Chapter 31
Theo
Watching James sit beside her, I knew I had failed her. It broke something open in me. I should have been the one holding her hand. I should have been the one she reached for. I wasn’t there when she needed someone. He was.
I sat with Elizabeth for an hour before leaving. How had I ever left her? Ever let her walk away from me? As I leave the hospital, I phone my lawyer back.
“Hey, Rob. Sorry I missed your call. What have you got for me? Make it good. I need something good right now.” Rob and his team have been scouring my marriage contracts for weeks, searching for a break clause. A loophole. Anything.
“I think we have it, Mr. Masters. Thanks to the DNA evidence we have regarding Mrs. Masters’ baby, we have the break clause we need.
” I lower the phone, blocking out anything else he says.
I close my eyes and thank God for Rob and his team.
I raise the phone back to my ear. He’s still talking.
“It’s going to be messy, but you won’t be losing anything… ”
“I will fly out tomorrow and meet you in the office the following day. Thanks, Rob.” I hang up the phone. I don’t care about anything else he has to say. I don’t care how messy it is. She can fight me all she likes. I’m leaving.
Nigel pulls into the driveway of the countryside manor I purchased months ago. Bought in a moment of madness and hope. Before everything completely fell apart. Before I realised just how much damage I’d done. It’s the only place I have been able to breathe.
I haven’t lived with Olivia since. One day, this is going to be mine and Elizabeth’s home. Our family will live here together. I can feel it.
I begin to pack for LA with a sense of accomplishment. A sense that everything is going to work out. Once my suitcase is downstairs, I head to the office and pour myself a bourbon. I sit in my chair as a heavyweight lifts from my shoulders. I’m almost free.
I sit for hours replaying the last year in my head, thinking of everything I’ve done wrong. Every way I have let Elizabeth down and let myself down.
That night, I dream of Elizabeth and our baby girl. Her bright blue eyes, just like her mother’s, and her tiny fingers curled around mine. We are in the manor’s garden, watching the deer graze on the lush green grass. The dream feels so real, as though I can touch it.
When I open my eyes, the dream clings to me. It feels like my future. Like I saw a glimpse of what’s to come.
As Nigel places my bags into the car that afternoon, I make my way upstairs to the main suite and collect Elizabeth’s things that I had saved from London. I kept them in the hope that one day she’d return to me.
She texted me an hour ago to say she was home and resting.
Relief washed over me when I read it. I decide I will head over to her cottage before I go to the airport.
I am so relieved to know she has been discharged, but I don’t want to risk disturbing her, so I drop the things off on the porch steps of her house.
As I look up at the cottage, calm fills me, knowing that she’s safely tucked up inside.
It settles something inside me. I type out a text to her as I get back in the car.
I have one last thing to do before I fly out. One last person to face. The drive is quiet, just the hum of the road filling the car like the calm before the storm.
We pull up outside mine and Olivia’s home, the tyres slowing to a stop.
I take a deep breath and head in. The house is quiet, hauntingly so.
Olivia is sitting in the kitchen with a glass of white wine, reading a magazine.
She looks up, throws the magazine on the table in front of her, and leans back in her chair, arms crossed, eyes full of hate.
“Decided to come back to me, have you?” I know she is going to make this hard for me.
“Olivia, I need to speak to you.” Her eyebrow raises in the condescending way she does so well.
“Do not do what I think you’re about to do, Theodore.” Her voice is dark. Threatening. I shake my head at her.
“Olivia, why do you keep fighting this? You don’t want to be with me anymore than I want to be with you. You could be happy, Olivia.” She scoffs, and I know she’s about to blow.
“Oh, so you’re doing this for me, are you, Theo?
How sweet of you. Theodore Masters to the rescue again.
” She rolls her eyes and stands from her chair, sauntering over to me.
Her hand comes out and grips my jaw with her perfectly manicured fingers.
“You are not leaving me, Theo.” I push her hand away from me more forcefully than I mean to.
“Come on, Olivia, you know it’s better for both of us.” Her cackle sends a shiver through me.
“Do I, Theo? Do I really?” For such a petite woman, she stands her ground like a six-foot man. She is not afraid of anyone. It was one of the things I loved about her when we got married.
“I’m leaving you, Olivia. The divorce papers will be sent to you by the end of next week.
Rob is drawing them up for me as we speak.
” She looks down, still clutching her wine glass.
I watch her eyes change and glaze over. She downs the last of the wine and then, in an instant, launches the glass at my head.
“You are not fucking leaving me, Theo!” Her voice quivers, and I notice tears begin to fall.
With fury and sadness in her eyes, I watch her go through the kitchen, emptying the cupboards onto the floor.
She slams doors so hard that they rattle the hinges.
She throws a chair and smashes the TV with it.
“Olivia, stop.” I step towards her, but she is too far gone. Her breathing is frantic, and I’m certain that she no longer hears me over her own screams. I’m too far away to stop it, but I watch her pick up our wedding photo, raise it over her head and smash it on the ground.
“I warned you, Theo. I told you I would ruin you if you ever left me.”
The noise of glass crunching underneath her steps is loud as her weight shifts.
She crouches, fingers trembling as they hover over the broken wedding frame.
She picks up a large shard of glass and catches me watching her.
Her eyes flicker with disappointment that I’m not reacting the way she wants.
Suddenly, she takes the sharp edge of glass to her wrist. Time stops.
I can’t run fast enough. I can’t reach her before she cuts.
“Olivia, NO!” I quickly open the drawer of tea towels and grab all of them. I wrap her wrist as she thrashes around, slapping me across the face, hitting me in the chest as hard as she can. Her blood splatters across my face, staining my shirt crimson. I grip her wrist and pull her into me.
“Olivia, stop. Now.” She is sobbing into my chest, but I can feel the blood still pouring from her. Slowly her legs give way, and she becomes still in my arms.
“Help! Someone help me.” I shout for anyone.
There is always someone in this house. Someone must’ve heard me.
The kitchen door flies open, banging into the wall as Callum comes in searching for me.
He comes around to the other side of the island and finds me sitting on the floor, Olivia’s bloodied wrist in my hand.
“Call an ambulance, Callum. We need them here fast.”
I hold onto her wrist as hard as I can, praying that the pressure I’m applying is enough to keep her alive. My entire body fills with guilt, horror, something I can’t name. My hands shake from the pressure I’m placing.
“Stay with me, please, Liv.” The name slips from my lips. I haven’t called her that in years. When things between us were happier. “Our son needs you. Please.”
I hear the sirens growing closer, and before I know it, paramedics and police surround me.
The night becomes a blur, and I lose track of time.
I can hear the news crews outside, the helicopter circling above like vultures.
I walk out to the police car with the sergeant as Olivia is placed on a stretcher and wheeled out to the ambulance.
The lights from the camera flashes are blinding.
They have been waiting for a story, and now they have it.
Olivia is awake, thanks to the paramedics, and she makes it very clear to the police that I attacked her.
They take my statement and inform me that because of the allegation, I will be taken to the station for more questioning but should be out in the morning.
As the police place me in the car, I hear my name being called.
Olivia’s name too. My body is numb, her blood drying on my hands, and the life I was just about to build with Elizabeth suddenly feels like it’s slipping from my reach.
I miss my plane to LA.