Page 86 of Falling for the Wife

“Thank you.”

The headache turned into a full-scale migraine. Sleeping was out of the question. Everything in me hurt, and as much as I wanted to prolong parting with her, if I didn’t get out of this bed, I might suffer a heart attack. Tensing, I mustered enough courage to shift my body and sought her for the last time. Her back faced me, and I was quite relieved that I didn’t have to look her in the eye.

Pressing my lips to the base of her neck, I breathed her scent once more, and for a brief moment, all the pain left me, only to return once my nose left her skin. “I love you, kitten.”

Gisele froze as she heard the words out of my mouth. I didn’t say it to change her mind. I did it for me.

Sliding out of bed, I rapidly scoured the closet for clothes, and in less than a minute, I was dressed with my keys in hand. Gisele knew I was leaving her, but she didn’t even turn around, utter a peep. She just carried on ignoring me. I stood a few feet away from the bed, willing her to turn around, to say something—anything—to keep me from leaving, but none came.

“I’ll have my things out of the house once I’ve purchased a home in the area. So, I’ll leave you be. Take care, okay? I know security does a good job keeping a close eye on you, so I won’t be doing any of that. Just—I…” My voice got stuck in my throat as emotions seized me, preventing me from speaking. Biting down on my lip, I longingly glanced at her form before turning around and heading straight to the door and out of her life for good.

I’d lost the most important thing in my life. As much as it pained me to admit the truth, Gisele had never wanted to stay, and I couldn’t go on wondering when she’d hurl the word divorce again.

Gutted, I drove to the Four Seasons, checking in for the next month since going home to my house in Pacific Heights was out of the question. With the obliterating migraine threatening to explode in my brain, I was glad the concierge provided me some pain reliever before I drowned myself in a bottle of cognac. I drank it all to the very last drop.

I went to work slightly drunk, but I needed to occupy my mind with work. And true to her word, my lawyers blasted my phone about the impending divorce. I simply commanded them to give her whatever she wanted. If she wished to take me to the cleaners, go right on ahead. I didn’t care anymore.

My day was already in the shitters, and when my phone rang and flashed Rose’s name, I shut it off completely. A man could only endure so much pressure before folding, and I’d rather invest all of my energy into work than dwell on my unfortunate misery of losing Gisele all over again.

I was sure she’d be seeking Wyatt once again. She might even have him back on our bed by tonight. The very thought of it made me want to murder them both.

Furious at the world, I punishingly worked until midnight before going back to the hotel to try to sleep. I hadn’t had shuteye in the last thirty-six hours, but the moment I tried, my body became restless, so I drank another bottle, numbing me completely. Drunk and surprisingly aroused, I palmed my cock as I recalled her tight sinuous body and how it eagerly responded to me. Even on our last night, her hate couldn’t prevent her from opening her wanton body to me. The soft choking cry she had made each time I went past her barrier brought more blood rushing into my manhood. I vividly pictured her with my eyes shut, plunging deeper as I took her willing cunt to do my bidding…We were like a wildfire—fiery and consuming, burning unchecked.

My wanton wife…

“Gisele!” I screeched, viciously jerking my length before I pettily came into my hand. The immediate feeling of senselessness enveloping me right after twisted darkly into the very fiber of my soul.

FUCK.

I wasn’t daft. I understood the gravity of my actions, and I was quite certain Rose had done her best to deliver the news with a blunt blade, prolonging Gisele’s misery. But all of this had happened before she and I had decided to be together. Surely, she could make some concession in regard to the blatant fact? I dreamed of her taking me back, that my phone would randomly get a call with her begging for me to come home. It had made me relatively delusional.

Not only did my heart yearn for the woman but also the sense of belongingness washing over me, the sense of completeness coming home to her. It was what I missed the most.

But it was all gone, and quite predictably, I was left to pick up the fragments of a shattered shell of a life.

Our impending divorce was in the works. It was like a black ominous cloud hovering in the distance. A bone-chilling cold wind gusted through me, a warning of a storm brewing ahead. It gradually closed in on me. Slowly. Steadfastly. And upon its menacing arrival, it would pull me down until I was stripped of all I came to be, all that I was. It would rob me of my love and whatever else I valued. It would drown me in every way possible. She’d be unforgiving, heartless, and cold.

Gisele was passionate in nature with equal strengths of ice and fire. When the fire dissipated, the cold settled. She burned ice. It would match her glacial frosty eyes that reminded me so much of a chilling winter dusk—barren to the naked eye but with underlying force hidden below their surface. She’d consume me unapologetically.

With Gisele’s unconcealed animosity towards me, it didn’t take a genius to grasp how she’d be. But alas, I had wronged her, and I was willing to pay the price of my misjudgments.

After all, the woman held the cards to my completeness, and she knew it, too. Lock, stock, and barrel.

CHAPTER33

Jared

A WEEK LATER

My downcast eyeswere fixed on the threatening papers splayed before me. My soon to be ex-wife had just entered my lawyer’s conference room before ceremoniously situating herself right across from where I sat as her bevy set of hotshot lawyers followed her trail.

“Jared, it good to see you,” said the woman whom I chose to ignore completely.

My jaw locked. My will unbending. My mood menacing. Every inch of me wound tightly. My miserable self wasn’t ready to battle and hammer this negotiation to my benefit. When I had vowed to give her everything she wanted, no holds barred, I had meant every word spoken out of my bitter lips.

In the background, I was faintly aware both opposing parties began to list their conditions.

When one of Gisele’s blasted lawyers tried to address me, I granted him the same courtesy as I had with his client, which briefly shut him up.

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