The Dice Said Divorce, but He Thought I’d Stay Chapter 04

The Dice Said Divorce, but He Thought I’d Stay Chapter 04

The procedure was a nightmare — cold and merciless. When the anesthesia wore off, the pain came roaring back in waves.

I stayed overnight. The nurse tried to talk me out of leaving, but I signed myself out anyway.

I needed to move fast. I was never going to see him again.

Turns out, loving someone to the bitter end only makes you sick.

I brought the shattered locket with me and timed my visit to the estate for when Harrison wouldn’t be there. I just needed my documents.

Chloe was in the living room, working on a puzzle. She stopped me as I walked past.

For the first time, she smiled at me — warm, sweet, like she meant it.

My stomach dropped.

I looked down. The puzzle was custom-made — little cartoon versions of me, Chloe, and Harrison.

I’d given it to her, back when I was still trying to make things work between us. It was finished — every piece in place.

Then she plucked out the piece with my face on it and crushed it in her fist. “You really thought I was stupid, didn’t you?”

She stood up. Every trace of sweetness vanished. She grabbed my chin, fingers digging in hard.

“You got your divorce papers. So why don’t you get the hell out? What are you even doing here?”

She watched the shock settle across my face and laughed. “Wanna know why I played you both?”

She pulled a medical file from the drawer and flung it at me.

Mild anxiety. That was all. Her cognitive functions were perfectly intact — they always had been.

Harrison’s name was right there in the “accompanied by” field. Clear as day.

My tears hit the page, smudging the ink right over his name.

Something inside me that had been dying for years finally finished the job. I’d been played from the very beginning.

Every excuse I’d made for him — pitying his guilt, aching over Chloe’s condition — all of it was built on a lie.

“I love that face you make — so pathetic, so broken, too scared to even open your mouth. So what if you’re his wife? He’d do anything for me. Anything.”

The child act was gone. The girl standing in front of me was cold, calculating, and triumphant — waiting for me to shatter.

But I just folded the paper carefully and set it back where it came from. I didn’t say a word.

My grandfather’s words finally made sense. What Harrison and I had was born in a war zone. Take it out of the trenches, and maybe it wouldn’t survive the real world.

He told me not to hold on too tight. Not to be naive.

But I was greedy — I couldn’t let go of a single memory. And I was naive enough to believe it would last.

All those years. Call us even — for the kiss, and for the life he saved.

I left.

On the way, I opened the text Harrison had sent about going with me to the prenatal appointment. [Don’t bother. I took care of it. There is no baby.]

Then I deleted every account, snapped the SIM card in half, and threw it away.

On the plane, I whispered it to no one. “This is the real goodbye, Harrison.”

Harrison read Audrey’s reply and frowned.

She had to be furious to say something like that. Everyone knew how much she wanted kids.

He’d already contacted the best jade restorer in the city. Get the locket fixed, show up with flowers, and she’d come back around. She always did.

Audrey loved him too much to stay angry — that had always been true. But if she was going to act like this, he’d let her cool off for a few days first.

A few days passed. Audrey didn’t fold. What he found instead was a psychiatric evaluation report.

Chloe wasn’t mentally impaired? He stared at the page, his blood running cold. He remembered taking her to that clinic, but the diagnosis she had handed him back then said something entirely different. She had forged the results.

The “accompanied by” field was warped with moisture, the ink bleeding — but his name was still there underneath, barely legible.

Something cold settled in his chest.

Then it hit him all at once. He called Audrey.

“The number you have reached is no longer in service.”