Page 117 of Something Forever

“Don’t know,” I reply, a hint of warning in my voice.

He frowns, a wrinkle forming between his eyebrows. “Did something happen with Whitney?”

Again, her name sends a stab of pain through me, my gut churning with a mixture of longing and anxiety. I can’t think about her. Can’t think about that dotted line.

“Yeah,” I mutter, not wanting to lie to my dad. I’m sure he’ll manage to pry the truth out of me somehow, especially if I end up staying here for a few days. I glance around the room. “Where’s Stacy?”

“She’s on a work trip. It’s just us boys.” He grins and wags his eyebrows. “What shall we get into?”

I shake my head. “I think I’ll just go to bed. I’m pretty beat from the journey over.”

He scoffs. “Journey? It’s an hour on the Amtrak,” he points out.

“Fine,” I say through my teeth. “Let’s just get it out of the way. Whitney and I… we’re separating.”

“Oh, Liam,” Andy says, his tone sympathetic.

“There’s nothing else to say. She doesn’t want me anymore, and that’s it. It’s over.”

Her message was crystal clear. It doesn’t get more clear than divorce papers.

“What happened?”

My hand closes into an involuntary fist. If I let myself think about the events of the past few days, I’m going to lose it completely. Besides, the last thing I want to do is burden my dad with my tales of woe. It feels like I’ve had enough of those to last a lifetime.

“It doesn’t matter,” I answer, my voice hard.

My dad gives me a look that I’m quite familiar with by now. It’s a stop bullshitting me look. I falter under his gaze and shake my head with a sigh, trying to figure out how to explain everything in a way that makes sense when my head is still reeling.

“She wants a divorce,” is what I manage to get out.

Despite my hope that he’ll let it go and accept my halfhearted response, he presses on. “She told you that?”

I grimace. “She left me divorce papers. I guess she didn’t think it warranted a conversation.”

My dad frowns, his brow furrowing in confusion. His expression is a mirror of mine when I stared down at those damned papers. While my brain tried to compute the words and story unfolding in front of me. The gut-wrenching truth that my marriage was over. Before I can stop myself, my shoulders sag, and I let go.

“It was fake. All of it,” I blurt out.

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“I mean our marriage was a sham. We only got married because she needed to get her inheritance. We barely knew each other when we flew to Vegas and got the marriage certificate. It was all a lie.”

My dad leans back, sinking into the couch thoughtfully. “You can’t fake what I saw,” is his response.

I shrug. “Well, we did. We got pretty good at it, I guess. So good that I had myself convinced that she felt the same way I did. But I was wrong. I told her how I felt, and she threw it back in my face like none of it meant anything to her. I guess it didn’t.”

“I can’t believe it. You two really looked like you were in love. I would have sworn on it.”

“Please, don’t remind me,” I murmur. I close my eyes, trying to ward off the memories that break through. Whitney’s fingers threaded through mine. Her soft smile. The feel of her skin against mine.

“I’m so sorry, Li,” my dad says, then hesitates before speaking again. “I bet it’s not too late to talk to her. Maybe?—”

“I know you want to make me feel better and fix things, but some things are too broken to fix. This is one of them.”

It’s the truth. Maybe if she hadn’t done it so callously, so cruelly, I could have found it in my heart to forgive her and give us another chance. But to break things off like that? The idea that she cared so little about me burns through me, setting my heart on fire.

How could I have been so stupid? Was I deluding myself, thinking the love in her eyes was real?

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