Chapter One #2
He blamed her for his own choices. He resented her body, her spineless nature, and her lack of polish.
He resented the fact that every dollar in his company’s bank account was a silent reminder that he had bought his success with his independence.
“Hey,” Elizabeth said softly.
Her voice cut through his thoughts, snapping him back into the present as she came to a stop beside him. A faint scent of lavender and vanilla drifted over the sharp tang of cologne and expensive booze.
“You look tired,” she said.
Sebastian adjusted his cuffs. “It is a big night, Elizabeth. Lots of hands to shake.”
“I know,” she said, reaching out to gently touch his sleeve. “You have worked so hard for this night. My father cannot stop talking about you. He told the board of First National that you are the sharpest mind he has backed in twenty years.”
“Arthur is generous when it suits him,” Sebastian said, his voice clipped.
Elizabeth’s smile faltered slightly, a shadow of confusion passing over her eyes before she smoothed it over. “He means it. And so do I. I am really proud of you, Sebastian.”
“Thank you.” He glanced around the room. “Are you enjoying yourself?”
“It is lovely,” she said, though she rubbed the side of her temple with two fingers.
“A bit loud, maybe. I think I’m getting a headache from the lights. I was thinking of heading over to the reception desk to ask for an aspirin.”
“You do that,” Sebastian said, already looking past her toward a group of hedge fund managers standing near the bar. “Do not rush back on my account. I need to handle a few more high-level conversations anyway.”
Elizabeth looked at him, her eyes searching his face for something.
Anything! A flicker of genuine concern, an offer to step outside with her, or a simple, affectionate look.
Finding none of them, she forced a small, gentle smile.
“Alright. Do not drink too much scotch without eating something first.”
“Don’t fuss, Elizabeth. I will be fine,” he said, perhaps a tad too harshly.
She turned and watched him for a second before walking toward the quiet corridor leading to the private lounge areas, her velvet dress swishing softly against her ankles.
The hallway leading away from the main ballroom was a relief. The blaring pop remixes and the harsh, flashing chandeliers faded into a soft background hum, replaced by thick carpet and low, ambient wall sconces and she instantly felt better.
Elizabeth spotted a service station before she got to the reception and ended up receiving more genuine concern from the attendant than she’d gotten from her husband. She accepted a small packet of aspirin and a glass of ice water, downing the pills in one gulp.
Slipping out of the building, she took a stroll through the hotel’s immaculate gardens. She needed a moment to herself, away from the heavy perfumes, the loud music, and the glare of the lights.
The throbbing behind her right eye was bad enough, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the hollow ache in her chest.
Her husband hadn’t seemed concerned about her in the slightest. As a matter of fact, he hadn’t even met her eyes. Was she losing her mind, or had he looked right through her back there?
She loved Sebastian. She had loved him from the moment they met in her father’s garden five years ago. He was brilliant, focused and possessed an intensity that had fascinated her.
When he asked her to marry him after three months of courtship, Beth had felt like the luckiest woman in America.
But over the years, the distance between them had grown. He was never mean, never raised his voice and never forgot a milestone. He also never failed to kiss her cheek before leaving for the office at six in the morning. Yet, it felt like living with a ghost.
There was no fire and no passion left in their marriage. Not that there had been any to begin with. She had spent five years convincing herself that this was just how ambitious, high-powered men loved.
“He is just busy,” she had told herself often. “He shows his love by providing.”
But now that she was older, she could see clearly that this was not the kind of marriage that people spoke of with warmth in their eyes.
After close to twenty minutes, feeling the chill in the air, Beth decided to head back inside. She was hoping to maybe coax Sebastian into leaving a bit early so they could order late-night takeout and sit on their balcony.
She wanted to try, just one more time, to break through his armour.
She walked back toward the ballroom, slipping in through the terrace, a semi-secluded nook used for smoking and cocktail hours.
The terrace doors were propped open slightly to let in the ocean breeze and a heavy velvet curtain hung between the alcove and the bustling room ahead, giving her one last second of privacy.
As she stepped close to the velvet curtain, she heard familiar voices floating through the gap.
“I am just saying, the valuation is insane,” a man’s voice said.
It was Julian, one of Sebastian’s college fraternity brothers who had recently moved his private equity firm to South Florida. “You are looking at a ten-x return on the initial round.”
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Sebastian’s voice replied. It was smooth, calm and utterly relaxed. “We locked in the regulatory approvals last week.”
“Must be nice,” another voice chimed in. That was Carter, a venture capitalist who frequented the same golf club as Sebastian.
“Everything you touch turns to gold, Seb. Beautiful condo in Brickell, a successful start-up and an influential father-in-law.” A pause, followed by the soft clink of glasses. “Speaking of which... I saw your wife earlier.”
Elizabeth froze. Her hand, just inches from pulling back the velvet curtain, went still.
“Yeah,” Sebastian said. She could hear the shrug in his voice without even seeing it.
“She looks different,” Carter said, his tone carrying a strange, hesitation-filled edge.
“Fatter, you mean?” Sebastian said with a mocking chuckle.
The group let out a light laugh.
“I always wondered why you picked her when Miami is crawling with hotties,” Julian chimed in. “She is not your type at all.”
“I had no choice,” Sebastian said flatly. “My start-up funding was contingent on me marrying her.”
Carter let out a low whistle. “That makes a lot of sense now.”
“I gotta say, Arthur is a shark,” Julian added. “He saw your potential a mile away and decided to saddle you with his ugly daughter.”
“To be fair, she is his twin,” Carter joked.
“You should divorce her. You no longer need her father’s money anyway,” Julian said.
“There was a contract,” Sebastian replied flatly.
“Ah... of course there was a fucking contract.”
“I’ll be free in five years, gents. Do not look depressed on my account,” Sebastian told his friends as they all burst into laughter.
“Aren’t you trying for a child? I heard her saying earlier that you were trying, hence why she isn’t drinking tonight.”
“She thinks we are. But joke’s on her, I got a vasectomy a week before I married her.” Elizabeth listened to her husband joking, and her blood ran cold.
All these years, she had blamed her inability to conceive on her weight and there wasn’t a single diet she hadn’t tried. We can always try again, don’t stress yourself, he would say, comforting her every time her period showed up.
And all this time, it turned out he’d had a vasectomy. She was gearing up to put her body through the agony of IVF, and yet he had known it was pointless.
He was a monster. Of all his cruelties, that was the part Beth knew she could never forgive.
“The sly old dog got outfoxed for once!” one of his friends declared jubilantly. Beth couldn’t even tell their voices apart anymore. Her heart was pounding violently against her ribs with the rush of blood deafening in her ears.
“So you don’t want kids at all?” One of them asked.
“I do. Just not with her. I have a deposit at the sperm bank, and once I’m free, I plan to reverse the procedure.”
They all laughed. At her expense. And it stung.
As their footsteps began moving away from the terrace, Elizabeth stood frozen behind the curtain, unable to move, unable to cry.
She was in shock and her body felt numb, as if she had been plunged into arctic water. The words echoed in her mind, repeating with a terrifying clarity: I had no choice. Fatter, you mean? Saddle you with his ugly daughter.