Chapter 17
CHRIS
Icouldn’t focus. It didn’t matter that I was sitting in a boardroom with the biggest investors of our company, the very people I should have been giving my full attention to.
Their voices blurred into the background, nothing more than noise compared to the pounding thoughts in my head.
Beth had left. Not just me, but everything we had built.
And what was I doing? Trying to convince myself it wasn’t permanent.
But every day without her made that a harder sell.
I picked at my food, barely tasting any of it.
It was supposed to be a celebration of the successful deal we’d closed, the one I had been working on before this entire mess exploded.
Jessica sat beside me, the perfect image of professionalism, charming the board members like it was her second nature.
But it was starting to grate on me, seeing her slide so easily into the space Beth had once filled.
It was supposed to be temporary, but the way everyone had already adjusted to her presence, laughing at her jokes, looking at her for guidance, felt like an insult to everything Beth had done.
The more I thought about it, the more bitter it tasted.
Beth had sacrificed her dreams and ambitions to support mine, to help build this world, and here we were acting like nothing had changed.
“Chris?” One of the investors, a man whose face I’d seen so often but whose name escaped me at the moment, leaned forward. “What do you think about the next quarter projections? Are you satisfied with where we are?”
I barely heard him, my eyes fixed on my plate. “Yeah, it’s good.” The answer came out too flat, lacking any kind of enthusiasm. But I didn’t have the energy to fake it anymore.
Jessica quickly jumped in, filling the silence with the smooth tone she’d perfected over the years. “We’re looking at a five percent increase, with continued growth in the tech sector. Our new product line is already gaining traction in the European market.”
She kept talking, covering the gaps I had left behind.
I didn’t care. What was the point of this meeting?
It was just another reminder of how far I’d come and how little it meant without the one person who had helped get me there.
I clenched my fists under the table, my jaw tightening at the sight of her so easily taking charge.
The room was her stage, and I was nothing more than a spectator.
That wasn’t supposed to be how it worked.
Beth was the one who had always understood me in these spaces, even when she hated them.
Jessica understood the spaces, but not me, not really.
“Excuse me,” I muttered, pushing back my chair and standing. The room went quiet, all eyes on me. “I’ll be right back.”
I left before anyone could respond, ignoring Jessica’s questioning look as I made my way to the bathroom.
It wasn’t until I closed the door behind me, shutting out the sounds of the boardroom, that I realized just how suffocating it had all been.
My hands shook as I splashed cold water onto my face, trying to wash away the anger and frustration building inside me.
What had I become? A man who couldn’t even sit through a meeting because my wife had walked out?
The mirror showed me a reflection I barely recognized, someone too controlled and too disconnected from the person Beth had fallen in love with.
Or maybe the person she had always wanted me to be and I could never live up to.
That thought stung more than it should have.
Beth had never outright said it, but the pieces had all been there, the way she had pulled away over time, her dissatisfaction growing as I’d grown more comfortable in the power we had built.
She had always wanted something more real, something meaningful, and I’d thought I could give it to her through wealth, through status.
Now I was starting to see I had been wrong. Dead wrong.
I wiped my face with the back of my hand, trying to compose myself.
I couldn’t let the board see me like this, vulnerable and lost. I had built this empire for more than just myself.
I had built it with the promise that I could provide for my wife and protect her future, and that hadn’t changed.
But standing in the sterile bathroom, with the cold, harsh light glaring down at me, I wasn’t so sure anymore.
Maybe I hadn’t built any of it for her at all, maybe I’d just been using her presence as an excuse for my own ambition.
I returned to the dining room, Jessica giving me a tight smile as I retook my seat, and we made it through the rest of the meeting.
I said all the right things, played the part of the confident CEO.
But inside, every word felt hollow. When the meeting finally ended, the board members filed out one by one, shaking hands and offering their congratulations on another successful deal.
I stood there, smiling through it all, until the door clicked shut behind them and Jessica and I were left alone.
