Page 113 of Something Forever

This can’t be right.

There must be some mistake. Whitney wouldn’t do this. Even if she decided that things were moving too quickly or that she didn’t want to see me anymore, she wouldn’t do it like this. She’d talk to me. She’d tell me.

“She didn’t want to be here for it.”

My head snaps to the couch, where Caroline sits with a pitying frown on her face, her hands pulled together in her lap. My gaze flickers back down to the divorce papers, disbelief filling every part of me.

“Where is she? Whitney!”

“She’s not here. She thought it was better this way,” Caroline says.

I shake my head. “I don’t believe you. Whitney wouldn’t do that.”

“I’m so sorry, Liam. I really thought you two might make it work, but she’s more like me than she wants to admit. She wanted me to give you this and to tell you that she’s sorry she can’t say it back.”

Caroline holds out her palm, and when I see what she’s holding, my hand comes up to my chest, as if bracing for a physical blow. The excitement that was just rushing through me is nowhere to be found. Instead, all I can feel is an emptiness that threatens to swallow me whole.

Whitney’s wedding ring. She took it off.

This isn’t happening. This isn’t real.

My mind flashes back to that night in the kitchen, the feeling of her hand in mine as I slid the ring back over her finger.

“Promise you’ll never take it off again.”

“I promise.”

My heart seems to go cold. Numb.

Hollow.

Of course she doesn’t want to be with me. It’s taken me months, months, just to figure my shit out. I’ve been moping around here with no direction, no clue what I wanted. From her, from myself. It was stupid of me to think that someone would rely on me. She’s got her salon. That’s what she wanted all along from this arrangement, and now that I’ve sorted everything with Jackson, I suppose I have, too. Except not really. Because all I want now is to hold my wife in my arms one last time. I’ll beg if I have to. Get down on my knees and plead with her not to leave me. To let me be a better man for her.

What kind of woman wants a husband like me? I don’t know why I thought…

My hands tremble as I stare down at the reality in front of me. The knowledge that my marriage is over. That this is what Whitney wants. Nausea churns deep in my gut and for a moment, and I’m sure that I’m going to throw up. Instead, I take a deep breath and force myself to glance around at the apartment. At my home.

Not my home.

Not anymore.

I can feel it. The shutting down. My teeth clamp shut, a shudder running through me. Blinking back tears that threaten to break through the surface, I squeeze my hands into fists. My body feels all wrong. Out of place.

“I’ll give you a minute,” Caroline says before placing the ring into my shaking hand and slipping down the hallway.

I can’t let myself stay in this apartment for a second longer. I glance at the stack of papers again, my chest cracking open, my heart nothing but an empty shell. Forcing my hands to move, I pick up the pen, flip to the final page, and close my eyes. The image of our names side-by-side on that damned piece of paper burns through me like a bolt of lightning. The weight of the world pressing down on me, I have no choice but to click the pen, take a deep breath, and sign my name on the dotted line.

41

WHITNEY

When I wake up, my migraine is mercifully gone. I’m still groggy, my eyes adjusting to the light of my room as I pull my sleep mask off. I have no idea how long I’ve slept. Sometimes, migraines can knock me out for hours. My first thought is of Liam, remembering how he took care of me last time. Remembering the expression on his face when he told me he loved me.

Rubbing my eyes, I drag myself to the kitchen, finding my mom sitting at the counter, a grim expression on her face. “How long was I out?” I ask her.

She meets my eyes with a fierce expression, a mixture of pity and sadness on her face. “Long enough,” she says, sliding a stack of papers towards me.

“What is it?” I ask.

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