean everything you said?”
I nod.
“Even the part about loving Tanner?”
I swallow hard because I just admitted it aloud for the first time and not even to the person who I love.
“Yes. I need to go home.” I scan my office, looking for something. What am I looking for? “I need to talk to Tanner.”
Spencer steps forward, picking my purse up from the floor and setting it on my desk. He puts my phone inside, then points to my jacket, hanging on the back of my chair.
“Right. Thank you.”
I’m about to rush out of my office when Adalie stops me for a hug. “You did great.”
I hug her back and something pokes into my belly. “Adalie, I think your baby kicked me.”
She laughs. “She wants to be part of the hug, too. She’s like her momma.”
I laugh as well before I leave the office and the building. I rush home, making the ten-minute walk in record time. When I get inside, the apartment is empty.
I pull out my phone, but there’s no missed text or call. Where could he be?
I call him but he doesn’t answer. I’m very confused now, standing in the living room at a complete loss for what to do next, when my phone buzzes with an incoming text.
Tanner
I assume you heard what happened. I need some time to think. I’ll be home tonight.
I read the text again and again. Time to think. What does that mean? Now that he’s not getting Sterling, does he not want to stay married anymore? Did he ever want to marry me? What does it mean for our relationship if he needs time to think ? Is it over? Was it real?
I’m about to spiral into doubt, my thumbnail halfway to my mouth, when my gaze snags on the vase of paper flowers on my china cabinet. Four new flowers have joined the original, one showing up on the first day of each month. They’re all different colours, all on green pipe cleaners. In the middle is the single white paper rose he’d given me eight years ago. I walk into my bedroom and pull an old shoe box from the closet, carrying it into the dining room and sitting at the table.
Inside the box are all the pieces of origami Tanner has given me over the past seven months except the couple I keep in my office. There are cranes and frogs, a few hearts, including the one from the wedding, even a paper plane. He’s given me other flowers and birds, some butterflies, and a boat. I pick one up, turning the bunny around in my hands. I don’t know why I took the box out, but now that I have, I remind myself that I trust Tanner. Even if he doesn’t love me the way I love him, maybe he can get there if we give it a little more time.
I’m about to put the bunny back into the box when I notice something I hadn’t before. On its back, I see the impression of writing. I run my finger over it, feeling the bump of the words. Either he had this paper underneath something he was writing on, or there’s something written on the inside.
I sit there for a moment, debating. I don’t want to unfold the bunny, but I’m also certain there’s something written here, and I want to know what it is.
Carefully, my hands trembling, I undo the first fold, then the next and the next until I can smooth the paper out in front of me. In the middle of the square sheet, it says, “I’m glad you’re feeling better. But I wish I could have stayed home with you today.”
He’d given me this after I’d been sick with the flu. He’d gone to work that day and when he came back, I’d made him dinner.
I pick up another piece. The penguin he’d given me when we’d done the dance class and I’d brought it home after. I think about how he’d made me promise not to throw any of the origami away. Was this why? Had he written a note in all of them? I unfold it, flattening it so I can see the message on the inside. “Dance like no one’s watching.”
I pull out another and another, unfolding the paper and reading what each one says. Every single one has a message inside. Some are just a few words, like “You’re beautiful,” or “Happy Thanksgiving.”
Others have longer messages that tell me about his day at work and how much he hates working at Sterling. I had no idea. He hated working there so much. Why hadn’t he ever told me? Then I unfold a paper bird and I have my answer.
“The only thing keeping me at Sterling is you. You deserve this company, Vic.”
He wanted me to have the company because he thought I wanted it. I start laughing. We’d gotten married thinking the other person was the one who wanted Sterling Properties more, when in truth, neither of us does. If that’s the case, if he never wanted it and it was just because of me, what is the real reason he wanted to get married?
I pick up the paper ring he’d given me when we agreed to this whole marriage of convenience. When I have it unfolded, I read what he’s written. “Please keep saying yes.”
I take a breath and pick up the paper heart he gave me on our wedding day. White with gold lining. Inside it says, “I meant every word.”
He’d given it to me at the altar, after he’d said his vows. He’d said I’m smart and strong and that I didn’t take shit from people. That anyone would be lucky to be with me. He’d told me it had been easy to fall in love with me in university and even easier to stay there now. Could he have been in love with me this whole time?
I don’t know how long I’ve been here, opening every piece of origami, reading his notes. When I look at the time, it’s been two hours since I tried to call him and he sent the text back.
Why is he not home yet?
I try to put myself in his position. He thinks I want Sterling, and he’s messed up my chance to get it. I am almost certain that he loves me. He hasn’t written it in any of these notes, but actions speak louder than words. And his actions are screaming at me that he has always wanted this relationship to be real.
I glance at the paper rose he gave me eight years ago, the morning after we’d slept together, and my heart skips a beat.
He wrote a note in every single piece. Could there be one there as well?
I stand and take it from the vase, but I can’t bring myself to unfold it. It’s perfect. It’s the first one he ever made me. The other flowers are sitting in their vase. I could open any of them. But I want to know what this one says, and there’s only one person who can tell me.
Determined, I snatch up my phone and march to the front door, stepping into my shoes before I yank it open only to come to an abrupt halt.
Tanner is standing there, looking like absolute hell. His eyes are shadowed, and his shoulders are slumped. He looks like he’s ready to be yelled at.
“I was just coming to find you,” I say, breathless.
“Here I am,” he says.