Filed to story: The Lingering Kiss of Farewell Novel
Cal stated, and she wouldn’t. She wasn’t that kind of woman.
“Getting her heart broken, she just might. I’ll have them ready to go in the morning. Best you sign them prior to going out there, so I can file them on the day, so that six-week wait starts right away. Cal nodded and headed off to his own office. It was going to be a long and infuriatingly frustrating day, and he knew it. His mind was going to be distracted with those words she’d uttered this morning. A baby, she wanted to have a baby with him, inside a contract marriage. It was not the right thing to do, to bring a child into a marriage like they had. So, no, he would not only not have a baby with her, he would divorce her to make sure she would understand him. He spent the day sorting out airfares and accommodation, checked on tours of the area and booked several of them: a vineyard tour, a hot air balloon ride, horseback riding on the beach. A dinner cruise on a nice yacht and a spa day, he booked the best hotels and made sure there were luxury transfers. All the things she’d talked about with his own mother, all the things his mother told him he should do with her,”
take your wife on vacation son, make it romantic and relax, enjoy each other.”
He knew what that meant. She wanted him to have a baby with his wife. Come home pregnant is what she meant. He looked at the list of things, and printed out the itinerary. It was quite extensive, a full month-long holiday in Italy. She would really like that, she would see he’d made the effort to give her something she was interested in, her dream destination. She’d not had a holiday in the three years they’d been married, his schedule kind of hindered that. He always had events, whether they be business or charity, here or in other states or outside the country. He put it all together and got her passport from the safe, flipped through it. She’d been on two business trips with him, and he’d bedded her relentlessly those days they’d stayed together. His wife was beautiful and had a smile that could melt any man’s heart. That was why he needed a divorce. He wanted her to be truly happy, and she could not be that inside their contract marriage, something that was full of rules and stipulations, things he kept in place to protect her and himself. Not that it had seemed to help protect her, she’d still managed to fall in love with him. It was time to end their sham of a marriage in favour of happiness and contentment. She wasn’t going to like it, be heartbroken, but it was for the best. He couldn’t stay in that contract marriage if he couldn’t give her what she truly wanted, and he could not.
Rin She was out the back of the house, sitting in the shade of a large tree on a blanket. The morning was sunny, but cool, and the breeze coming off the ocean was gentle. She was working outside this morning, being cooped up in that big house for the past two days without so much as a single word from Cal, had kind of felt suffocating. She understood he was mad at her, and that those words he’d spoken were in fact the truth. The manuscript she was working on had turned dark and emotional, to match her mood. Though she had used those feelings she’d had of heartache and loneliness to add a new twist to the tale she was weaving. Even now she was typing away out here, she’d not really slept all that much last night, she had tossed and turned and, in the end gotten herself up to write, because it was the one thing that could shut her own emotions off or pour them into her writing. She turned her head at the sound of a car coming up the driveway and frowned instantly. Cal never came home at this time of the day. She wasn’t even dressed appropriately, she was just sitting out here in an old pair of shorts and a tee-shirt. She did always try to dress nicely when he was around. These were clothes from her old days. She’d been feeling nostalgic and so had rummaged through her old clothes, to be her old self. She had a feeling she was about to be shoved back into her old life, and so she was dressed to match her mood. She turned back to her work. It was unlikely he was there to see her. At this time of the day, he likely needed something from his office; he did have one here, though she never went in there. He’d told her once not to, and had also pointed out the camera that was in there. It was motion activated and would alert his phone if she did go in there. She’d not really cared about it, didn’t work in his industry, though she knew a fair few of those that worked in his tech department. She had a computer science degree and could, if she so chose to, could go and sit in her office inside his building in the city and work all day long. She and the team she worked for, had been absorbed by C.R. Technology just before he and she had gotten into the marriage contract; that was how he’d come across her. She was the one that checked for bugs and glitches in the gaming programmes they made. She was smart technology-wise, just not so smart in the emotional department. She had given her heart to the man she was married to, and she shouldn’t have. She caught movement in her peripheral vision and turned to look, to see not only Cal coming this way but his friend and lawyer, Wil, as well. Her eyes moved to the envelope in Wil’s hand; It was large. Denoting a contract of some sort. Here it comes she told herself, and wondered how she was going to explain herself to the team, that she’d gotten divorced, when everything in her life looked wonderful, and that she had an amazing husband. They were a team of girls, and they all thought she was so very lucky to have the love of a man like Calvin Reeves. Little did they know she did not have his heart, and as she watched him walk towards her, Rin finally realised it was true. He may have hers, but she would never have his. It was all just a show for the public, something to keep his public image clean and family-orientated. She closed her