Page 10 of Against All Odds

I could feel myself dying inside as I stayed there.

Analeigh and Nick would’ve let me stay there forever, but I need to find my footing. I already took care of the biggest thing, getting a job and filing for divorce.

The rest, I figure, will work itself out in the next year.

“This is for the best,” I say, putting a shirt in the drawer.

“If you say so.”

Ana made it abundantly clear that she thought I should stay, but we’re not the same. She likes to fight, hence the fact she backed into my husband’s car after running over the lawn. There’s a part of her that is unwavering in revenge. I’m much different.

I could fight, but what for? I don’t want to be married to him. I have no doubt that it either wasn’t the first time he’s cheated or it won’t be the last. We don’t have children, and my lawyer said it should all be pretty simple as long as I’m not out for blood.

“I do say so. Things here are much easier, and I got a job in a good school.”

“They have teaching jobs in California, you know?”

I sigh and close the drawer. “Yes, and I have a free house here in Virginia. It’s a quiet town with no fucking paparazzi. No stupid cheating husbands and their mistresses who are intent on making my life unbearable.”

Her eyes soften. “I get it, I just wish it was closer.”

“I do too. I’ll miss you, but you can come visit.”

Trying to picture my bougie best friend in Ember Falls is kind of hilarious. She would’ve run out of here screaming if she saw this place.

Analeigh is the daughter of a famous musician and is married to the top plastic surgeon in Hollywood. She’s only ever known luxury, and even living her whole life with a silver spoon in her mouth, she’s the most generous and kind person I’ve ever met.

However, she likes her nice things.

“I can’t believe you went back to Virginia, though.”

“Well, where else was I going to go? My parents are in Peru or somewhere that they can’t talk to me. Ember Falls made the most sense. Besides, if my granny were alive, she’d be where I would’ve run to anyway. I wasn’t staying in Hollywood. I don’t need to watch Dylan and Whitney hook up and be the new celebrity ‘it’ couple.”

Of course the press is spinning it to his favor. He has a very, very good publicist, who clearly is earning her job. According to the magazines today, I was the problem and Whitney is everything he needed. It didn’t matter that we’ve been together since our senior year of college. That he had a great job as an accountant and then quit one day, letting me know he was pursuing acting school. Thanks to that, my job helped put him through the program, his copious amounts of expensive headshots, and auditions that he had to travel to get to. But apparently I’m cold and indifferent. My jealousy of his success was the failure of our marriage, and he should’ve left me years ago.

News to me.

Also, what kind of idiots are they when just two weeks ago they were posting photos of us on vacation? It didn’t look over then, even though, if they could’ve seen us in private, they would’ve seen the signs I was pretending weren’t there.

My stomach churns as I think about how stupid I was. How I excused everything away because I didn’t want to have a failed marriage. Little did I know I didn’t have a marriage to begin with.

“He’s so gross,” Ana says as she makes a gagging noise.

“Yes, he really is.”

“And he’s driving around in the car with the dent still. I called around all the local shops and offered them a bonus if they refused to get him in for a week.”

“Truly, your mind is a scary place,” I say with a laugh.

She grins. “It really is. The only good thing about this is that you were both poor when you got married, and there’s no prenup, so you get half.”

I snort. “Yes, such a good thing.”

Analeigh sits up, pulling the camera close. “I’m sorry, Violet. I didn’t mean it that way.”

I put the pile of jeans down on top of the dresser and flop on the world’s most uncomfortable bed with the phone in my hand. “I know that. Trust me, as vicious as you are, you don’t have a mean bone in your body for the people you love.”

“Has he called at all?”

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