Page 33 of The Husband I Left

I have to take several great, gulping breaths of air before I can respond.

“Oh, Frederick,” I finally say, wiping tears off my cheeks with the back of my hands. “Just let them finish the song.”

Chapter 10

Genny

The penthouse feels too big and too silent as I wait for my husband to come home. I’ve spent the last few hours packing my essentials, sorting through the life I shared with Oliver. It’s amazing how little of it actually matters to me now. Most of the clothes in my closet were Nancy’s idea of what a Sinclair wife should wear, or gifts from Oliver. All of it is being left behind. The jewelry Oliver gave me feels tainted, especially knowing that he’s given Victoria jewelry too. I’ve left it all laid out on the bed, a glittering monument to our marriage.

With nothing left to do but wait, I take a seat on the couch. On the floor next to me is a small shopping bag containing my secret weapons for the conversation that lies ahead. Everything else I’m taking fits into a suitcase and an overnight bag, and both of those wait by the elevator door. I run my fingers along the edge of the couch, feeling the expensive fabric beneath my skin, trying to memorize the sensation. After today, I doubt I’ll ever sit on furniture this expensive again, live in such luxury again. But that’s fine. I’d rather sleep on a mattress on the floor than spend another night under Oliver’s roof.

After Frederick finally cleared the men out of the dining room, Nancy had turned around and walked out without a word to anyone. Frederick followed her, murmuring something too low for me to catch, and I heard a door close somewhere down the hall a moment later.

The party was kind of over after that. The guests murmured their goodbyes to no one in particular and streamed out the door, their faces still shell shocked. Kylie and Harlow refused to leave until I promised to call them later and tell them everything that happened next. Finally, they were gone. Which left Oliver and me alone.

He didn’t seem to know what to say. He didn’t even look at me , just stared blankly into the empty room, his hands gripping the back of his chair.

“You should leave,” he said finally. “I’ll have the car brought around to take you home.”

So here I am at what is, for the moment at least, home. The elevator dings, and my heart leaps into my throat. I hear his footsteps, slow and heavy, nothing like his usual confident stride. The door opens, and Oliver walks into the room. Oliver Sinclair has never once looked defeated in front of me. Not even during the last month, where I rejected every overture he made.

Tonight, however, he just walks in and looks around with a lost expression. Then he crosses to the chair opposite me and sinks into it. His jacket is gone and his tie is loose.

“You’re still here,” he says finally.

“For now,” I reply

He nods, as if that’s exactly what he expected. “My mother is mortified.”

“That was rather the point.”

A ghost of a smile flickers across his face before vanishing. “She‘s currently trying to call everyone who was there to explain that you’ve been under tremendous stress and aren’t quite yourself.”

“I think she’ll find this a bit more difficult to sweep under the rug than me drinking out of the wrong glass.”

Oliver doesn‘t respond. He just looks at me, resignation in his eyes. It’s so different from the confidence, the borderline arrogance I’ve grown accustomed to that I almost don’t recognize the man sitting across from me.

“I have questions,” I say, my voice steadier than I feel. “And I want you to answer them. Honestly.”

He just nods without saying anything. Oliver has never been this compliant before. It’s unnerving.

“Tell me about your history with Victoria,” I say, getting straight to the point. “The real history, please.”

Oliver sighs, running a hand over his face. “Genny, there is nothing between Victoria and me. She’s an old family friend. She’s having some financial difficulties right now, and my assistant was retiring, so I offered her the job to help her out. That’s all.”

As he speaks, I reach down into the shopping bag beside me. I pull out a small velvet jewelry box and open it with a soft click. Inside is a sapphire bracelet; the stones catching the light as I lift it out. Oliver’s words falter as I slip it onto my wrist, turning my hand back and forth to admire the way the blue stones sparkle.

“What is that?” he asks, his voice pitched slightly higher than before.

“I bought myself a graduation present,” I say, smiling down at the bracelet. “Do you like it?”

His eyes are fixed on the sapphires, and I watch him swallow hard. “It’s… lovely.”

“I thought so too.” I continue to move my wrist back and forth, letting the stones catch the light. “So, Victoria is just an old family friend? Someone you’re helping out of the goodness of your heart because you’re just the sweetest, most generous man ever?”

He nods, but there’s uncertainty in his expression. He can‘t seem to look away from the bracelet.

“That‘s interesting,” I tell him. “Because that‘s not what Victoria told me.”