“Well,” she said, her voice smooth and knowing, “that could have gone better, don’t you think?”
I turned to her, the irritation finally bubbling to the surface. “Don’t,” I snapped, sharper than I intended. “I don’t need your analysis right now.”
Jessica’s eyebrows raised slightly, her expression calm but her eyes sharp as always. “I’m just saying, the board notices when you’re off, Chris. They’re investors, not friends. They need confidence.”
I felt the urge to snap back again, to tell her I knew what they needed and that she didn’t need to lecture me.
Instead, I pinched the bridge of my nose, letting out a deep sigh.
She was right, but it didn’t make it any less grating to hear.
Everything about her had started grating on me, the way she moved through these spaces as if she had always belonged here.
And in truth, she did, just not in the role she was slowly trying to play.
“Jessica, I’m tired. It’s been a long day.”
She tilted her head slightly, stepping closer, her voice lowering as if she were trying to reach some part of me I kept buried. “Let me take you home. You’ve earned some rest.”
Her words were tempting, and the last thing I needed was temptation right now.
I needed to think. I needed to get my head straight, not spend the night pretending like things were okay when they clearly weren’t.
I didn’t move to follow her as she headed toward the door, and I saw the flicker of disappointment on her face before she masked it with her usual cool professionalism.
“Fine,” she said, turning to face me fully.
“But you’re not going to solve this on your own.
Beth’s made her choice, Chris. She’s not coming back to this life, not unless you make her see that walking away is a mistake.
” Jessica took a step closer, her fingers brushing lightly against my sleeve.
“I could help. I know how these things work better than she does.”
I shook her hand off, stepping back, my irritation flaring again. “This isn’t something you can fix for me, Jessica. I don’t need you stepping into her place.”
She didn’t retreat, her gaze locked on mine. “I’m not trying to step into anything. I’m trying to help. Someone has to keep things steady here while you figure out your personal life. And maybe, when this blows over, we can figure out some things, too.”
There it was. That insinuation again. It wasn’t the first time she had hinted that we could be more than business partners, that we could pick up where Beth and I left off.
It used to be subtle, a passing glance, an occasional hand on the shoulder.
But now? It was starting to feel like an offer, and one I wasn’t interested in taking. The thought alone felt like a betrayal.
“I’m not interested, Jessica.” My voice came out colder than I’d intended, but it was better than letting the confusion I felt inside show on the outside. “This isn’t the time or the place for that. And it never will be.”
She flinched slightly, a flicker of hurt passing over her features before she composed herself. “I get it,” she said, though her tone suggested she didn’t get it at all. “But you can’t keep going like this, Chris. You need someone in your corner.”
I ran a hand through my hair, too exhausted to deal with this right now. “I need you to focus on the business. That’s all.”
Jessica stepped forward again, closer than I wanted her to be, her voice softer, more personal now. “The business is just one part of it. You’ve been lonely since she left, and you don’t have to be. Let me show you that.”
Her hand slid down to my wrist, fingers lingering there in a way that made my skin crawl. I shook my head, pulling away more forcefully this time. “No.” The word came out final, leaving no room for argument. “I don’t want you showing me anything, Jessica. This isn’t what I need.”
For a moment, I thought she might push back, that her determination might get the better of her. Instead, she straightened, her expression smoothing out into something unreadable. “You’re making a mistake,” she said quietly. “You might not see it now, but pushing people away isn’t the solution.”
I didn’t care what she thought. My mind was already too full of the mess with Beth, the mess I had made of us, to entertain the idea of starting something new with someone I didn’t want. “Maybe it is a mistake, but it’s mine to make.”
“You’re really not understanding this, Chris,” Jessica said as she pushed her hand up to my chest, her fingers toying with the top button of my shirt. “She left you, remember?”
I stepped further out of her reach, my anger rising again. “You don’t know anything about us, what we’ve been through or why she did it. Don’t pretend you do, and don’t try to step in where you don’t belong.”