Page 122 of Forever with the CEO

No, we fucking didn’t. “Yeah, I do have one question. Wouldn’t it be smarter to wait for a while?”

“Look, I’ll tell you the same thing I told you in the beginning. No one’s going to come after you for dissolving a marriage, you know? It happens often. And even if the other side did think it was suspicious,theyare out of it, and no judge would take them seriously anymore.”

I swallowed hard and started to pace the kitchen. “All right. Thanks for everything.”

“The divorce papers are bulletproof. You don’t have to worry about division of assets or anything like that. It’s all covered.”

I wasn’t fucking worrying about that. “Thanks. I have to go.”

“Sure. Anything you need, just call me again.”

After hanging up, I turned around, glancing at the papers. Was this what she wanted, to go ahead with the divorce? Why wouldn’t she, though? That was what we were planning all along. Now life could go back to the way it was before.

That sounded fucking awful.

I looked around at the living room. I liked it. Now the thought of living by myself in the penthouse seemed insane. Why did I think I needed so many rooms? Maybe I should just rent the place after all and find something smaller.

Fuck no!I didn’t want to find anything else. I wanted to be right here with Allison and the kids!

My mind was racing a million miles an hour, but I couldn’t put my thoughts in order. I couldn’t make a plan; I was simply too blindsided.

But why, though? We’d agreed on this from the start. Since she’d brought the stack home with her, she probably wanted to move forward with it.

That was the right thing to do. There was no point wasting more time going over it, as I had a long day ahead of me. I left the house without even finishing my coffee.

My schedule was so packed, I didn’t have time to call Allison. I needed this day to end so I could talk with her, make sure this was really what she wanted.

At five o’clock on the dot, I left the office so I could pick the twins up from daycare. Allison had a meeting at the opposite side of the city, so it made no sense for her to pick them up. I was going through the motions. I couldn’t comprehend that this stage of my life was coming to an end.

They were ecstatic when I arrived. They were so hyped up about the sleepover, I could barely believe it.

“Best day ever,” Annie said.

“What did you do?”

“We learned how to paint a tree.” Her voice was full of wonder.

“That’s great!” I looked at her in the rearview mirror. I didn’t want to give things like this up: talking to them every evening, learning about their day, spending time with Allison after they went to sleep.

When had I started to enjoy this life so much? And why couldn’t I see myself doing anything else at all? After all, I’d been single and dating for years, and it had always been fulfilling to me. But now it seemed hollow and not at all how I wanted to spend the rest of my life.

We arrived at my brother’s house a short while later. Both Annie and Jack were so excited that it took me a while to get them out of their car seats. Then they bounced out of the car all by themselves and ran toward the front door.

Spencer must have heard us coming, because the door swung open. To my surprise, Gran was right beside him.

I grinned at her. “This is a surprise.”

She put one hand on her hip. “Well, since the invitation to have them over at my house went unheard, I figured this would be a great opportunity to see them again.”

“We didn’t do it on purpose, Gran.”

Although we kind of did because I’d voiced my concerns that Gran might have bitten off more than she could chew by suggesting having the kids, and Allison agreed. My granddad wasn’t here, just Gran.

Penny and Spencer both opened their arms, and Annie ran into Penny’s, Jack into Spencer’s. Ben looked up at me with big eyes and held out his hands, so I picked him up.

None of the kids wanted to be held for too long, though. They demanded to be left to their own devices in the yard. It was convenient that it was narrow enough that you could see thewhole area from the living room. We could keep an eye on them from inside.

“You seem tense,” my brother said.

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