He Said Waiting Is Romantic But Not For Me Chapter 05

He Said Waiting Is Romantic But Not For Me Chapter 05

1:30 p.m. 

Cole sat outside the sushi place on the third floor of the mall, staring at his watch. 

He’d been waiting an hour and a half past the time they’d agreed on. 

He pulled out his phone and called my number again. 

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service.” 

“Off again,” he muttered, his brow tight. 

He thought I was sulking because he’d left for the pipe repair this morning. Deliberately shutting my phone off to punish him. He thought that kind of “silent treatment” was 

childish. 

He stood up impatiently and canceled their spot in line at 

the host stand. 

“Fine. You’ll come home when you get hungry.” 

Face cold, he walked to the garage and drove home. 

He pushed the front door open. The house was too quiet. 

Normally at this hour, if I was home, the TV would be on low, or there’d be water running in the kitchen. 

But today–nothing. 

Just dead silence. 

“Elise?” 

He swapped his shoes for slippers and walked toward the living room. 

No answer. 

He took off his suit jacket, about to toss it onto the couch like always, when his eyes snagged on something on the coffee table. 

The empty marble surface held two things, sitting all alone. 

A stack of white papers. And a plain platinum band. 

Their wedding rings. 

Cole’s heart skipped. His breath caught for no reason. 

He walked over fast and read the heading. 

Divorce Papers. 

His eyes dropped to the signature line. “Elise Bennett” was written there with absolute finality. 

The strokes were clean. Pressed hard into the paper. No trembling. No hesitation. 

The asset division clause read: “The husband has 

committed substantial marital misconduct. The wife 

voluntarily waives all marital assets and receives no property or support.” 

“Elise–what the hell is this?” 

He slapped the papers back onto the table and ran to the master bedroom. 

Pulled open the closet. 

His shirts and suits still hung neatly on the left. 

But her side was completely empty. 

Even the designer dresses he’d bought her on a whim- the ones she never wore–were still hanging there. She’d 

taken nothing. 

He ran to the bathroom. 

Her toothbrush, her towels, her skincare–all gone. 

Even her succulents, the ones she’d babied on the 

balcony, had been given to the neighbor next door. Only empty 

dirt rings remained. 

Every trace of “Elise Bennett” had been wiped from this 

house. 

Like she’d never lived here at all. 

A kind of panic he’d never felt before closed like a frozen 

hand around Cole’s throat. 

His fingers shook as he dialed my number again. 

Still the cold recording. 

He pulled up his contacts and called my boss. 

“Mr. Harrison.” The voice on the other end was professionally distant, with a faint edge of reproach. “Elise flew out this morning. To London. She didn’t mention it?” 

“London?” Cole’s voice cracked. Audibly. “What 

London?” 

“The international assignment. Three years. She finished her paperwork and went straight to the airport.” 

The voice kept talking, but Cole had stopped hearing. 

Three years. London. No assets. No property. 

She wasn’t throwing a tantrum. 

She hadn’t gone to the mall to fix her phone. She wasn’t waiting for him to come and smooth things over. 

She’d left the divorce papers on the table, taken almost nothing, and stripped herself out of his world completely.