I left my desk and walked into the lobby, eager to get that paperwork in my hands to make sure Catherine’s name was nowhere on it—that she wasn’t the one filing for divorce.
The suit looked at me. “Are you Dr.—”
I snatched the manila envelope out of his hand and ripped it open to get the paperwork inside.
I almost fell to my knees the way Catherine had when she’d learned of her father’s passing. My hands were always steady, but now they shook with unexpected tremors, the paperwork shaking in front of my eyes.
Because my wife had asked for a divorce.
***
Derek opened the door in just his sweatpants, probably watching TV on the couch while his kids were asleep in their bedrooms. He took one look at me and knew my life had just turned to shit. “What is it?”
“What is it?” I held up the envelope before I shoved it in his face. “You lied to me. That’s what’s fucking wrong.” I pushed past him and stepped into his penthouse when I hadn’t been invited. I’d spent the day blowing up Catherine’s phone and then marching to her mother’s place because I knew that was where she was staying. They wouldn’t open the door. They wouldn’t even give me that courtesy. They treated me like a fucking monster, when all I’d tried to do was save Allen’s life. “You told me I would fall in love with the right woman, and we should spend the rest of our lives together. Well, look at me now.” I turned around and faced him. “My wife left me, and she’s taking half of everything I fucking worked for.”
Derek pulled out the papers and examined them, his eyebrows furrowed, his look slightly angry.
Emerson came down the hallway and joined us, probably because she’d heard me yelling. “Is everything okay?”
“Is everything okay?” I asked incredulously as I turned to look at her, seeing her in her loungewear too, her hair in a bun. “Does it sound like everything is okay? My wife left me, without a word, like I’m some kind of asshole.”
Emerson flinched at my anger because she’d never seen me like this before. She inched toward Derek, keeping a few feet of distance between us.
Derek looked up from the papers. “Dex—”
“I fucking told you this would happen. And if you think it’s not going to happen to you too, then you’re fucking stupid. Watch, Emerson is gonna walk out on you just the way Catherine did to me, and you’ll see.”
Emerson stood beside her husband and continued to stare at me.
Derek lowered his gaze and didn’t say anything.
I was furious at the world, at everyone, even people who didn’t deserve it. “I tried to save her father’s life…and now she doesn’t love me anymore. One day, you’ll do something, and then Emerson will pack her shit and take your wallet too—”
“Enough.” Derek set the papers on the table beside him. “Don’t talk to my wife like that—”
“It’s fine.” Instead of being angry, Emerson looked at me like she was just as heartbroken, like she could really feel my pain, like it had happened to her too. She slowly stepped toward me and opened her arms so she could embrace me.
I breathed hard as she came closer, closed my eyes when I felt her arms around me.
She squeezed me tightly with her cheek pressed to my chest. “I’m so sorry, Dex.” She rubbed my back and embraced me like she was biological family.
It took me a moment to hug her back, to raise my arms and wrap them around her, to squeeze her hard and let my true emotions break through the dam that held them back. “I did everything for her… I loved her. I still do. I’ll always love her.”
“I know…” She continued to rub my back.
Derek came closer and stood beside us, his hand moving to my back too. “I’m sorry, man.”
Emerson pulled away to look at me, her eyes wet. “Are you sure you can’t work it out?”
I shook my head. “I suggested therapy. She said no. I said I wanted to fight for our relationship. She still said no. Just a few months ago, we were trying to get pregnant, and now…she says she doesn’t look at me the same anymore. She’s been staying at her mom’s for a couple weeks, but I thought she would come back after she had some space. I texted her yesterday and told her I missed her, that I wanted her to come home, and she never replied. Then the next day, she sends her lawyer to serve me.” I was floored by her cruelty, the way she’d cut me out of her life so easily, that she could break my heart and continue to turn her cheek. I remembered our wedding like it was yesterday, remembered every day of our marriage like it was a series of flashbacks. She was the love of my life, we were happy, everything was perfect. Until it wasn’t. “If I’d never taken her father as a patient, we would still be happy right now. But I killed him…and lost my wife.”