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“The only thing you’ve ever chased is happiness,” I say, “and only the short-term kind. That’s been your whole life!”
“You’re right,” he says, nodding quickly. “You’ve always been right.”
“Too little too late, though, when it came to you.”
“I want you back. I want to be us again.”
“You broke us,” I say, and I mean it. The words fall like a scythe through the quiet, unassuming lobby of my high-rise.
I want him out of it, and I want him out of my life.
He sighs. “I know, but I’m sorry. Soph,I’m sorry.That has to count for something. I’d take it all back if I could.”
My voice hardens. “No, it doesn’t. It’s been a year and you’re having a baby with another woman. And I’ve already moved on.”
He takes a deep breath. And then another one. “Yeah, withthatman. It hurt me, seeing you with him. Is that what you want me to say? Is that the game we’ve been playing these weeks?”
The words take the air out of me. Maybe that is what I’d once wanted him to say. But not now. Not when Isaac and I were so much more than petty revenge.
“I don’t want you to say anything. What I want is for you to leave.”
“Did you just use me?” His eyes have a glazed sheen to them. “Did you just want me to introduce you to society? Fuck, that’s it, isn’t it. I was a stepping stone. You just wanted bigger and brighter, and you got it. Mom warned me once,” he says, and points a finger at me, “that you were a gold digger. That she could see it in you.”
“Fuck you,” I say.
He gives a half-laugh. It rings false in the wide space. “That’s it. That’s why you want him, the all-mighty, on-his-damn-high-horse Winter, king of the goddamn city.”
Anger flares inside of me like fireworks. “The fact that you would say that to me proves you never knew me at all. You know what? It just proves one thing, that marrying you was the biggest mistake of my life.”
His face whitens. “You don’t mean that.”
“Yes, I do. You cheated on me. You constantly degraded my career. You made me feel like a bad wife for wanting my own life, outside of us. You never once defended me against your mother. You didn’t wantme,as I actually am,” I say. “You wanted me to fit like a puzzle piece into your life instead of building a new one together.”
“What,” Percy says, voice venomous, “likehe’sso fuckingperfect?”
“He’s not. But he would never come to my apartment at midnight, drunk out of his mind, and accuse me of being a gold digger.”
Percy holds up his hands, like this is too much. Like he can’t believe what I’m saying. “I gave you a life. I gave youeverything.”
“Except a loving and faithful husband,” I say. “Except support and companionship. You know, I’m glad you found your way into bed with Scarlett, and I’m glad I saw it. Because you and I wouldn’t have lasted anyway… and I’m so damn glad I didn’t waste more of my life on you.”
His chest rises and falls. “Soph,” he says. “Fuck, you’re right. You’re so damn right and I’m sorry. I’m sorry and I’m miserable.”
“I know. But it’s not enough. Can you tell me something? Honestly?”
He nods.
“It wasn’t just Scarlett, though. Was it?”
Percy turns still, like prey caught in the headlights. There’s no reply from his half-open lips. But the answer is there in his drunken eyes, betraying him.
There had been others.
“Yeah,” I say softly, “I figured. Goodbye, Percy.”
“Wait.” He reaches out to grip my wrist, but I pull it out of his reach. “Soph, fuck, wait… This went all wrong.”
“Yes,” I say. “It did. You’re going to be a father, Perce. You always said you wanted that. So focus on that, on your kid. Be the best dad you can be to that little baby and start fresh. And if you ever come to my doorstep drunk like this this again, I’ll call the police.”
