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Chapter One
"Watch out, coming through!"A deep, booming voice almost gave Holly a heart attack. She had enough time to jump back to avoid getting run over by the two large men who carried a wooden dresser down the hallway. Their muscles bulged beneath their tight t-shirts, and Holly thanked God she'd had the sense to hire people to do the heavy lifting for her. There was no way she would have ever been able to move that dresser on her own.
It wasn't the heavy furniture the crew was hauling away, though. All around her were men and a few women packing boxes and carrying them out of the house. Her heart ached each time a box was carried through the large double doors at the front of the house. Over the past twenty years, she had lived in this house. And now it was all coming to a close. The final chapter in this part of her life was coming to an official end and tugged at her heartstrings.
Holly steadied herself against the banister, looking down at the workers as they busied themselves packing and moving her things. Not everything was going, of course. Will's stuff would remain behind. But even with that, the place looked empty. Mementos from their various trips together over the years were already packed into boxes and loaded onto the moving truck. Photos that had hung on the walls for years were gone, leaving unfaded squares of paint in their places.
It should have given her relief, severing off this part of her life like a rotting limb on a tree. But instead, it made her heart break more and more with each passing moment. This wasn't just a single branch of her life she was trimming away; it was more like chopping down the entire tree right at the base.
Holly squeezed her eyes shut. In and out, she told herself, focusing on her breathing and trying to push everything else out of her mind. But no matter how many times she repeated the words to herself, she couldn't quite block out the hustle and bustle going on all around her.
She needed some space, she decided. It was too painful to stand around the house and watch her life be boxed up and carted away by strangers.
Without saying a word to anyone, she made her way downstairs and through the expansive home. It had never seemed this big before, but whether she had never noticed or if the lack of belongings made it seem larger than it was, Holly couldn't help but feel like the place was preparing to swallow her whole.
Her car was parked right out front, thankfully not blocked in by the moving trucks. Before she knew it, she was headed down the highway away from the place she had called home for so long. It wasn't until she pulled into her parking spot at the office that she realized where she'd headed.
She'd driven on autopilot in a haze, not stopping to think. She had wanted to get away from the house and the chaos and memories that had threatened to overwhelm her. Not that the office would be much better, she thought as she watched a muscular man step out of the front door carrying a large box.
Wanting to be efficient and also to rip the band-aid off right away, she had scheduled the movers to not only pack up and haul away the stuff at the house but to also do the same at her office—her former office that is. Just like the house, the business she had devoted most of her adult life to would be left to her now ex-husband, Will.
With a sigh, she killed the car's engine. Sitting in the vehicle staring at the building wasn't going to make things any easier. Nor was turning around and going back to the house. And, if she was honest with herself, she wasn't sure where else she could go. Those two places had been her life for so long that she had pretty much forgotten how to live without them.
Heck, there were days and weeks when she had spent more time at the office than at the house, earning herself many dirty looks from the other moms whenever she'd shown up at the school or to retrieve the kids from playdates. To them, being a mom was their sole identity. She'd loved her kids to the moon and back, but she'd never understood dedicating her every waking moment to them like some mothers did. She had juggled motherhood and her career flawlessly.
This had made it easier when the kids had grown up and started their own lives. Of course, she had missed them, but it hadn't completely broken her when they had flown the coop like it had the mothers of some of their friends. She loved her kids more than life itself and her kids knew that. She had a very special bond with them that no one could break. Not even her husband.
Though now, as she stared up at her office window, knowing the career she had spent years building and nurturing was finally over, she fully understood the pain those mothers had experienced. Her kids may not have made up the bulk of her identity, but her job as a top real estate agent in Miami certainly had.
She had busted her butt to be taken seriously as a real estate agent. And she'd been darn good at it, no matter what anyone else said. But of course, her greedy husband had to go and mess that up. No, she corrected, closing her eyes and taking another deep breath—ex-husband, not husband.
The man didn't deserve the title of husband anymore. It was hard to believe she had ever fallen in love with that man. Here she had thought they'd be together for the rest of their lives. As it turned out, he hadn't had the same notions. It had been over a year since the divorce had finalized, and yet it was still hard to realize everything really was over with.
At least she'd had the forethought to store away some money separate from everything else. So while he was left broke and penniless, Holly at least still had some money to support herself and wouldn't be homeless once everything was said and done.
It was a small comfort, but it was better than nothing.
With another sigh, Holly popped the door of the Jaguar open and slid out, automatically straightening the wrinkles in her clothes out of habit. Not that it really mattered how she dressed anymore. She could show up wearing designer clothes that cost more than some people made in a year and it wouldn't improve her reputation, not even a smidge.
Will's illicit real estate dealings had seen to that.
It was a disgrace for her to show her face in the grocery stores these days. Certainly, no one was interested in hiring her anymore, which was the main reason she was having her office packed up and carted away. That and she couldn't stand to share a space with Will anymore. It had been hard enough after the divorce. Now, it wasn't going to happen.
The further away from him she could get— the better. At least, that was what she hoped.
When she finally made her way into the office, she was surprised by how bustling it was. It wasn't full of customers, of course, but most of the employees were still hovering around. Groups of two or three huddled together, talking in harsh whispers as they watched the spectacle around them.
All eyes turned to her when she stepped through the door, and Holly could feel their judgmental gazes burning through her. Not only had Will's schemes ruined her reputation around town and within the industry, but even her own employees appeared to have lost respect for her.
She caught some of their whispers as she walked by, but she pretended not to hear any of them. She didn't want to show just how much their snippy comments actually hurt.
"How could she not have known?" one of the secretaries whispered to another one. Both had their eyes boring into Holly as she passed by them, but Holly refused to return their gaze. There was a time when she would have squashed that kind of talk in an instant.
Those days were in the past, though, much like everything else about her former life.
"It's not her fault her husband was a snake," the other secretary whispered back, and Holly had to force down a smile. At least everyone didn't think she was as guilty as he was. That small comfort didn't last long, though, before the woman continued. "All she ever cared about was work. Maybe if she'd been a better wife, he wouldn't have strayed off God's path."
Holly let out a sigh and quickly navigated the halls to her office. It was as barren as her house had been, with nothing more than the furniture remaining. Everything personal had already been boxed up and carted away. It looked very much like it had the first day she had moved in all those years ago.
