Kent stared into his glass.
“Then…I picked up a couple of girls and slept with them.”
He slowly turned his head back to me. “That’s pretty cold, man…”
“What was I supposed to do? I’m not interested in that kind of relationship. That’s obvious.”
“Maybe it wasn’t obvious to her.”
I kept my eyes on my glass.
“So, she left when she caught you?”
“She didn’t catch me. I wasn’t exactly hiding it…”
“Wow.” He shook his head. “You tell someone you’re in love with them, and then they bring someone home right in front of you. I’m not a touchy-feely kind of guy, but that would suck.”
My fingers gripped the glass tighter.
“Then she just left?”
“Gave me divorce papers the next morning. She packed up her stuff and left.”
“And that’s it?” he asked. “You guys are officially over?”
“No…I haven’t signed the papers yet.”
“Hmm…” He took a drink then set the glass on the counter. “Why not?”
I shrugged.
“Did she take half of everything?”
I wished she’d been greedy. It would make it easier to let her go. “No…she didn’t take anything.”
“What?” he asked incredulously. “She’s entitled to half your estate, but she didn’t ask for anything?”
“Except her car and a few thousand euros.”
Kent continued to stare at me in disbelief, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “Shit…she really does love you.”
The only thing she wanted was me. When she couldn’t have that, she left. She didn’t want to be part of my life anymore. She wanted to move on like our marriage had never happened. I pushed away my glass because I wouldn’t be able to drive home if I had any more.
“And you don’t love her?”
I stared at my own expression in the mirror, my eyes almost the same color as my scotch.
“You can see it in two different ways,” Kent said. “If she doesn’t mean anything to you, you got yourself out of a bogus marriage and you have your life back. But if she does mean something to you…you fucked that up pretty badly.”
When she threw the divorce papers at me, I hadn’t been expecting such a venomous reaction. I knew she would be angry, but I didn’t expect her to pack up her shit and leave. She wasn’t doing it for a production. She actually wanted to get away from me because being my wife was unbearable to her.
I’d never anticipated the consequences of my actions.
I’d tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t change her mind.
My father was still out there, but if he hadn’t done anything by now, maybe he never would.
That meant Arwen really didn’t need me for anything.
That should make me feel relieved…but relief was the last thing I felt.
“Yeah… I did fuck up.”
It was almost ten when I arrived at her doorstep. The lights were off, so she was probably in bed already. I raised my fist and tapped my knuckles against the wooden door. I could break through her lock if I wanted to, but pissing her off right away wasn’t the best idea.
Especially since she was already pissed off.
Heavy footsteps sounded, and then the door opened.
A half-naked man looked at me, wearing nothing but his black boxers. He was built like a brick house with a hard jaw that no doubt attracted the ladies. With green eyes and a well-structured face, he was a handsome guy. He looked at me with hostility, like he didn’t appreciate my visit at this late hour. “Can I help you?”
I was blindsided by his appearance, by his square pecs and tight stomach. With tanned skin like mine, his looks rivaled my own. I’d been replaced so easily, with a man just as good-looking. He may not be rich, but he fulfilled her needs just as well.
He tilted his head slightly and kept looking at me. “I said, can I help you?”
My eyes flicked past his shoulder, and I saw Arwen in the kitchen, wearing his t-shirt with her hair pulled over her shoulder. Her blue eyes were locked on mine, her face indifferent to the events that had just unfolded. She had no idea I would stop by at this time of night, but she didn’t seem to care that she’d been caught with a lover.
My eyes turned back to his. “I want to speak to Arwen.”
The guy kept one hand on the door and turned to Arwen. “You want to talk to this guy?”
“No.” She brought the glass of water to her lips and took a drink.
He turned back to me. “You heard her. Goodbye.”
My heart raced as I looked at the scene before me. I’d assumed Arwen was sleeping alone every night, thinking about me. But she was already sleeping around and adding notches to her bedpost. She’d already moved on. “Arwen…”
The guy pressed a hand to my chest. “She said no—”
I grabbed his wrist and twisted it down within an instant. “Touch me again, and see what happens.”