Page 19 of I’m Already Gone

I spun away, trying to pull myself together, taking another ragged breath. When I faced him again, I planted my hands on my hips. “How is it that you can remember every minor detail for your clients, every scheduled meeting, but when it comes to your actual family, you can’t remember the most important dates? You promised me.” My voice cracked painfully on the last word.

“Lily.” He took a desperate step forward, hands outstretched as if reaching for a lifeline, but I recoiled, taking a sharp step back.

“It’s not like that. I swear, I am so sorry. It’s not an excuse, but we were working on⁠—”

I snapped my hand up, stopping him mid-sentence. “I’m not interested in hearing your excuses, Ethan. Because that’s all they are. Excuses. You have been slowly dismantling this marriage for months. You’ve been absent.”

His blue eyes flooded, but I pushed on. He needed to hear this. He needed to understand what he was doing to his family.

“Have you ever stopped to consider what your constant coldness has been doing to me? To your children? Are we not good enough for you anymore?”

His tears finally broke free, tracing paths through the exhaustion on his face. “Of course you are, Lily,” he croaked, wiping his face roughly with the back of his hand. “I’m trying to provide for you and the kids, make sure you’re taken care of.”

“Ethan, you run a multi-billion-dollar corporation. You. Can. Delegate. But you choose not to.”

His face flushed crimson. “You know how much I sacrificed to get to this point!”

“Yes! Your family!” I countered.

He reared back at my admission, but I wasn’t waiting around to hear what he thought.

Without another word, I turned on my heel and walked out of his office, not bothering to close the door.

He didn’t follow.

But it didn’t matter.

I was already gone.

Ethan

“FUCK!” I roared, slamming my fist down on the polished mahogany.

Lily didn’t even look back when she walked out of my office. I should’ve followed her, but there was nothing I could’ve said that would have made it better.

I fucked up big time.

I missed her birthday dinner. The dinner I had planned after I swore I would be more present and attentive. I had made a promise. A goddamn promise.

I didn’t deserve Lily’s forgiveness or the kids’. I could come up with a million excuses—the deadline, the new clients—but I wouldn’t. Because they were all excuses wrapped in business jargon.

It was supposed to be the last push. Finish the latest project, and we would be set; then I’d have time. But one project became two, and two became three, and now it’s just a never-ending fucking treadmill of excuses.

To make things worse, she thought something was going on with Emma. Jesus Christ. I had zero romantic interest in my assistant. Zero. And what was I doing tonight? I was sitting across from her, eating Chinese takeout on my wife’s birthday, who was looking so fucking beautiful.

God, the look on her face. That cold, hard disgust mixed with pure disappointment. She looked at me like she’d never actually known who I was. Like I was a stranger.

I was the goddamn Husband of the Year.

Lily

Ethan and I still hadn’t had a proper conversation about my birthday dinner incident. I was too pissed off and drained to sit through another round of excuses. I needed a day to detox from his bullshit, to cool down before I said something I’d regret. So, he spent the night in the guest room. But this cannot go on. We have to talk about this, whether we want to or not.

Our relationship has felt like it’s spiraling downward, and I was at a loss for how to bring us back from this low point.

We haven’t been intimate for months. I missed his laugh, the subtle touches, the playful smacks on my butt as he walked by me. There were no more kisses before he left for work or when he came home, and none in between. I couldn’t help but wonder if he found me unattractive. I was no longer a size six, but I had embraced my curves that came from being a mom of two.

The key turned in the lock. My shoulders stiffened, snapping me from my thoughts. The door creaked open, and there stood Ethan, my husband. He was so handsome, even with his messy hair and disheveled clothes. But that ever-present knot in my stomach tightened. This conversation was happening.