Chapter 4

At 11:40 p.m., a car pulled up outside the house.

I sat at the dining table and watched Tessa step out of the driver's side with an umbrella.

Callum had been drinking with a client that night, but he was nowhere near drunk.

After two straight days of dealing with the project, exhaustion showed clearly on his face, and his jacket was draped carelessly over one arm.

I opened the door.

Tessa looked up and froze the moment she saw me.

She seemed about to explain why she was there, but I didn't give her the chance. I simply looked at Callum.

"Thank you for bringing my husband home."

Tessa's expression shifted.

After a brief silence, she murmured good night and turned back toward the car.

I closed the door.

Callum looked at me, then past my shoulder at the lights still on in the living room and dining room.

"You were waiting for me?"

"Yeah."

He finally seemed to relax. He even let out a quiet laugh.

"I knew you'd always wait for me."

He said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Last night, I'd refused to help him with work for the first time. We'd barely spoken all day, but to Callum, those things were temporary. A bad mood. A disagreement that would pass.

As long as he came home, I would still be here.

I looked at him.

"What if one day I'm not?"

Callum must have been genuinely exhausted, because he didn't seem to hear anything unusual in the question. He simply reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from my face.

"That day won't come."

"Why?"

"Because you're my wife."

Then he walked farther into the house.

I stayed by the door for a moment, watching his back, and finally understood what five years of always being there had taught him.

He was certain I would never leave.

"Callum, come here."

He followed me into the dining room.

Only one light was on above the table. A pen and a folder sat neatly in front of the empty chair across from me.

Callum's eyes landed on the folder. He paused for barely a second before some of the tension in his face eased.

"So you did care about that file after all."

He had already decided it had something to do with the document he'd asked me to review the night before.

Callum pulled out the chair and sat down, loosening his cuff links as he told me they'd resolved the issue at work. His team had eventually caught what they'd missed. It had cost them a few extra hours, and they'd had to reconfirm everything with the client, but there had been no real damage.

He didn't complain as he told me.

Callum had never been a man who became helpless the moment I stepped away.

If anything, the fact that he was so capable was exactly why all the small problems I'd quietly solved over the years had been so easy for him to overlook.

He could see the extra hours he'd lost today.

He couldn't see how many of those hours I'd saved him over the past five years.

"You were right last night, though."

Callum leaned back and rubbed a tired hand over his brow.

"I've gotten too used to bringing things to you."

I looked at him.

It was the first time he'd ever admitted it.

Then his eyes dropped to the folder again, and the faintest smile touched his mouth.

"But you looked at it anyway."

For a moment, I almost wanted to laugh.

His admission hadn't meant he'd truly understood anything.

He thought I'd been angry. He thought I'd refused him once, cooled down, and then done what I'd always done for the past five years--taken care of whatever needed to be handled before he came home.

He'd even found an explanation for why I was still sitting here at eleven forty at night.

Callum picked up the folder but didn't open it right away.

"Lenora, I know you're still upset about last night. Once this project is over, we'll redo the anniversary dinner. Anywhere you want."

Two days ago, I would have held on to that promise.

I would have thought about restaurants, tried to find a night when both of us were free, and convinced myself that the fact he'd offered to make up our anniversary meant our marriage still mattered to him.

Now I simply tapped the folder.

"Read it first."

Callum smiled as if he were indulging me and opened the first page.

A second ago, he'd been leaning comfortably against the back of his chair.

Then he slowly sat upright.

A few words were printed across the top of the page.

DIVORCE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT.

For the first time, I saw Callum Mercer look at a document and have no idea what to do with it.

It had never been like this before.

No matter how complicated the contract or how difficult the terms, Callum could always find the heart of the problem quickly. I would sit beside him, point out the risks he might have missed, and the two of us would argue, revise, and eventually find the best way forward.

But there was no problem to solve tonight.

And I wasn't going to sit beside him.

Callum finally looked up.

"Lenora."

Only then did he seem to understand that yes, I had been waiting for him tonight.

Just not the way I had every other night for the past five years.

I wasn't waiting for my husband to come home.

I was waiting for my marriage to end.

"You don't have to read all of it tonight."

I slid the pen across the table toward him.

"All you have to do is sign."