Page 55 of Due Process
Picking up my phone once more, I called the number I knew by heart, just wanting to hear her voice.
“Felix?” Stella asked, voice wary.
“I-I…”
“You received the documents?” she asked.
“Yeah. And the… gift. Why did you wait?”To tell me, to say anything, to end things.
“I had to protect myself.”
She meant the prenup and the risk of me leaving her with nothing. I ran a hand through my hair, sadness weighing me down. “Fuck, I would have signed it all over, Stells. Despite everything, you could have trusted me with that.”
“No. I couldn’t trust you. Never again.”
“The ring—”
“That ring was your final opportunity,” she confessed, her voice hesitant. “I-I don’t know. I think it was my last-ditch effort to see a change in you. To see if you’d notice. To see if youcaredenough to notice. I wanted to see if my husband was still in there… That was truly the end for us, Felix.”
Each word was like a stab in my chest, each cut piercing deeper than the last. She was tearing me apart.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated. I was empty. What else was there to say?
“We were beautiful once,” she whispered, her tone nostalgic. “And we have two sons to show for it. But now it’s time to give them what you couldn’t give me.”
“I promise.”
“Good.” She paused, contemplating before following through. “Find happiness, Felix,” she said, giving me back my words.
Then she hung up.
Her statement was thoughtful—borderline caring, even. But I knew what she said was unobtainable.
I’d never find true happiness without her.
Chapter 31
STELLA
After that phone call with Felix, the ball of negative energy constantly percolating in my gut just dissipated. As if that final goodbye helped me come to terms with all that was said and done.
I was officially a divorcee, and I felt… content.
Slipping my phone away, I lingered in the hallway of Curtis’ house, watching our wild boys make a downright mess in the kitchen.
My best friend was in the middle of it all, trying to call out orders, which were wilfully ignored. I couldn’t help but smile.
In the past six months, he had become my rock. We hadn’t been physical since that one night, yet the tension continued to build between us, that connection pulling so taut that I truly thought I’d snap.
Every time I saw him, each time we touched in passing, I swore my skin was about to melt away from my bones, desperate for more of him.
Curtis was respectful, the perfect gentleman. I had loved him for years as a friend. But now, our connection had morphed into something entirely new.
After knowing the man for so long, my outlook had suddenly turned romantic,intimate.Just the thought of him had my blood singing with need, sending my flesh tingling with want.
“Don’t you dare!” Curtis yelled, his finger pointing at Phoenix, who held up a threatening handful of cake.
As predicted, my freshly turned three-year-old spread his little devil smile and chucked the batter right in the centre of Curtis’ chest.
