CHAPTER 2

                Andrew released her arm from his grasp and nervously ran his fingers through his hair, further disheveling it. He couldn't lose her… Not now when he was about to do the fusion with "Grayson  Tech". Although there were no longer the same feelings between Michelle and himself, the same love that they had at the beginning of their relationship, Andrew still needed her, needed her strength. Well, she wasn’t the perfect wife or the perfect mother, she never was, but he grew accustomed to her mood swings. Michelle could be a woman full of love and tenderness at first and change within seconds, becoming extremely cruel and aggressive. The way she looked at him, the tone in which she just spoke to him, the arrogance she was showing at this moment, was making Andrew go out of his mind with rage. He had to try to stay calm before doing something he would regret later.

                  That evening, they had a nice dinner and after saying goodnight to Isabelle, their daughter, he went to the library to take a last look at the contract his lawyer had prepared together with Christopher Grayson’s lawyer. They both had to sign the contract in the morning. Andrew and Chris had worked on several projects together over the past years and "Grayson Tech" was a well-known company in San Francisco and not only. Their projects had changed several cities in the United States and beyond borders. His company needed the capital that Grayson was bringing. The future of every single person who worked for him, of his own family, especially the future of his beloved daughter, depended on this merger between the two companies. That's why he had worked so hard lately, that's why he was more at work than at home, with his family. He had to make this sacrifice in order to keep everybody safe.

"Don't do it, Michelle!" he whispered, leaving her arm. “Don't leave right now! Let me close this contract with Christopher and then I promise you that everything will change! We will be happy again, I promise! I will do anything to bring back the smile on your lips... We will do couples therapy if you want...”

“The therapy won't do us any good, Andrew. The fact is that I can no longer stand this life in this house that looks more and more like a mausoleum... Everything is so... dull, so uneventful. Even you, Andrew, you become so boring. I really can’t go on like this,” Michelle said rubbing her arm while she was walking away from him.

"Since you've been telling me for almost an hour you don't want to be with me anymore, that you want to leave, tell me where the hell you’ll be going? Michelle, you've never worked a day in your whole life. Do you have a place to stay?” he asked in a sarcastic tone.

"I don't know this yet, but it's not your problem, Andrew! You know that I'm always landing on my feet, I was raised this way. All I want from you is to grant me the divorce and I want it as soon as possible! I’m eager to start living my life to the fullest.”

“The divorce?!... This is unexpected and very important news... You can't tell me that you want the divorce like is something you're wiping out from your to-do list...”

“Wow… what matters to you right now is how I'm telling you that I want the divorce?! My first instinct was to leave you a note and this way warned you about my future plans," she replied shaking her head, completely perplexed. “I should’ve listened to my instincts and save myself all this drama. How I regret not doing it. It would’ve spared me all this useless yelling.”

“Think a little before making this huge mistake, Michelle. We are not a couple of high-school kids involved in a simple relationship,” Andrew said and approached her again trying to convince Michelle to reconsider her decision. “This is our life, almost sixteen years spent together. We are husband and wife, we have a daughter together, we are a family. Come on, Michelle, you know I love you!”

“You can say anything you want, but I don't love you anymore, Andrew. To be honest with you, I stopped loving you a long time ago, only that you've never had the time to see it,” she replied and for the first time, she spoke to Andrew in a soft tone, without yelling. “I loathe the life in this house! I feel like I'm in prison, I miss the air. Accept it and move on, Andrew! Because I won't stay here one second longer!”

“Please, stay! You'll see, together we'll get through this,” Andrew begged Michelle trying to hug her.

           Michelle pushed him away and took a few steps back away from him.

“You didn’t hear a single word I’ve said, didn't you? What am I saying?... You have never been able to really listen to me. You are so pathetic! Read my lips, honey! I AM LEAVING YOU. For months, I actually had one foot out of the door. You pushed me to do it, with your ways, with your ideas about me being a mother and a wife only. Guess what? I'm also a woman! I’m a young and beautiful woman, Andrew! I still want to live my life to the fullest, to feel desire and lust. Tonight, I will disappear from your life forever. Don't look for me! Forget that you've ever met me!”

“Wait, please! I apologize if I didn't pay enough attention to what was happening to you. I know that lately I've been taken by the company, but you know what this merger means to me, to all of us. Come on, Michelle... You know that this is who I am, that sometimes I built this kind of a wall around me to keep the world away. I’m not this outspoken person when it comes to our private life, you knew it from the first day we've met. You agreed to marry me knowing this about me.”

"I made a huge mistake, I’m not the first woman who made a bad choice," she added. “But at least I can do something about it now. So, it's time to put an end to this charade of a marriage that we have. At least, now you'll have more time for your real... wife, your beloved company.”

           She turned and walked towards the stairs. Michelle was smiling, extremely pleased with how things had gone. Knowing Andrew, she had expected to see him angrier. But it turned out that in the end he put his mind at ease and accepted to divorce her. She couldn't wait to leave this house that lately had become her grave and go back to having fun with her friends. In fact, she will call Teresa, her best friend, and ask her to give her number to one of those handsome men who were attending her parties.

"And Belle?" Andrew’s question brought her back to what was happening between them at that moment. “Have you ever thought about the best interest of our daughter when you started thinking about your own... freedom? Do you want to wake her up now, in the middle of the night, and force her to follow you who knows where?”

"No, I don't want Isabelle. I don't care about bringing her along with me. But that's all right with me though, she has always been more your daughter than mine. She always took your defenses and always judged me. Isabelle should stay here with you. I don't need a burden like her in my life. She'll be better off here, with her sweet daddy,” Michelle replied in a cold tone.

               Still hiding in the darkness of the corridor, Isabelle began to cry softly, without making herself be heard by her parents. It wasn’t true that she didn’t love her mother. She loved both of them very much, only that, unlike with Andrew, with her mother she didn't have too much in common. Among other things, her mother was never present when she needed her. She never had the same relationship with Michelle as her friends were having with theirs. There had never been a good relationship between the two of them, mainly because they were very different and because Isabelle was never interested in things that appealed to girls of her age: shopping, partying, and boys. She liked to study and to read, which was why she spent a lot of time in the library. Hearing the coldness in her voice, the way her mother was thinking about her, Isabelle felt deeply hurt. Hearing her mother rejecting her for the umpteenth time, tormented her heart.