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Vivienne looks at me in amazement, but then shakes her head. "No. I can't do this right now. Please. I need you to go."
I reach out. My hands are aching, not from the climb but from the need to touch her. "Vivienne..."
She pushes me away. "Don't. Don't come up here and say my name with that voice. Don't look at me with those eyes. Don't make me think I'm yours."
That fucking photograph.
Vivienne sits down with her back to me. "You can just send the divorce papers along with my final paycheck."
"What?" I manage to sputter.
"I'm tendering my resignation as your secretary," she says softly. "And as your wife."
A grim, heavy silence floats in the air between us. Vivienne wraps her arms around her legs and refuses to look at me.
A life without her. Every fiber of my being recoils at the thought. There's no way I can go back to the nights of meaningless flings and hollow promises. Trying to recapture my old shallow life would be hell.
I step forward. "Well, I refuse to accept it. Do you want to know why I came here?"
“No. You couldn’t be bothered to call.”
“Are you kidding me? All I did was call you.”
“Well, why didn’t I get anything?”
“I have no idea.” I dig for my phone. “Look. I’ll show you.”
As she sees the record of hundreds of outgoing calls and texts over the last two weeks, her jaw drops.
“There was no other way to reach you. I don’t know, I guess I was blocked. Maybe you did it subconsciously. I've been trying for days. Calls. Text messages. Vivienne, all I've wanted for the past week was to hear your voice. And when all that failed, I scaled a tower for you. Looking for my beautiful princess."
I try to show her the indentions that the tree made on my palms.
She shakes her head. "I'm not a princess."
"You're right. You're better than a princess. I've never met a princess who could fill out an Excel sheet worth a damn. You're brilliant. You’re determined. You’re capable of anything. And you’re the woman I love.”
She turns her head to look at me over her shoulder. “What?”
"I love you, Vivienne. I honestly didn't even think it was a thing I was capable of. But when I'm not with you, you're all I can think about. And when I am with you, I feel..."
I struggle to find a word that ties all my feelings together. "Content. Whole. Like there is nothing else in the world that I need."
Tears start to fall from Vivienne's eyes. "God, I wish I could believe you. But I can't. I just can't."
She pulls away, burying her face in her hands. "I've known you too long. I've seen the way you are with women. I've seen you with too many. So when they printed that picture..."
Vivienne's voice trembles as she forces the words out. "I've been struggling with this. Sometimes things feel so real, like it's not an act anymore. Seeing a starlet in your arms, someone glamorous and exciting, it reminded me of everything you'd be leaving behind to be with me.”
She starts fully sobbing. "I can't spend my whole life wondering if I'm enough for you."
I reach for my phone. "That picture was a setup, a stunt gone wrong. I tried to forward you the details of the investigation into it. Look."
I quickly pull up my email app. It's there, from the official email address of the Solvaria Justice Minister. I hand the phone to her, and she takes it hesitantly.
Her eyes scan over the message detailing the trespassing that took place to stage the photo. The email is filled with legal jargon, but the message is clear. The whole scandal was a calculated setup, and the truth was on my side.
"Look how many times I tried to tell you.” My entire phone record is only her name, repeated one hundred times. Every call was ignored.
