2. Divorce

"What's this?" I held the papers out to him as he knotted his tie.

"I want a divorce." He says.

My heart struck. It's been a week since I caught him with that woman. I had retired to my room and waited till everyone had gone home, it wasn't till the next day that Zachary had come to meet me and ask for my forgiveness and I forgave him. He had promised never to do that again and we put it behind us.

I thought everything was back to normal until now, staring at the black ink on the paper which I felt like tearing up.

I move closer to him. He backs up a bit.

"I forgave you when I caught you cheating and now you want a divorce?!!" I raise my voice.

He sighs exasperatedly. "I want a divorce Emily, just sign the goddamn thing and let's get this over with."

What? This isn't the Zachary I knew. "Wait a minute. You went back to her, didn't you. This isn't the first time is it?".

He says nothing.

"How long Zach, how long?!" I scream at him.

"We've been seeing each other for six months, Emily". He sighs, then sits on his bed. He runs a hand through his hair messing it up. He looks up at me with a pleading look in his eyes.

"I love her".

I look at the ground. It felt like the world was spinning. How could I have been so stupid? I gave this man my energy, my love and all along he's been with another woman.

I force back tears.

I hold the divorce papers tightly.

I begin to contemplate. If I sign it he'll get what he wants, if I don't sign it, he won't get what he wants.

"What do you want? Money? A villa in Malibu? a tesla?"

I look at him silently, anger radiating off me.

"Did you even love me?" I whisper.

"What?"

I thrust the divorce papers in his face.

"Did you even love me, Zachary? Well, I loved you, I don't even want this divorce. I forgave you, why are you doing this to me?"

"I don't love you okay? I feel trapped in this marriage. My mother doesn't even like you. No one likes you, look if you're gonna be like this, I'll leave this house. I can't with your bullshit right now." He exclaims.

"Just sign the damn papers and leave. I have a life to live." My heart shatters into a million pieces. I couldn't believe the man I loved and trusted could say something so heartless. I take the pen and slowly sign the papers. My hands shaking as I hand them back to him.

"Congratulations, you're a free woman now." He walks out without a second glance.

With tears streaming down my face as I sit on the floor. I couldn't believe it was over, just like that. As I sit in my empty room, I can't help but think, what did I do wrong? Was I not enough for him? Why did he have to cheat? Why did he have to break my heart? But as I wipe away my tears and pick myself up, I realize that it wasn't my fault. I loved him with all my heart and gave him my everything, but he chose to betray me.

Three years. Three fucking years. Gone down the drain.

He walks back into the room "Also you need to be out of this house before the end of today my mother's coming and she won't want to see you here" and with that, he storms out of the house.

I spend all afternoon packing. Unfortunately for me, Zachary's mother catches me just before I was about to leave. She gives me that ever-cold expression.

"Thank Goodness, it's about time. it's a wonder how he stuck with you these past years, you seedless sow. " She continued to rain more colorful insults on me till I left the house.

"If you love your son so much why don't you marry him," I say and with that, I walk out of the house.

The driver drove me to the airport where I boarded the plane to New York where my parents lived.

Upon arrival, I wait at the side of the road for a taxi. It was cold and my body felt numb. I wasn't able to eat the food served on the plane. Everything felt bleak.

My phone rings. I look at the caller ID. It was my mother. I look at it in surprise, she rarely called me.

"Mom?" My voice cracks a bit.

"What's wrong sweetie, your voice sounds off?"

"Mom I-" My voice cracks and I break down in tears.

My mom consoles me and I tell her everything.

"Honey, where are you?" I tell her I was at the airport. "Just stay right there baby, someone is coming to pick you up."

"Who?"

"A friend, don't worry just stay right there."

She hangs up.

Thirty minutes later, it felt like I would faint. I was so hungry, I hadn't eaten anything since last night.

A black car suddenly stops right in front of me. I look straight ahead and avoided looking at the car. I reach into my bag for the pepper spray. Just in case.

The driver's door suddenly opens and a man in uniform emerges out of the car.

"Miss Rivera?" He tips his hat.

I had not been called my maiden name in years.

"Yes?". I say cautiously.

He opens the back door and beckons me inside.

I look at him suspiciously. I hope he didn't think I was going to enter inside. I didn't even know who he was. He might as well kidnap me. I don't budge from where I was. I hope I won't have to use the pepper spray in my bag.

"Don't be afraid Miss Rivera, your mother sent us." My eyes widen and l reluctantly enter the car.

The car had a spicy spent and the inside was cool and so clean, I felt like I shouldn't enter it.

A man was seated at the back. He was dressed in all black, dark hair slicked back. a small stubble graced his sculpted jaw making him look like one of the models on the cover of a Calvin Klein magazine. He was very attractive.

I realized the strong spicy scent emanated from him.

He takes out a cigarette from his pocket and lights it, the smoke filling the car.

"I'm Giovanni D'Errico, your mother sent me to you".

Giovanni D'Errico. I've heard of him. Probably everyone had. He was the CEO of D'errico Cars. The family-owned business that dealt in cars, with a net worth of over a hundred billion, he was easily the second richest man in the world.

It was one thing to see the second richest man in the world in the flesh, it's another thing to be sitting close to him in his car while watching him smoke a cigarette.

"How do you know my mother?" I ask.

"I'm friends with your parents." He replies in a languid voice.

How does he know my parents?!

"How is my father?" I ask slowly. I hadn't seen him in a long time. The last time we spoke it had ended with me calling him a terrible father.

He takes a long drag.

"I'm afraid your father died last year, Miss Rivera."

My heart sinks.

W-what do you mean h-he's dead?" My voice becomes shaky.

"He died of a stroke last year, your mother tried to reach you but all communications from your end had been cut off."

Although the air conditioner was on, the atmosphere felt very hot. My father had died and I didn't know.

When I married Zachary that was when the relationship between me and my parents became strained. Two years into my marriage, we stopped communicating with each other all together but I didn't think it was bad enough for me not to have been told of his passing.

"Before your father died he wrote his will in your name and left you with a trillion-dollar fortune."

I look at him incredulously.