Chapter 25
Harding~
W hile meeting Paige at the house was an epically bad idea, I wanted this shit over with enough to risk it. When she had texted me, accusing Trista of being the one to serve her the divorce papers, that’d been the final straw. While I was willing to allow Paige to exist inside her pain and anger, I couldn’t allow her to be completely delusional. So, against my better judgement, I had agreed to meet her at the house without any witnesses, determined to make her really hear me.
There was also the fact that I’d gotten a request from Officers Boone and Clinton to meet with them, wanting to inform me of how Paige had called their supervisor to report them for harassment. Just when I’d hoped that all the embarrassing moments were over, I’d been given a new dose of humiliation by two officers that had just been doing their jobs.
Awesome.
At any rate, even though I still had a key to the house, I’d chosen to knock, making sure to set the right tone for this meeting. I didn’t want to give Paige the wrong idea of why I was here, and if I acted like this house was still mine, she’d get that exact idea.
When the front door finally swung open, Paige looked surprised, and also a bit too dolled up for a random Sunday morning. “Why didn’t you just use your key?”
“Because I didn’t think that it was appropriate when you consider that I don’t live here anymore, Paige,” I answered evenly, praying that she didn’t fly off the handle.
Surprisingly, she smiled up at me. “Don’t be silly, Harding. This is still our house.”
Choosing to ignore that, I walked into the house as she stepped aside to let me in. I glanced around as I entered the living room, and while everything still looked the same, it all felt very different now. Despite me having a key to the front door and how most of my stuff was still here, this wasn’t my home any longer. I no longer belonged here or with Paige.
“Knowing you like I do, I know that you haven’t eaten breakfast this early yet, so I can make something afterwards-”
“Paige, I’m here to talk and that’s it,” I said, cutting her off. “I’m here to make it clear that I’m the one that had you served with the divorce papers, not Trista.”
She immediately stopped her rambling as she looked up at me, her brows furrowing with the news. “What?”
“I’m the one that decided to move forward with serving you the divorce papers, Paige,” I repeated. “No one else was involved.”
Paige started shaking her head, already refusing to listen. “I don’t believe that.”
I let out a sigh as I straightened to my full height. “Well, it’s the truth,” I informed her. “After everything that’s happened, I feel that we’re beyond the possibility of ever working things out.”
“You don’t mean that,” she said, her voice surprisingly even. “I’m not sure what she has on you, but I know that it’s her forcing you to say all this.”
“Paige, our marriage was over way before Trista ever entered the picture, and you know it,” I said, refusing to let her deflect. “Where we are today doesn’t rewrite history, and our marriage has been on the rocks for quite some time already, and you know it.”
“Harding-”
“Honestly, Paige,” I said, cutting her off again. “How often were we even sleeping together anymore?”
Her eyes widened, warning me that sex was the last thing that I should have mentioned. “Are you seriously throwing away our marriage over sex?”
“No,” I answered truthfully. “I’m ending it because there’s no longer anything there. We started drifting apart months ago, and that’s the reason behind the lull in our sex life.”
“We were not drifting apart,” she argued. “We still came home to each other every night.”
“So do roommates, Paige,” I pointed out. “And it’s more than just the lack of intimacy and emotional connection. It’s…it’s the outrageous busyness of all the stuff you need to include yourself in. If you put that kind of effort into our marriage, then we’d probably be fine right now.”
She gasped like a true victim. “What on earth are you talking about? You’re punishing me because I’m a caring person and offer my help on occasion?”
Christ on The Cross, she really was delusional. She really didn’t see any flaws in herself, and that was the very definition of a narcissist.
“What about all your entrepreneur ideas and all the money that it cost us?” I reminded her. “You always have these grand ideas, but you have no desire to put in the work to make them happen. I’ve dumped thousands of dollars on your fleeting schemes, and for what? For you to dismiss them all like it’s no big deal?”
“You act like we went hungry or something, Harding,” she huffed.
“That’s not the point,” I almost snapped. “I’m just trying to make you see how…how trying our marriage has been these past couple of years, and how my affair came way after the writing was already on the wall.”
“So, what?” she sneered. “You expect me to just sign the papers, and then let you go live your life like you don’t owe me?”
“Owe you?” I echoed. “Paige, I’m giving you damn near everything. All I want is my truck and my money.”
“How am I expected to live off only one income?” she bit out, her anger making a stellar appearance.
“The same way millions of other single people manage it,” I shot back. “However, if you want to fight this in court, it’ll just be a waste of time for the both of us. This is California, Paige.”
Her dark eyes narrowed, and I could see her hate for me burning bright in her intent gaze. “If you think that I’m not going to get a lawyer, you’re wrong.”
“For what?” I snapped. “By California standards, I’m offering you more than you even legally deserve, Paige.”
“Get out,” she hissed. “Get out of my house.”
“Paige-”
“Get out of my house before I call the police,” she threatened, and it was on the tip of my tongue to bring up Officers Boone and Clinton, but I refrained. Seriously, I didn’t need her coming at me with a knife.
“Not before I grab a couple of things,” I told her, taking a risk.
Paige straightened, arching her brow. “Because you think that I’d be so cruel as to ruin or throw away your stuff?”
“Considering everything that you told me about your divorce from Patrick, it crossed my mind,” I answered honestly.
“You can get your stuff when the courts order it,” she replied snidely, and that’s not what was going to happen.
“You can let me get my stuff now, or I can call the police to assist me,” I told her. “It’s up to you.”
Her face turned red at the threat, and considering her recent run-in with the police, I wasn’t surprised. “You just won’t stop until you’ve turned everyone against me, huh?”
“I’m not turning anyone against you, Paige,” I replied, trying to keep my own temper in check. “You’re doing a fine job of that all on your own.”
After a few seconds of silence, she said, “Fine, grab whatever you need to make your hotel stay more comfortable.”
I shook my head, feeling like such a fool for not having seen it before. “It didn’t have to be like this, Paige.”
“You’re right,” she retorted. “Had you kept your dick in your pants, then none of this would have happened.”
Ignoring what neither of us could change, I headed to the kitchen, grabbed a couple of trash bags, then went straight to the bedroom for whatever I could grab right now. When I was done there, I headed to the den to grab any important documents that belonged to me. There was no way that I was going to leave this woman with my birth certificate or passport. Seriously, it was bad enough that she knew my social security number by heart, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she had spent the past week opening random credit cards in my name or something stupid like that.
Paige had also remained in the living room as I gathered my stuff, which I could admit felt a little odd. With the way that she kept behaving, I’d been certain that she’d be on my back as I gathered my stuff, but she wasn’t, and I would happily take that little win right now.
When I was finally done gathering as much as I could, I eyed her as I reached the living room. “Do yourself a favor and respond to the papers, Paige,” I told her.
“Get out of my house, Harding,” she bit out, and I was happy to do just that.