Chapter 12
Maxwell
“Have you seen this?” Natalia’s voice rang out as she stormed into my home office.
“Since this is a demonstrative, and you’re not actually showing me anything, I’m gonna make an educated guess and assume I haven’t.” She stopped short, looking irritated and confused before wiping her face of any emotion. She forgot how well I knew her and her tells.
“Sorry. I was just surprised to see this photo of Sophie out with some strange man. I would assume she would discuss it with you before she brought anyone into Eloise’s life.” Nat dropped her phone onto my desk, revealing a photo.
Sophie, Eloise, and a giant of a man stood in the center of some sort of small-town carnival, showing off an obnoxiously large stuffed animal. The man was holding my daughter in one arm, the other wrapped around my wife.
“Why are you stalking her profile?” I asked as I pushed the phone away.
“Eloise is my stepdaughter! Am I not allowed to know what she’s up to?” I rolled my eyes. Natalia had never taken the role of stepmother seriously.
“Nat, I don’t have time for this. I have to get ready for a meeting. What is the real issue here?” I stood up from my desk to shrug my suit jacket on. A slew of emotions went over Natalia’s face before she grabbed her phone.
“Here. Your grandfather was there with them at some podunk street fair, yet he refuses to come to our house for dinner. Why is that? He had dinner plenty of times before we got married. What changed? Walter used to be so kind to me. Doesn’t it bother you, what Sophie is doing?
What sort of lies she’s telling him? Turning him against us?
” I barked out a laugh. She really was obtuse.
“Sophie isn’t telling him anything.” I was tired of the same conversation over and over. Both Natalia and my mother seemed obsessed with Sophie, determined to blame all the wrongs and perceived offenses on her.
“Why are you defending her?” Nat shrieked. I poured a shot of bourbon, downing it regardless of the early hour. Good thing I have a driver picking me up.
“I’m not defending her. I’m just correcting you. Pops is the one who told Sophie about our affair, who helped her get the divorce. He knew what type of person you are far before our marriage.” Nat paled, and I felt a smidgen of satisfaction.
She had promised so much. Nat had lured me out of a perfectly happy marriage and plunged me into this new life that wasn’t part of my plan.
Grandfather’s disappointment in me, Sophie’s determination to cut me out of her life, and Natalia’s blind ignorance to it all ate at me.
While I was struggling to handle the sharp turn my life had taken, she had buzzed about planning the wedding without a care for what she had done, how far we had fallen.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, gripping the back of a chair as if holding herself upright.
“When Sophie asked me for a divorce, Grandfather was with her. He had a PI follow us and shared graphic photographs of our… balcony rendezvous.” Her face flushed with embarrassment as she recalled the moment I was referencing.
I continued, taking enjoyment in twisting the dagger deeper.
It was time she finally shared some of this shame.
“Anyway, he showed the photos to both Sophie and Mother. And it was Grandfather who insisted I grant Sophie a divorce.”
“Then… if you knew he hated me, why did you marry me?” she asked, anger and confusion warring on her face. Checking my watch, I saw I had less than fifteen minutes to get to the office for a meeting with the board.
“I didn’t have a choice. He threatened to release the images his PI took to the media if I didn’t leave Sophie alone and marry you. He got Mother on board, and she went to work crafting our love story, placing as much blame on Sophie as she could, while still avoiding Grandfather’s wrath.”
“You bastard. You should have told me! I should have had a choice!” she shrieked, and my tolerance for the conversation snapped.
“Don’t act like you haven’t gotten exactly what you asked for.
You left me, then you came back and saw how happy Sophie and I were, and you had to dig your claws back into me.
Now, Sophie’s gone, and you have my last name, fancy lunches with your friends, and shopping with Mother.
What do you have to be upset about?” She stormed out of my office, and all I felt was relief.
It wasn’t exactly where I imagined I would be at that stage in my life. Sophie leaving me had blindsided me. Mother’s incessant complaining and angry rages about Sophie had placed doubt in my mind about all of my decisions.
I hadn’t wanted to give up, and I was convinced I could win her back.
Then there was Nat, ready and waiting to take her place by my side.
It was what I had always wanted, or was it?
No matter how we spun it, it still rang false.
All the lies Mother weaved, the palms she greased to paint Natalia and me as soulmates, fell flat.
People were just too afraid to say what they really thought.
But Natalia wasn’t Sophie. She didn’t have her softness, her genuine kindness. Over the years, Natalia maintained a rigid exercise regime as well as regular salon and rejuvenation treatments. As time passed, she got thinner, tighter, her features impossibly smooth and waxy-looking.
Sophie was as beautiful as always. By the time the divorce had officially gone through, she had dropped the baby weight, and every time I saw her, she managed to take my breath away.
Although there wasn’t a huge age difference between the two, there was something everlastingly youthful yet womanly about Sophie.
Mature and even-tempered, with a body that had me salivating.
Each new glimpse of Sophie lodged an arrow deeper into my heart and caused doubt and regret to creep up my throat.
I couldn’t help but make comparisons. Where Nat was tall and svelte, Sophie was all curves, soft dips, and swells.
While I was mooning over her, all she wanted was distance.
How? How can she pretend to feel nothing for me? Cut me out, end our relationship after one little bump? Had she asked me, I would have broken things off with Natalia and sent her to live in another state or country. I didn’t even get that chance, the opportunity to atone for my sins.
Sophie still loved me. I knew she did. Her love was pure and didn’t have strings attached.
Maybe that was why it was so easy for her to cut all ties with me.
Even though we shared a daughter, Sophie remained elusive, all messages going through a third party or with Pops hovering nearby, ready to play savior.
On the ride to the office, I found myself scrolling through Sophie’s profile, studying each photo of her smiling face and striking features.
Her long, thick hair stirred something familiar, and a memory washed over me—the faint scent of coconut, warm and intoxicating.
She looked so full of life and happiness.
All I could think about was how much I wanted that back.
How I had taken it all for granted before.
Thinking about the past few years with Natalia had my stomach souring.
All the ease, the calm that was my relationship with Sophie, disappeared once Natalia moved in.
Everything was a crisis. Everything needed an immediate response.
Money and time. There was never enough of it where Nat was concerned.
Not to mention, we still didn’t have a child together.
Mother’s main selling point on the marriage was our ability to produce a male heir, to ensure we stayed in Grandfather’s good graces and were left what we deserved from the company.
I couldn’t help but think that ship had sailed, and we had only dug ourselves deeper into that mess.
Swiping through the photos of Sophie and Lou, I stopped on the image of them with the strange man.
In the five years since our divorce, I had never seen Sophie with another man.
She had never even dated, to my knowledge.
A part of me always wondered. What if I could go back?
What if we had a second chance? A plan started forming, a vision of a different future—the one I lost. Sophie and Eloise, back by my side, with Grandfather’s approval finally given freely.
I could divorce Nat and reunite my family.
It was what would be best for everyone. I just had to make Sophie see that.