laptop so that no prying eyes would see what she was working on. It was nothing to do with his company. Not even Cal knew she had a second career. She’d needed to keep that part of her life solely for herself, for the day she got divorced and she was once again all alone. She’d never told anyone, she’d always worried it would be a complete and utter failure. Though it was not, it had taken off really well a year and a half ago, and if she was completely honest with herself, she’d kept it from Cal on purpose, because she knew this day would come, and she needed something to fall back on. She had a secret career under her pen name Marilyn Riddley. Her romance novels sold quite well, and she now had two books in print. The rest were all online, but she had made it, and could actually earn a living from it. Not be super wealthy, but enough to sit at home and work on the next one, instead of having to go into the office and work in the computer lab. When their divorce was finalised, she would leave her life as Marrin Reeves and become Marilyn Riddley, move away from this city, where everyone would know her as the ex-wife of Calvin Reeves. She would move to some place where no one would know her and she could live her life small and peacefully, and never have to hear his name or see him with another woman on his arm, because she knew that would just be painful for her to look at, read about in the papers or see online. She was going to have to leave his company, it was part of the marriage contract. When they divorced, she would move on from the company so as not to cause gossip or awkwardness for him. Though he had told her he’d personally write her a glowing reference for the work she’d participated in within his company. So it would be easy for her to get another job in her field. He might be able to see her in her field at those conferences without issue, but she doubted she’d be able to look at him with some other woman on his arm, and not feel uncomfortable inside her chest. If he had the audacity to kiss another woman in front of her, she’d likely lose it completely, even though those lips of his were never to be hers, not for a single second. That didn’t mean she didn’t think about how it would feel to have him kiss her. Would it be all soft and sensual? Or would it be all hard and demanding? Or would it be light and playful even? She wanted to experience it all, but would never get to. No, that was only for the woman he would love, Mrs Right. Her heart ached as she looked at him. He was dressed as immaculately as always; a dark blue suit, white dress shirt and a blue and gold tie. He had a hand in his pants’ pocket as he walked across the lawn towards hers with Wil next to him. She saw him chuckle softly and even Wil chuckled right after him. A small part of her clung to the hope that she was wrong. This was not about them getting divorced at all, because how could he be smiling and laughing with Wil? If they were here to serve her with divorce papers. That was not a funny matter, but a serious matter. She stood up to greet them, and she saw his eyes look over her outfit, and a frown marred his handsome face; he didn’t like her wearing this type of clothing. It was not something he’d bought for her or approved of her wearing. She smiled at him like she always did.
“Cal, you’re not normally here at this time of the day.”
She stated.
“Is that why you’re dressed like that?”
he asked right back, and she could hear the disapproval in his voice.
“Didn’t I purchase you proper summer clothing?”
She looked down at her old clothes and half smiled.
“I’m going to do some gardening. These are appropriate wear for that.”
She looked back to him.
“Hmm, I suppose they are only good for getting dirty.”
He nodded and looked right at her.
“It’s time to get divorced, Rin,”
he told her. There was no hesitation in his words.
“If you could sign the papers today, I’d appreciate it. It will take six weeks for the finality of it to come through.”
And there it was. She’d not been wrong, and she just knew that one question she’d stupidly asked him had brought this about. Why oh why couldn’t she have kept it to herself? Said nothing and ignored her need to have a baby with the man she loved. Monumentally stupid, she told herself as she stood there staring at him. Wondering if telling him she was sorry and hadn’t meant it would work to keep him by her side. Though it was only a fleeting thought, she knew he’d made up his mind. Her eyes moved to Wil as he opened the envelope he was carrying and pulled out the documents inside it. It wasn’t just a simple piece of paper, it looked to be quite extensive. She could well imagine there was a non-disclosure agreement there as well, for her not to ever talk about their marriage contract.
“It’s a no-contest divorce as per our marriage contract,”
Cal stated.
“I have also organised for you to go overseas on a holiday. You’ve not been able to take a vacation in the past three years, that we were married. I’ve accounted for that and an all-expenses paid trip has been organised for you, as part of the divorce agreement.”
Rin She raised an eyebrow at him now, at those words of never having taken a vacation. She’d often gone away with him to those exhibitions and conferences. That were about computer engineering and software releases or game creators looking for investments; things that he wanted to get in on or try and buy the rights to, if a small company was looking for backers. Two or three days in his company, four or five times a year, where they would stay in a five-star hotel, eat all their meals together, have s*x every night and sometimes in the morning, a few times in the afternoon even. Rin counted all of them as being away on vacation, little mini-vacations with him, but he did not she now knew. She heard his phone ring, and he pulled it from his jacket pocket to look at it.
“I’ve got to answer this,”
He stated and turned to go, but then pointed to the papers as she took them from Wil.
