He Called Divorce Papers A Joke I Called It Done Chapter 04

He Called Divorce Papers A Joke I Called It Done Chapter 04

It took me hours to get Mia down in the uncomfortable hospital cot they’d assigned me. I’d barely closed my eyes when I heard them through the wall — a man and a woman, laughing.

“You know I can’t go half a day without seeing you. Why are you giving me such a hard time?” Declan’s voice came through the thin hospital drywall clear as day.

“Maybe if you didn’t spend all your time defending your boring little wife, you’d remember who your real friends are.” Harper’s voice came out in a purr I’d never heard before.

“I said I was sorry. Doesn’t that count?”

“Sorry for what, exactly?”

“For… making you go twelve whole hours without seeing my face?”

“That’s all you’ve got?”

“Don’t you think you owe me something?”

“I’m not your sad little wife, Declan. You can’t just buy me off with a sorry…”

“How’s that? Are we even now?”

“God, Declan — you’re such an animal. If you leave a mark, I swear I’ll kill you.”

Just good friends. That’s what he’d called it. And he was right there on the other side of the wall.

Whatever he’d been holding back — frustration, desire, all of it — he let it go. The bed frame started hitting the wall.

His breathing. Her moaning. Every sound punched through the drywall and straight into my skull.

My phone buzzed. An unknown number. Then a photo.

Declan’s face, half-buried in Harper’s neck. Scratch marks raked down his bare shoulders. I held the phone so tight the case bit into my palm.

I’d known. Some part of me had known for a long time. But knowing and seeing were two different kinds of pain, and the second one didn’t care how ready you thought you were.

I don’t know how I made it through the rest of that night. At some point, I cried myself to sleep.

I woke to Mia screaming.

My eyes flew open. Harper was standing over the crib.

She had something in her hand — I couldn’t tell what — and she was forcing it into my daughter’s mouth. Mia was choking, gagging, formula sputtering from her lips.

Something inside me exploded. I crossed the room and ripped Harper away from my daughter.

She hit the floor and I was on top of her, slapping her across the face again and again. “What did you give her?! What the hell did you do to my baby?!”

Declan grabbed me and threw me off her. My back hit the floor and something in my spine cracked.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Elena?!” He pulled Harper behind him, staring at me like I was the threat in this room.

“She was feeding the baby, Elena Hayes! She was giving her milk!”

I dragged myself up using the table, staring at him.

“Feeding her? Look at her! Look at how she’s choking and tell me that was just milk!”

“Or did you forget the dead mouse she put in Mia’s crib?”

“Or does sleeping with her make you forget you even have a daughter?”

The slap came before I finished the sentence.

“You’ve completely lost it! What has Harper ever done to you that you hate her this much?!”

I looked at him. The place where my heart used to be was just a hole. There were no more words.

I picked up my daughter and walked out.

Half an hour later.

Declan finished taking care of Harper, went looking for us, and found the room empty. When he couldn’t find us anywhere in the hospital, he texted.

[I don’t have time for this, Elena. Harper’s birthday is in two days. Come apologize, and we’ll put all of this behind us.]

I didn’t answer. Mia and I boarded our flight.

Two days later, Declan rented out an entire floor of a restaurant for Harper’s birthday.

“… Declan, is Elena really so mad at me she won’t even show up to my birthday?”

Harper crossed her legs beneath the table, her heel brushing Declan’s calf every few seconds.

“She wouldn’t dare. She’s just some flower-cart girl who got lucky and thinks she belongs here.”

“That settles it, Declan. Your wife needs to get on her knees and beg Harper for forgiveness. In front of everyone.”

“After what she pulled at the birthday party and the hospital? No way we’re letting that slide.”

Across the table, Declan stared at his phone — at every message I hadn’t answered. He typed one more.

[I’m running out of patience, Elena…]

Before he could hit send, every phone at the table lit up at once. One by one, they checked the notification.

Every face around that table went pale.

“… What the hell is this?”