Dear Ex-Wife You Are MINE (Victoria and Alessandro) novel Chapter 4

ALESSANDRO POV

An alarm rang annoyingly beside my head, and I angrily slammed the buzzer. Due to a disciplined life since childhood, I’d always been an early riser. So the hour nor the alarm would typically bother me. But I’d spent the night tossing and turning, thinking about Victoria. I’d only slept an hour, two tops.

Why I can’t stop thinking about her? I shook my head in frustration. Rubbing my face, I stepped out of bed and went to my closet to get my things for the office. There I was confronted with another reminder as Victoria’s colorful clothes hung as if mocking me. Though she was an introvert, she had an unpredictable personality and loved vibrant clothes and makeup. Still, she always presented herself as ladylike.

I shook my head again, frustrated that I still couldn’t get her out of my mind. With a sigh, I focused on my side of the closet. Everything remained the same as always, except there was no ready for me—one of the maid’s tasks. I frowned at her oversight. Maybe it was time for a change?

I picked up a black shirt and paired it with a silver-grey suit, then tried to find my black cufflinks to no avail. After several minutes of unsuccessful searching, I called my maid, Lauren.

In moments, she knocked on the door and stepped inside. “Yes, master Devonte?” she asked, standing straight, with her head slightly lowered.

“Where are my black cufflinks?” I demanded impatiently. “You only have one job, and you can’t even get that right? You didn’t even prepare my suit today. Why am I even paying you?”

She flinched at my icy tone. “M–Master Devonte, your clothes have always been sorted by Mrs. Devonte. I never touched your things after she came into the mansion.”

I blinked twice to digest what she’d said. All that time, I had thought the maid organized my clothes, yet it had been Victoria all along?

My fists clenched. “Leave,” I commanded too loudly. As much as I tried to control my tone, the harshness never subdued.

Lauren nodded and scurried out of the room.

I called Victoria, thinking she wouldn’t answer. But then her voice drifted into my ear over the phone, and I swore I had never heard anything so breathtaking, so melodious. Why had it never felt like that before? Why now, after she decided to leave me?

“Hello?” she said again.

I cleared my throat. Not wanting to let her hear my desperation, “Well, uh... I called to ask about my black cufflinks. Lauren said you kept track of them. Where are they?” I tried to sound serious and reluctant at the same time.

“In the closet. Second drawer on the right beside the ties in a black velvet box,” she said. “And find your own things from now on. Stop looking for stupid excuses to disturb me.”

The line went dead, and I stared at the phone. Did she really just hang up on me? Rage engulfed me, and I threw the phone on the floor. “Fuck her and fuck cuffs! I can work without them!”

With my temper flaring, I didn’t even bother with breakfast before going to the office.

Once there, I sat at my desk thinking about how messed up everything seemed to have become overnight. But I managed before she came into my life, didn’t I? So why did it feel like everything was falling apart without her, as if I had lost all control over my life?

Absently, I tapped on the table while I peered out the window. I had been at the office for an hour, and I was sitting there as if I had nothing to do. Never in the three years we were together had I felt like that, so all consumed by her. How could a woman affect me so much?

The intercom rang, pulling me from my thoughts. “What is it?” I barked into the machine.

Calvin answered, “Sir, Mrs. Devonte is here. She wants to meet with you.”

My heart stopped. Sh–she came to meet me! Sweat beaded on my brow. “I—Yeah, let her in,” I said, trying to sound authoritative and not too flustered, though I was certain my excitement didn’t go unnoticed.