Chapter 3

Claire

All he did was shake his head and then doze off to sleep. I stood there in the dim light from the lamps outside the window. The gentle hum of the air conditioning was the only noise here apart from his snoring.

I stared at him for a minute. How could he be so ruthlessly indifferent to the pain that he had caused me? 

In the early days after our wedding, I had tried to show him that I loved him. But he had tip-toed around our marriage as though he were ashamed of it. I had never expected much from my marriage, having seen that love was something not everyone got to have. My parents had always bickered with each other. They had never gotten along. 

So, I had made my peace with the idea that regardless of how absent Gerald was from my life, at least we weren’t always hurling insults at one another. 

But this? Bringing a curvy actress into the picture to show me what I was missing? That was a blow below the belt. 

I woke up in the morning to make my way to the bathroom and realized that my face was puffy and swollen. I splashed water on it, washed it up, and opened my laptop when I returned to the bedroom.

The email on top of the list made my heart thump faster. It was my divorce agreement. All I had to do was sign it … and then ask Gerald to sign it too.

I braced myself. He shouldn’t have a problem signing these papers; he’d spent half the night at his mistress’s house. I would only be clearing the path for them. 

***

“Gerald!” I exclaimed as he walked past the lobby. I had been asked by the receptionist at his office to wait there. When I had told her who I was, she had looked at me in surprise. Then, she led me very politely to a sofa in the lobby and asked me to wait.

I had been glancing nervously out of the window when Gerald walked by. 

He raised his brows when he caught my eye. “What are you doing here?” he asked, his hand just on the doorknob of the conference room. 

I ran up to him, my heels clicking against the marble floor, and handed him the divorce papers. 

“I … was hoping that you could sign these,” I said in a hushed voice. 

“What’s all this?” he asked irritably before glancing at his wristwatch.

His expression changed slightly as he began to read them. I gripped the sides of my hips to steady myself and nervously licked my lips. 

I knew that he didn’t want to continue this marriage. But I was nervous about the outcome of this request – this demand – that I had made of him because Gerald had always been so unreliable and unpredictable.

I could never know what to expect from him. Perhaps, we had simply never known each other that well.

He finished reading the agreement and looked up at me.

“Wait here for twenty minutes,” he said sharply, “I have a meeting to attend.”

“Gerald--” 

“I said wait.” 

He turned to look at the receptionist who had just now walked up to us.

“Mr. Smithson is here,” she said. Gerald nodded and she left. 

My shoulders dropped as he walked inside. I sauntered around the mostly empty lobby and looked through the large glass walls. 

A tall man walked past the reception towards the other side of the lobby. His back was turned towards me so I could not see his face.

And right now, honestly, I didn’t want to talk to anybody. Gerald’s reaction indicated that he was annoyed by my request. But why? I thought to myself.

I turned around and made my way to the stairs. The stairway was dark and narrow. 

Gerald had had it designed this way to create intrigue. 

I stepped down quickly. Halfway down, my eye caught a bright pink dress. 

It was in stark contrast to the gray and black staircase. And it was worn by Christina. 

“Claire!” she exclaimed as she met my gaze. She smiled brightly at me.

I tried to pass by her but she blocked my path, putting both of her hands on the sides of the black marble walls.

“Look at me, Claire,” she said. 

“If you don’t have something important to say,” I said, “ Let me through!”

I had lowered my voice to a growl, hoping to scare her out of my path.

She stepped up closer to me. And then my eyes fell upon the necklace. 

It was a one-of-its-kind Cartier. I had originally thought that Gerald had gotten it for me. 

Seeing it on her low-cut neckline made my stomach turn. But I could not deny that it hurt me. 

“Gerald and I are going to lunch,” she smiled scornfully at me, “We would have loved to invite you but I don’t think you’re classy enough to dine at Baron’s.”

I clenched my fist. How dare she come up here and attack me for no reason.

I was about to fire a retort that would have her weeping but before I could open my mouth to speak, Christina suddenly fell backwards. 

My jaw dropped in shock. “Christina!” I yelled and moved forward. She had already tumbled a couple of steps down. I slipped a step but then gripped the side of the railing quickly. 

I heard voices at the end of the staircase. 

“Miss Martin has fallen down the stairs!” someone said. 

The security staff was pulling her up when I came down.

Upon being informed, Gerald immediately ran down the stairs, where I stood at the final step. 

“Christina!” he shouted in concern as soon as he saw her. He took hold of her arm from the security guard and hoisted her up in his arms. She was already whimpering and sobbing. 

I stood there, staring in horror. 

“What happened?” Gerald asked Christina.

Turning her head in his arms, she pointed a finger at me. 

“She–she pushed me!” she exclaimed and then began to wail. 

My jaw fell open in shock. 

“Gerald, I–” 

“Shut up!” he snapped. 

“I didn’t do anything!” I exclaimed. He was looking at her and murmuring, “It’s going to be alright, baby.”

“How could you believe I would do such a thing?!” I cried out again. 

Gerald turned towards me, his eyes flaring. He put Christina down on a sofa in the lobby, barked “Watch her!” at one of the security guards, and ran up the stairs. 

I followed him. He was fuming and panting. He had picked up the divorce papers from the reception desk where I had left them. 

Hastily scribbling his name down, he almost tore through the pages. When he was finished signing all of them, he thrust the paper into my hands. 

I was in tears now.

“Gerald, I didn’t push–”

“I cannot believe you’d be so evil-minded,” he growled.

I let out a sob.

“Take what you need and get the fuck out of here,” he said.