Chapter 5: Moving On

Flora did not have many friends apart from Eva, and certainly none with husbands who had cheated on them with their sisters. But even if she had, she was sure no wife who had been so betrayed would be doing what she was doing right now; going through the social media pages of the mistress.

She had not meant to look up anything related to Olivia, or even Henry. Of a truth, Flora was bored. After she and Eva had spoken, Eva had formally informed Henry’s lawyers that they were rejecting the terms of the divorce that he had offered. Instead, she was now demanding half of Henry’s shares in his company, Sunstraight Manufacturing Ltd.

Amazingly, she was going to get all this plus all the other assets, including the houses and cars. Flora had been afraid at first, that this would make Henry blow up and recruit his mother and sisters against her but Eva had told her that things were moving quite smoothly. It turned out that all he was really concerned about was that Flora would go to the paparazzi and ruin the perfect goody two shoes image that he presented to the public.

Flora didn’t know what she would do without her firecracker of a friend. Deep down, she knew she would not have had the courage to demand all that Eva was insisting she deserved, even if she was as angry as when she had caught Olivia and Henry together.

When all this was over, perhaps she and Eva would take a solo trip to some tourist country and enjoy themselves without all this drama chasing her. She’d finally splurge and buy Eva her dream bag that’d been in her online shopping cart for the last five months.

But before that would happen, all she could do for now was wait and wonder as Eva concluded negotiations and used her lawyer superpowers.

In her defense, she had tried to occupy her mind before succumbing to the temptation to torture herself. First Flora had cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, and put all her all into scrubbing the pans and pots in the kitchen. Next, she had tried to watch a new action movie and fallen asleep on the couch before she had even reached the middle.

Now, she was trying hard to remember Olivia’s Gram username as she opened the app.

Finding her step-sister was not a hard task, much to Flora’s surprise. It turned out Olivia was some kind of upcoming social media influencer, with over twenty thousand followers and counting. Ironically, her username was your-pinkest-angel. Flora could not stop her laughter as she saw the bow and pink heart emojis next to the words. If only her followers knew she was certainly no angel.

While the most recent images loaded, she perused the older ones, scoffing at the skimpy outfits that left nothing to the imagination. There was nothing but silhouetted shower pics that revealed nothing yet everything at the same time and bikini shots with her behind pushed at the camera. A few pics showed her sticking her tongue out at the camera at several high-profile locations. It seemed she liked to show off her wealth to her followers. Knowing Olivia, she probably giggled at the thought of them envying her with each photo she uploaded. Olivia was no sultry siren in her twenties trying to make a splash. She was seven years older than Flora, landing her firmly in her early thirties.

When she got tired of scrolling through provocative photos that encouraged illicit private messages, Flora scrolled back up, ready to exit the page. The top photos had loaded and her heart leapt into her throat. At the very top of her profile, Olivia had pinned an image with her hand entwined with a man’s hand, squeezing tight. On her finger was a huge garnet ring glinting in the sunlight. The photo was cropped out to remove the man’s face and part of the body but Flora knew without a doubt that it was Henry.

Loathing roiled in her; the illegitimate couple hadn’t even waited until she and Henry were properly divorced!

She clicked on the photo and scrolled down to the caption. It read, “making things official!! My pinkest angels, meet the #loveofmylife!!”

The location tag glinted on the screen. It was the Severas Museum of Grand Illusions; the very same place Henry had gotten on one knee to propose to her. It was a place Flora had once treasured, because he had professed his everlasting love for her in the presence of tons of strangers and shown her how much he loved and valued her. What scum he was. Even in this, Henry couldn’t be original.

Flora exited the page and waited to recognize a pang in her heart, some ache that would let her know that seeing this public confirmation of Henry’s infidelity to her had affected her. Oddly, she was calm as she dropped her phone on the bed. There was no more love for Henry inside her, let alone respect. Maybe she would have had some regard for him if he had owned up to his actions like a real man and a proper human being instead of shocking her with divorce papers and trying to blame her ‘lack of love’ for their ruined marriage. All she felt was a searing disgust, one so strong she could have thrown up. Henry and Olivia deserved each other but she wouldn’t let their union be peaceful.

Suddenly, the bedroom door swung open and Eva barged in, a wild excited look in her jade eyes. “You’ll never guess it.”

Flora did not try to fight the smile that grew on her face. “I’m free?”

“Free as a bird Flo!”

Her friend rushed to hug her and Flora held her tight. “Oh my God Eva. It was almost too easy.”

“You should have seen the little weasel,” Eva scoffed, rolling her eyes. “He didn’t even care about the demands, he just kept asking about the waiver and insisting you don’t go to the press. He’s awful.”

Flora laughed heartily. “Who cares? I’m free of him!”

As they hugged, Eva’s eyes caught sight of Flora’s upturned phone and she snatched it up, noting Olivia’s username in the history of the search bar. “Oh Flora…”

“I was bored,” Flora said, a little too quickly. Eva’s eyes narrowed. “I mean, a little curiosity doesn’t mean anything.”

“You don’t still love him, do you?”

Flora gasped in disbelief. “Of course not, Eva. Come on, that’s not something you should have to ask.”

“If you say so,” Eva said as she laid the phone back on the bed, face down this time. Flora hated how much the cheer in her voice had reduced. “Look, for now, you and Henry are separated but the court wants to be sure this is something both of you want and are sure of so it’s giving you a grace period.”

“Grace period?” Flora echoed, “We’re not divorced yet?”

Eva sat down on the bed and patted the flowery bed sheet. “Think of this as the first stage,” she said. “You’re well into being separated forever, but the court is giving you a chance to reconcile if you want to. If you get back together with Henry during this time, then the whole process will never be finalized. All of this would have been for nothing.”

“Fat chance,” Flora hissed.

“You’re sure Flo?”

“Oh come on Eva. Just because I was stalking Olivia’s page doesn’t mean I want to jump the bones of the man who treated me like nothing. Please, I’m sure.”

Eva nodded approvingly, but her gaze lingered on Flora’s phone. “Good. Let’s keep it that way.”