Minimal for Me, Everything for Her Chapter 06

Minimal for Me, Everything for Her Chapter 06

Adrian didn’t stay in the hallway.

He left to deal with Sienna’s asset-preservation order.

At eleven that night, he came back and knocked again.

“Nora. We need to talk.”

I didn’t open the door.

“My attorney will talk to you.”

“I won’t agree to an uncontested divorce.”

“Then we’ll let the court decide.”

Silence stretched outside.

Finally, Adrian said quietly, “Sienna and I never slept together.”

My hand paused around my mug.

“So?”

“I admit the gifts were inappropriate, but I didn’t betray our marriage.”

“You think four years of lying doesn’t count as betrayal as long as you didn’t sleep with her?”

“I owed her.”

“For what?”

Adrian hesitated.

“She was there for me when I was at my lowest.”

“So was I.”

Our first year of marriage, he had nights when he couldn’t sleep at all.

I sat beside him until sunrise.

The second year, he was hospitalized with gastrointestinal bleeding.

I stayed at the hospital for seven days.

The third year, he said he was tired of people.

I turned down every social invitation for him and stopped asking him to go anywhere with me.

I learned not to ask.

Not to complain.

Not to pressure him.

In the end, none of that counted as being there for him.

Because I had done it too quietly.

His voice came through the door.

“You and she aren’t the same.”

“You’re right. She got gifts. I got oatmeal.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

He had no answer.

I opened the door.

Adrian stood there holding a huge bouquet of white lisianthus.

The wind had already ruffled the petals.

“You like these, don’t you?”

I looked at them for two seconds.

“Who told you?”

“I remembered.”

“I told you once four years ago, and you remembered now?”

He held them closer.

“At least I remembered.”

I didn’t take them.

“Return them.”

“Nora Bennett, you wanted these.”

“What I wanted was for you to remember without being told. Not for you to turn in the assignment after I

asked for a divorce.”

His throat moved.

“Do you have to talk to me like that?”

“You don’t have to listen.”

I started to close the door.

He blocked it.

“I had the house redone.”

“I put the wedding photo back up. I booked a restaurant for this weekend. We can make up our anniversary.”

“No.”

“Then tell me what else you want.”

I looked at him and suddenly felt exhausted.

“Adrian, I’ve been telling you exactly what I wanted for four years.”

For the first time, real fear entered his eyes.

“Then why did you never say you were going to leave?”

“Because I used to be waiting.”

“And now?”

“Now I’m done.”

Two words.

All the color drained from his face.

His phone rang again.

A voice message from Sienna started playing.

She was crying so hard she could barely breathe.

“Adrian, they took my bags and jewelry. Please come.”

For once, he didn’t answer immediately.

It was the first time in four years he hadn’t rushed away the second Sienna cried.

But before I closed the door, I saw his thumb press Accept.