Chapter 3

After the divorce, I still ran into Sean at the office.

We hadn't gone public about the split, and working under the same roof meant crossing paths was unavoidable.

Sean treated me the same as always, without a hint of hostility, and I did the same.

At our age, personal grudges take a back seat. Business always comes first.

In the six months after the divorce, I quietly started setting up a new company and cashing out my shares little by little.

During the two years I was away on training and business trips, too many of Sean's relatives had wormed their way into the company. It was only a matter of time before the company rotted. I wasn't going to waste any more time there.

Just as I was preparing to step out for good, I got news from Sean as well. At nearly fifty, he'd finally become a father.

Sean personally dropped off a box of celebratory chocolates at my desk to celebrate the new baby, all smiles, his tone laced with mockery. "Jane, don't be so married to your career. You should worry a little about the big things in life too."

I took the candy, offered a half-hearted congratulations, and gave him a faint smile. "No rush."

I told myself, 'No rush.'

It had only been six months. He still had the right to sue and revisit the property split. Once the one-year statute of limitations passed, he'd be the one saying congratulations to me.

I had always been patient. If I could lie in wait for fifteen years, one more year was nothing.

Sean paraded his new-father status like a billboard, and before long the whole company knew we were divorced.

It's a strange world. Instead of blaming the man who had cheated, people turned their pitying eyes on me.

I thought, 'Since when do I need their pity?'

*****

I made a quiet exit. Plenty of people assumed the divorce had drained me of ambition, that I was walking away to travel and see the world.

Others whispered that the shock had ruined my health, that I couldn't work anymore.

Some laughed that I'd worked half my life only to hand everything over to someone else.

Sean's freeloading relatives even texted me, urging me to adopt a son so someone would bury me when I died.

I sent them exactly one line back: [Just watching from the sidelines. Enjoy the show.]

I thought, 'Let's see how long they can keep strutting around.'

Sean once said I nickel-and-dimed him over everything. On that, he was right. I would chew through his company piece by piece and leave him no way out.

If I hadn't stood my ground all these years, there wouldn't have been an inch of room for me in that place.

Talented people go where the opportunities are. The strongest performers at the old company had long since followed me over to the new one.

As it turned out, my new company found its footing in Silverport at record speed. A year after the divorce, Sean heard about it and called to check in on me.

I didn't pick up. I blocked his number on the spot.

His company and mine ran the same business. From here on out we were competitors. There would be no partnerships, no dealings.

And when it came to this business, no one knew it better than I did.

I hadn't blocked Sean on Facebook. Now and then I even scrolled through his profile. He rarely posted. In a whole year there were only two updates.

The first went up the day of our divorce: [Saying goodbye to the wretched first half of my life.]

The second was from two months ago, paired with an ultrasound image: [The second person I've ever looked forward to meeting this much.]

Both had a flood of "congratulations" from mutual friends underneath.

While they congratulated Sean, they were also pitying me.

And that same day, I posted the only update I'd made in years.

The caption: [A day with my daughter.] Nine photos attached.

As expected, my phone blew up.