Goodbye Saintess. novel Chapter 26

” Her soft , coaxing voice stirred something complicated inside me , and I instinctively stepped back . I couldn’t believe it . Five years of marriage , and only now , after I’d already decided to leave , did she start to compromise . Even that so – called compromise felt like an insult . So she did know all along what had been bothering me . Yet back when I still clung to hope , when I still held out for us , she never cared . She ruled our marriage as if it were her solo performance . But now ? It was too late . I didn’t care anymore .

If you had to lose something to learn its value , maybe you never deserved it to begin with . ” How exactly are you going to sleep at the office ? Just go home , ” I said without softening my voice . My face remained cold and unreadable . She blinked , briefly stunned , then explained , ” There’s a small bedroom in my office . I usually nap there when I’m overworked . ” A bedroom ? In her office ? After five years of marriage , this was the first I’d heard of it . Had she planned this all along ?

‘ Hera , you probably don’t realize it , but that little explanation just showed how little you ever truly respected me , ‘ I thought . I couldn’t help but wonder if she had used that room to meet Edmund in secret . Was that how Bobby came into the picture ? I didn’t know anything anymore . Everything felt like a cruel joke I’d been left out of . And if she had a place to sneak around , why had they ended up in a hotel that night ? The woman in front of me , flawless as ever , suddenly felt like a stranger . I felt as if I’d never truly known her . ” Fine . I’ll send you up .

” A storm of emotions churned inside me – anger , betrayal , resentment – but none showed on my face . All she saw was a calm , indifferent smile . We were getting divorced anyway . The lies she had fed me and the truths she had hidden no longer mattered . She was never meant to be my forever . So why keep tormenting myself ? ” Okay . ” Hera didn’t see any of this . She saw only the smile and thought I appreciated her small gesture of compromise . She even smiled back , believing we had made progress . She failed to realize this was not forgiveness . It was closure .

The next five minutes passed in silence . I grabbed her purse , locked the car , and walked her to her CEO suite at Edge Inc. In the past , I had followed her like this countless times – worried about her stomach , her drinking , her exhaustion , her every need . Now , even in the same setting , my heart felt completely different . We were barely half a meter apart , yet the distance between us stretched like a lifetime . She used to push me away because of her Awakenist beliefs . She never let me touch her , not even to steady her steps . Now , it was me who refused to reach out .