Eleven Years All to the Wrong Man novel Chapter 79

“A divorce?”

“Emma, don’t you fucking threaten me with a divorce!”

She was only saying it because she knew he was afraid of losing her, wasn't she?

“I’m not threatening you. I’m serious, Evan…”

Emma calmly met the eyes of the man raging in front of her. “I prepared the divorce papers a long time ago. You may have torn up the first copy, but I have backups. I can print them out anytime. If you…”

“Shut up!”

Before Emma could finish, Evan lunged forward, grabbing her by the neck and slamming her back against the wall.

“Shut up! I told you to shut your goddamn mouth!”

Evan was on the verge of a complete breakdown.

Since his company went public, his net worth and status had skyrocketed. Between his growing age and elevated position, it had been a long time since he’d lost his temper like this.

Emma stared at the man before her, his eyes bloodshot.

She saw resolve, anger, and bitterness in them, but beneath it all, a sadness he couldn’t hide.

Evan was crying.

He had her trapped between his body and the wall. He lowered his head in defeat, his tall frame slightly stooped. His forehead was almost touching hers, yet he maintained a small, deliberate distance.

She could hear the sound of his restrained, choked sobs.

Emma leaned against the cold wall, indifferent. She didn’t look down at him. Instead, her gaze went past him, to the large, full-length mirror on the wall behind him.

For the first time, Emma realized she was capable of being this cold and heartless toward Evan.

In the mirror, her expression was devoid of any emotion, as if she were looking at a stranger, or an enemy. Even as Evan wept before her, her heart remained perfectly still, without a single ripple.

She didn’t respond to what he’d just said. Instead, she uttered a non-sequitur. “I’m tired. I’m going to my room to sleep.”

And she was. So tired, she could barely stand.

This time, Evan didn’t try to stop her. He just slumped against the wall where she had been standing, his eyes filled with sorrow and despair as he watched her figure recede up the stairs, moving farther and farther away from him.

Something was slipping away, and Evan didn’t know what to do except to use the crudest, most irrational means to beg it to stay…

Just like Emma had, a year ago.

***

After their fight last night, neither of them had touched the food on the table.

When Mrs. Alvarez arrived the next morning, she saw the untouched dinner and glanced up at the closed door of the master bedroom on the second floor.