My Husband’s Ex Lived in My House for Three Years Chapter 06
My phone started buzzing again, and a familiar string of numbers jumped onto the screen. I hesitated a few seconds, then picked up.
“Caroline.”
Lucas kept his voice low, like he was holding something back hard.
“What’s the meaning of everything you had Langley Group post?”
“Exactly what the statement said.”
“You want a divorce, fine. But I already bought you a new…”
“Lucas.”
I cut him off, and my voice came out calmer than even I expected.
“I’m not divorcing you because I’m short of anything.”
The line went silent for a few seconds.
“I’m divorcing you because, even while you were married to me, you were still busy looking out for another woman.”
“I’m divorcing you because you never once let go of that old relationship.”
“I’m divorcing you because when it came down to me or Hannah, the wife was never the one you put first.”
I said it slowly, one word after another, like I was tallying up three years of accounts.
Lucas finally spoke, his voice a little hoarse.
“Caroline, nothing ever happened between Hannah and me…”
“Whether anything happened between you two doesn’t matter anymore,” I cut in. “What matters is that your heart was never with me.”
I paused. The night wind poured in off the balcony, and I lifted a hand to tuck the loose strands back behind my ear.
“And another thing. You said I grew up coddled, wrapped in cotton wool my whole life.”
“Let me tell you, that’s not true.”
“Every dollar I’ve earned since I became an adult, I earned myself through my own work.”
“The Langley family fortune belongs to my father, not to me.”
“I started at the very bottom at Langley Group.”
“My first year’s paycheck wasn’t even enough to cover six months’ rent in the city.”
“You say I’ve had everything handed to me since I was a kid, but that’s only because I worked myself to the bone and earned it on my own.”
“I never lived a pampered life. I just don’t have the habit of parading my hardships around.”
“In three years of marriage you never once really understood me, so you have no right to talk about me that way.”
The other end of the line stayed quiet for a long time.
It stayed quiet long enough that I thought he’d already hung up before he finally spoke, the certainty gone from his voice and replaced by a panic I’d never heard from him before.
“That’s not what I meant…”
“Caroline, I know the whole Hannah situation upset you, but nothing ever happened between her and me.”
“We broke up ages ago. It’s all in the past.”
“I just felt sorry for her and wanted to help her out. Can’t you try to understand me a little?”
When he finished, his voice dropped.
“What do you want me to do to get you to come home?”
I looked at the night outside the window, and my mouth curved without any warmth in it.
“Lucas, do you even know what breaking up means?”
He said nothing.
“Breaking up means your world and hers have nothing to do with each other anymore.”
“Whether she’s doing well, whether she’s pitiful, whether she needs help, none of it is your business now.”
“You still want to help her, and it isn’t out of guilt and it isn’t out of sympathy.”
I stopped for half a second.
“It’s because you still have feelings for her. It’s because you can’t stand to watch her suffer.”
“Caroline…” Something seemed to clog his throat.