Chapter 8 - THE WIFE WHO STOPPED WAITING
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I returned to Chicago alone.
Vincent called fourteen times during the drive. I answered none of them.
When I reached our house, I went directly to the closet and began packing.
Not everything.
Only what belonged to me.
My clothes, my books, my grandmother's photograph, and the small collection of letters I had written to myself during the first year of our marriage.
I had never intended anyone to read those letters.
They contained the things I was too embarrassed to say aloud.
Today, Vincent forgot our dinner reservation.
Today, Sophia called him at midnight, and he left without explaining.
Today, he told me I was too sensitive.
The final letter was dated three weeks earlier.
I don't know when I stopped expecting him to choose me. I only know that I'm exhausted from competing with a woman who never agreed to compete.
I folded it and placed it in my suitcase.
At six that evening, Vincent arrived.
He found me standing beside the front door with two suitcases.
"What are you doing?"
"Leaving."
He stared at the bags.
"Because of what happened at Rosewood?"
"Because of what happened during the last two years."
He stepped inside.
"Claire, we can fix this."
I almost smiled.
"How?"
"I'll end things with Sophia."
"You should have done that before you married me."
"She's been part of my life for a long time."
"And I was supposed to be what? A temporary arrangement?"
"No."
"Then why did you treat me like one?"
Vincent ran a hand through his hair.
"I made mistakes."
"You made choices."
He looked at me, and for the first time, I saw something beyond irritation in his expression.
He was frightened.
Not because I was angry.
Because I was leaving without asking him to stop me.
"I love you," he said.
I looked at the man I had spent two years trying to reach.
"Maybe you do. But you have never loved me enough to treat me like your wife."
I opened the door.
He caught my wrist, then immediately released it when he saw my expression.
"Where will you go?"
"Somewhere I can hear myself think."
"Claire, please. Don't make a decision tonight."
"I've been making this decision for two years. I simply kept postponing it because you kept promising to change."
I stepped outside.
He remained in the doorway.
For one second, I wondered whether he would follow me, whether he would finally choose me in the only way that mattered.
He did not.
I drove to a small hotel downtown and checked into a room overlooking the river.
For the first time in two years, I slept without listening for the sound of my husband's car.
The next morning, my phone contained thirty-seven messages.
Most were from Vincent.
The final message was from Arthur.
Claire, Eleanor's attorney has found a document that may change everything. I need you at Rosewood today. This concerns your future, whether or not you remain married to Vincent.
I stared at the screen.
Then another message arrived.
It was from Sophia.
You think you've won because you left him. But you don't know what your husband did to protect you.
May you like
I read it twice.
For the first time, I wondered whether the betrayal I had discovered was only the surface of something far worse.
