Chapter 6: Home

Hunter tossed the document back on the table, and laughed bitterly,

“Not a single penny? Who does she suddenly think she is?”

Well, did she think he was going to divorce her just because she asked for it, she was joking?

……..

When Joseph came in, Hunter was standing in front of his glass walls overlooking the city, a cigarette in his hand and the divorce agreement burning in the trash can. Joe’s heart skipped, left him, this was a dangerous time to approach Hunter, but if he didn’t let him know about the meeting, he might as well lose his job.

“Sir, the meeting has already commenced, and the directors are waiting.”

Hunter turned, and glared at Joe with his dark eyes, so cold they sent chills down Joe’s spine, but instead of yelling at him or flinging a book or anything he could lay his hands on at Joe, Hunter simply snarled at him,

“I’ll be with them shortly.”

Frowning, he broke the cigarette, threw it into the same trash can where the remains of the divorce agreement were still burning, and watched everything turn to ash before he walked past Joe out of the office. Joe followed behind him, thanking God for saving him from whatever had made Hunter angry. He felt like cursing Emily.

……….

Emily had taken barely 8 minutes to discuss with Hunter, but when she came out, her heart was still slightly beating. But her heart was calmer than she had imagined it would be. At last, Hunter had pushed her to the point where she no longer cared about what would happen.

Outside Dell Wares Corp., the sun was shining brightly and when Emily looked up, she felt free, as though a heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulder. And it truly had. She no longer had to bear the burden of being Mrs. Hunter. Not for long anyway.

Now she understood what Dave meant when he told her to wrap everything up as soon as possible. The earlier she severed whatever ties she had with the Thorne’s, the quicker she could be at peace.

Dave was speaking on the phone when Emily walked to the car. He quickly opened the door, and she slid into the front seat beside him, gesturing at him to continue. Instead, she winds the seat of the car down and closed her eyes, relishing the quiet and the coolness of the car. Then she began to drift off to sleep, hearing Dave say,

“Yes sir, she is with me.” But she was so tired that she didn’t care enough to be curious about who he was talking too.

Two minutes later, however, Dave was tapping her and handing her the cell phone. Emily looked at him and the phone before mouthing,

“Who’s on the line?”

“Your father,” Dave responded, loudly.

Emily froze for a moment before she reached her hands out to collect the phone.

“Dad?”

“Lex, you’ve been away for more than three years. Isn’t it time for you to come back home? Don’t you think you’ve punished us enough?” Her father answered. He had called her Lex. A short form of her middle name which she hardly used. 

The day before yesterday, when Hunter’s sister slapped her and his mother ordered her to kneel, Emily did not cry, nor did she cry when she put down the divorce agreement and turned to leave Hunter’s office. But now, listening to her father speak on the phone, hearing him ask her to come back home after all these years, Emily began to cry.

Three years ago, when she told her parents she had found somebody she was going to marry, they vehemently opposed her decision. But, young and in love are a bad combination, so Emily had run away from home, to take up a new identity with Hunter. Then, she had been so sure that Hunter had gotten married to her because he was in love with her. But it had taken three years for her to know how wrong she had been. And how stupid.

Hunter had never loved her. Emily had heard of marriages because of love or family, but it turns out that, a man couldn’t just marry a woman without loving her or because of his family. He could also marry a woman who loved him deeply, just for another woman’s sake and consciously get her into their love and hatred games.

Hunter had always loved Carla. However, Carla was married to Hunter’s brother, so they couldn’t be together, publicly at least. Instead, Hunter had gotten married, so Emily, as the so-called Mrs Thorne, had been just a cover for them.

It was stupid that Emily had betrayed her family just to run to Hunter. Her father had been so angry that his last words to her had been,

“If you leave this house and get married to that guy, consider every tie between you and this family forever severed.”

And now her father was at the other end of the phone line, asking her to come home.

Emily burst into tears. She was scared that her father, on the other end of the phone would hear her cry, so she muffled her crying sounds. Her shoulders instead were trembling badly with each sob.

“Lex…”

Dave’s heart ached as he watched Emily cry. Ever since they were children, they had known each other, and he had never seen Emily, the first daughter of the Stephen’s cry like this. And it was all because of that bastard, Hunter!