“Sign that.”
He told her and walked away to take his call. She watched him go, just walked away uncaring that her heart was filling with pain inside her chest. She doubted that man even knew she was in love with him. There would be no convincing him not to get a divorce, and she knew it, he’d already walked away dismissively. She turned her eyes away from him and his retreating back and looked at the papers. Ignoring the pen that Wil was now holding out to her, to use to sign the papers like Cal wanted her to; she wouldn’t sign anything without reading it. She stood there and flipped through the vacation that had been planned out for her. Her passport was attached to the holiday plans, something he kept in his office safe, for when needing to make impromptu travel arrangements which needed her passport details. She’d not had one until they’d gotten married. He’d organized it because at times they’d have to go overseas. Yes, there was a first class plane ticket, a couple of layovers to get there, but first class the entire trip. There was five-star hotel accommodation at all the places she would stay and chauffer-driven transfers to all the places she was to visit. It was quite extensive and there were plenty of tours to attend, all in Italy, a place she did actually want to go. Though those tours she thought were more things for couples to do, she wondered if his secretary had planned this with the thought that they would be going away together, instead of it being a parting gift for their divorce. She moved to the actual divorce papers. Just two pages long. She was to get the house she now lived in and four million dollars, the day after the divorce was finalised in six weeks’ time. She frowned at that, they’d never really discussed a settlement. He’d just told her she’d be given compensation for the time she spent as his wife. She turned to the last page of it, and she could see that he’d already signed and dated it. He’d not only had it drawn up but made sure this would be over quickly as well. She’d heard his tone and the way he’d pointed to the papers, he expected her to do it right now while he stood there waiting. Or Wil stood here, Cal had already walked away uncaring. She looked at her husband of three years, as he still walked away across the lawn, was talking on the phone. That call was more important than even saying goodbye to her. She understood that he was a busy man, but one would think he could give her his undivided attention for the few minutes it would take for her to sign these papers; She really did mean nothing to him at all. Her eyes moved to Wil as he cleared his voice, and he held that pen out to her once more.
“Please sign it Marrin.”
He used her full name, just like she was the only one to call Calvin, Cal. Cal was the only one to call her Rin. It was seen as intimate and something that they did as husband and wife, was personal and private just for the two of them.
“You really expect me to sign something, I’ve barely glanced at. I’m not that stupid, William.”
She stated,
“I’ll sign it after I’ve read through it properly and made sure everything is in order.”
Wil stared at her now, looked a little shocked to her.
“I deal with contracts all the time, and I’ll compare it to the marriage contract make sure it’s all sorted out properly according to that. Calvin can suck it up, it’ll be all of one extra day of waiting. If he’s that impatient to divorce me, he should have sent it to me last night when he signed it and came to collect it this morning.”
She told him and turned and walked away. She heard William sigh but didn’t look back at him. Yes, she had noted that Calvin had signed it yesterday. She would look at it with her marriage contract right there. Right this minute, however, she needed a moment to keep her composure and not fall apart in front of either of them, so she walked away as Calvin himself had done. She would do as she stated, and she would sign it; her word was good. She just needed a minute, and didn’t want to do it in front of either of them, so she went and sat up there on the cliff to take a moment for herself, like she always did. This was it. She was getting divorced, he’d move on and away from her, and she’d be stuck somewhere between still loving him and hating him at the same time. Hating him for his uncaring manner in the way this was delivered. Why couldn’t he just take ten minutes out of his day to sit down and show her himself, explain it and sign it with her at the same time? She turned and looked down to the house. He was already at his car, and she watched them get in and leave, and felt tears fall down her face. That was it, and she knew it. He was gone, never to be seen here in this house again. He’d just left her without even so much as a thank you for helping me out, or it was nice being married to you, not even so much as a goodbye, Rin. He just drove away and was gone. She looked down at the papers in her hand and crumpled them a bit. She had to take a few steadying breaths in and out and she told herself
“You knew this was coming, suck it up princess. It was a fairytale inside your own head.”
She sat up there for a long time, before finally getting up and returning to the house. A house he’d only ever come to, in order to climb into her bed and sate his s****l needs. Not a house he’d ever come to just to unwind and sit and talk. No, he had a full social group of friends in the city for that. Rin sighed as she collected her laptop, and went inside. It was apparently her house now. A snort of derision came from her. It had always been her house. He didn’t live here, only she did. He’d bought this place for her to live in. He had asked her just once before they’d gotten married,
“what type of house do you want to live in.”
She recalled staring at him that day, and he’d nodded.
“Just tell me I’ll make sure you have a comfortable home while we’re married.”
She’d not really ever thought about having a home of her own and had shrugged
“something with an ocean view.”
