Chapter 7
I didn’t go home. Instead, I went to see my legal team and had them draft up some papers.
“Ms. Sinclair, are you planning to file for divorce?”
I laughed. “What do you think I’d get if I divorced him right now?”
They went quiet.
The Whitmore family was going downhill fast. Even with my uncles backing me up, they were stuck overseas and couldn’t do much from there.
I needed to use Marcus’s guilt right now to get the most out of this.
Since they were really such “innocent” lovebirds and all.
Might as well not let money mess up their beautiful romance.
Besides, love conquers all, right?
Running a company is such a pain in the ass-I’ll just handle that myself.
Sure enough, Marcus came home that night.
He was all slouched over, couldn’t even look at me.
“I’m sorry.”
Ugh, this damn line again?!
I smiled. “Marcus, is that the only thing you can say to me anymore?”
He shook his head, then nodded, then shook his head again-just wouldn’t talk.
I poured myself some water and drank it slowly.
“You know what, Marcus? I always thought we’d make it to the end.
“Before we got married, I knew you’d dated other people, but I also knew that’s normal in our world. The night you proposed, I really thought you wanted to spend your life with me.”
I put the glass down and tears hit the table.
Maybe because I don’t cry in front of people much, Marcus just froze.
Like he suddenly remembered something, he rushed over and grabbed me.
He’d come back in such a hurry, I could still smell another woman’s perfume on his collar.
I frowned but didn’t say anything.
“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry… You know I love you most, Isabella, babe…”
Marcus hugged me tighter, like he wanted to melt me into his bones.
But hearing that, I just said calmly, “Marcus, do you really love me?”
Marcus let go, looking all frantic and hurt.
“How can you even ask me that? If I don’t love you, who would I love?”
I finally smiled, but tears kept falling like a broken pearl necklace.
“You do love me-for a year, a month, a day.”
Hell, even for this one hour, you can love me deep as any guy ever could.”
“But after that hour’s up, you don’t love me anymore.”
“You’ll go love someone else. Then someone else after that.”
“Your love’s real generous. And it truly hurts like hell.”
He pleaded: “Isabella…”
I cut him off.
“Stop pretending, Marcus. You know damn well, our marriage was just convenient.”
1 looked him right in the eye. “Just like us.”
Marcus stepped back like I’d hit him, shaking his head like he couldn’t handle it.
“Isabella, how can you twist my feelings like that? You know how much I love you.”
“Amanda’s been through enough shit already. What’s wrong with me helping her out a little?”
“She’s so young and she’s working at a place like that. Could you handle that if it was you?”
He kept pushing.
“All I’m trying to do is deal with some of my guilt.”
“You have any idea how I feel knowing that while we were exchanging rings in that beautiful church, she was getting yelled at by her boss and groped by creeps?”
Marcus paused for a second.
“Isabella, trust me-you being my wife will never change. But I can’t just stand by and watch Amanda struggle under someone else.”
“…So you came back here to tell me you’re gonna take care of her?”
Marcus went quiet for a moment, then gave me those same three words.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked down calmly and pulled out some papers.
“If you want to make me feel better, sign this.”
He was about to say no, but then he saw it was just some stock transfers and property stuff, and he looked relieved.
For him, anything that could be fixed with money wasn’t a real problem.
But I was gonna make sure he took a huge fall on this one.
