1. Brown file

KIMBERLY

~•~

“Are you sure I shouldn’t pack up the food and refrigerate them?” My maid asked me as she stared at me sympathetically while I sat at the dining table waiting for my husband to return.

My eyes lingered on the wall clock as I responded. “Don’t worry about it, he’ll be back soon.” It was already past eleven and I had been waiting for him since nine o’clock.

“You’ve said that for the past three nights, ma.” Caro reminded me, her voice laced with sympathy. Her words hurt but it was true. I couldn’t even scold her for it. She was only concerned about me.

I took a deep breath, then another one, and another

before responding. “You can go to bed, he promised to be back for dinner,” I told her, my voice cracking slightly. “I’ll wait a little bit longer.”

“Okay, ma.”

With that, she retreated to her room, leaving me alone with the variety of delicious food that we had spent our entire day preparing.

Jackson and I didn’t have the perfect marriage because we didn’t get married because of love but because of a contract between our families.

But throughout our three years together, he treated me with respect and I had grown to love him even if he didn’t feel the same way about me. He was a good man. He was handsome and caring. It would be rather weird if I didn’t fall for him.

One of the other reasons he had gotten married to me was to give him an heir but throughout the years, I couldn’t conceive a child.

We had gone to the best doctors in New York as well as some other countries to figure out what the problem was, but they all claimed there was nothing wrong with us and we just needed to be patient. I didn’t mind being patient but there was pressure from his family.

They didn’t make it easy for me and his mother didn’t forget to remind me of how much a failure I was because I hadn’t given birth to a child after three years of getting married to her son.

My eyes wandered to the clock again and I realized it was midnight. It was making it the fifth night in a row that Jackson had missed dinner.

We always had dinner together but everything changed about five days ago. He claimed he was busy with work but when I called his office one day and asked to speak with him, they told me he had left earlier.

He was hiding something and I had no idea what it was. I could only hope it was just a temporary phase and things would go back to normal soon.

Frustrated, I stood up from the chair and packed up the food, before taking them to the refrigerator. When I was done, I went back upstairs to my room and drifted off to sleep with tears in my eyes.

The sound of the creaking door woke me up the next morning. I looked up to see Jackson walking inside and I sat upright on the bed.

“You spent the night outside?” I asked with a puzzled look on my face. He had been missing dinners but he never spent the night outside.

Jackson didn’t say anything to me. He just walked to the closet and took his tie off. I watched him as he undressed, taking off his work clothes.

He was just as handsome as I remembered from the first time I met him. His charming brown eyes and ruffled brown hair made me even more attracted to him.

However, the sudden appearance of the brown envelope that landed on the bed, close to my leg, jolted me out of my reverie.

“What is this?” I asked as I slowly stretched my hand to take the envelope lying on the bed. “Jackson?” I prompted when he didn’t say anything.

“I can’t continue lying to you anymore, Paige is back in my life.” He turned to look at me. “I’ve already signed the divorce papers, it’s just your signature left to finalize the divorce.”

Divorce papers? My heart dropped to my chest and I felt a painful lump form in my throat. I had never met Paige but I had heard about her. She was engaged to Jackson before I even met him but they ended up going their separate ways for reasons best known to them.

I knew he loved her. I just didn’t know she’d ever come back and ruin our marriage.

I had no idea why they didn’t go through with their marriage plans and Jackson found a way to change the topic whenever I asked him about it. After a while, I gave up on trying to figure out the reason they went their separate ways.

Now she was back in his life and he wanted to end our marriage? “Jackson, please, you need to think this through. You can’t divorce me.” I pleaded, my voice cracking slightly.

Jackson took a deep breath and looked at me. “We both know we didn’t marry for love.” He began and was about to continue when I interrupted him.

“But I loved you, I still love you,” I argued, making my way out of the bed. “Please, you don’t have to do this.”

He cleared his throat, speaking in a soft and firm tone. “Kimberly, I have treated you with respect all these years even if I was in love with someone else. You were fully aware before you agreed to get married to me.” My chest tightened as he continued. “Let’s just come to an agreement and go our separate ways without any drama.”

He was right. He treated me with respect but I never imagined we would be going our separate ways. I always had hope that he would eventually fall in love with me one day. I had planned to spend the rest of my life with him. I was content with the way he treated me even if I hoped for more.

But I guess my hopes were now shattered as I looked at the envelope he had thrown at me.

Tears rolled down my eyes as I thought about what my life would be without him. “No, I can’t sign this. I am not going to sign it!” I declared, storming out of the room.

Jackson trailed behind me. “The woman I love is back, and she returned with my child.” I froze and turned to him as I heard those words. “I have no use for you anymore! Just sign the damn papers, so we would go our separate ways.”

I dropped to the floor and hugged my knees as tears rolled down my face. It was like a slap in the face being reminded of the fact that I couldn’t give him a child.

What did he mean by Paige returning with his child? He never mentioned anything about him and Paige having a baby together.

It felt like my whole world was crashing right before my eyes and I couldn’t do anything about it. Jackson went back into the room and returned a few seconds later with the envelope and a pen.

“No amount of tears would make me change my mind.” He threw the envelope and pen on my body. “Sign the papers and let’s get this over with.”

It was like he had turned into a different person. I couldn’t recognize him. The man I thought I knew was gone, replaced by a stranger devoid of empathy.