“I’m sorry you had to see that.”
But he wasn’t sorry for doing it? a voice demanded in the back of my mind.
“Would you be sorry if you hadn’t got caught?” I asked, wandering farther into the apartment. “Would you still be sleeping with her while I wondered why our sex life dropped off the face of this earth?”
He blanched. “You know I’ve been under a lot of stress at work.” He began. “Dad has been really putting the pressure on me to step up to the helm.”
I held up my hand. “Yes, I know your work schedule is very demanding. Yet you still found time to fit in some quality time with your secretary. Why? Why not me?”
“It’s over,” he said.
“You fired her?” I asked, shock rippling through me. Maybe he really was sorry.
“You know I can’t do that!” he said. “She’d sue the company for sexual harassment. Do you know what something like that could do to the company’s reputation?”
How convenient. He was forced to keep her on. Forced to continue working with her. “It must be horrible to worry about what people will say when they learn what a cheating scumbag you are.”
A muscle ticked in the side of his jaw. “Natalie,” he warned.
“I had Jack draw up separation papers.” I pulled the stack of documents out of the envelope and then fished a pen out of my purse. “It’s marked where we need to sign.”
“You can’t be serious.” He actually sounded surprised.
I raised an eyebrow. “What did you think would happen?”
“This is just extreme!” he said, flinging his hands up in the air. “I didn’t say anything when you packed your bags and left. I didn’t say anything when you moved into Claire’s apartment. I didn’t even give you a hard time when you refused to answer any of my phone calls.”
“What the hell do you want? A medal?” My insides began to boil. He acted like I was the one being unreasonable. Did I know him at all?
“But I’m drawing the line at separation papers, Talie,” he said, like he was the lord of all.
“You can draw as many lines as you want.” I sniffed. “After you sign these papers. I’ll even loan you my pen.”
He made an angry growl in the back of his throat. “I am not signing those papers.”
“Do you really want to make this harder than it needs to be?”
“Do you?” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Me?” I choked. “You are the one who cheated. You are the one with no regard for my feelings. You are responsible for this, not me.”
“So I had a little fling. A tryst. It meant nothing to me.”
“It’s not nothing to me!” I shouted.
“The neighbors…” He reminded me.
I rolled my eyes. “That’s all you care about, isn’t it? Appearances. You care more about how a divorce will look than actually losing me.”
“That’s not true.”
“It isn’t?”
He sighed like I was being a petulant child.
“Then why haven’t you apologized for what you did. Why haven’t you told me that you love me and only me? Why haven’t you begged me for forgiveness?”
“I tried calling you.”
“You knew where I was. Did you come by? Did you make an attempt to seek me out?” I pressed, emotion and anger welling up inside me until I felt overfull and about to burst. “You didn’t because you don’t care enough.”
“I was giving you time to cool off. To see reason.”
“And what ‘reason’ is that?”
“We are not getting a separation.”
“You’re right. I want a divorce.”
The words fell between us like an iron anvil. I couldn’t help but notice the shock deep in his eyes. Was my reaction really that surprising?
“You can’t divorce me,” he said haughtily. He might have well said, Don’t you know who I am?
I didn’t bother to reply. Instead, I went over to the dining room table where I laid the papers out and proceeded to sign all the places marked with a yellow arrow. When I was finished, I looked up.
“Talie,” he said, coming forward. He took the pen out of my hand and laid it on the table. He took me by the shoulders and turned me to face him. “I’m sorry that I hurt you.”
“You did,” I admitted, my voice low.
“I know, baby,” he said, drawing me into his chest and wrapping his arms around me. “We can get through this. We can put it behind us and move on. Don’t you want to have a baby?”
He knew I wanted a baby. I wanted one passionately.
“Everything’s changed,” I said, my voice muffled against him.
He made a sound of disagreement and stroked the back of my head. I suddenly felt like I was a dog being patted on the head. “Nothing’s changed if you don’t want it to be. Tear up these papers. Come home. I’ll take over the company and we can start a family. You’ll be a mother just like you always dreamed.”
Blake palmed my face and pulled me back to look into my eyes. I couldn’t stop the tears from welling up inside them. He was offering me everything we planned. Everything I wanted.
“What about her?” I said bitterly.
“Don’t think about her,” he said gently. “You’re my wife. You’re the one I chose to marry. The one I chose to give my name.”
He made it sound like I won the lottery or something. What about love?
“Once the baby comes, you’ll be so busy you won’t even have time to think of her. I’ll be discreet and—”
I jerked like he slapped me. He might as well have the way his words stung. “You’ll be discreet?” I said, yanking myself away.
He sighed wearily.
“You mean to tell me you have no intention of not sleeping around on me?”
I always thought of Blake as a smart man… but I’d never heard anything more asinine come out of anyone’s mouth. Ever.
“I’m a successful, powerful man,” he replied. “I have needs that you just can’t fulfill.”
Oh. My. God.
Did he really just say that? Out loud? To my face?
I was speechless. Completely and utterly speechless.
He must have taken my silence for compliance because the idiot shoved his foot even farther down his throat. “But, baby, you are my only wife. The mother to my unborn children. It will be you at my side for all my achievements, your name splashed across the business pages in connection to mine. You’ll never want for anything.”