For the first time, I didn't pick up immediately.
The phone rang and went silent, rang and went silent again. After the third time, I steadied myself and answered.
I still couldn't bring myself to speak. Joe's voice came through the line, low and detached. “Sarah, did your test results come back? What did the doctor say?”
An hour ago, those words would have melted me. I would have been so grateful I wouldn't have known what to say. Now, all I felt was how cheap his concern really was.
I'd been throwing up everything I ate for weeks. In just one month, I'd lost over ten pounds.
Terrified it was something serious, I'd asked Joe to take time off and come with me to the hospital. He agreed, then told me that morning something had come up at the office and I should go alone.
I was disappointed, but I understood. What I never could have imagined was that Joe's idea of "busy" meant accompanying Lillian Fox to her prenatal checkup.
When I still didn't respond, his voice rose slightly on the other end.
I actually heard a note of urgency in it.
I closed my eyes, forcing down the wave of nausea clawing up from my stomach.
“Nothing serious. Just my stomach acting up again.”
Back when Joe was first starting out, I'd wined and dined investors on his behalf until I drank myself into a gastric hemorrhage. Even after years of careful treatment, the pain still flared up without warning. But the stomach excuse was just something I tossed out to get him off the phone.
After walking in on what looked like one happy little family of three at the hospital. No, four, to be precise.
I'd fled in a blind panic without even picking up my test results. Where was I supposed to find the presence of mind to see a doctor?
“Good. The merger deal at the office still isn't wrapped up, so I'll be home late.”
“Oh, and I already sent someone to pick up Sunny. Just get some rest.”
Right on cue, a text arrived from the secretary I'd once sponsored. 【There was a merger meeting today, but Mr. Delgado never showed. The VP handled it.】
Of course. Joe was lying to me again.
A bitter smile tugged at my lips.
Back then, he'd been so tight with money he wouldn't even give me a wedding.
Now he was willing to blow off a multimillion-dollar meeting just to hold his college sweetheart's hand at her ultrasound.
He hung up almost before I could respond.
Outside the window, the rain came down harder. I felt cold straight through, like ice had settled into my bones.
I stood slowly and walked to the safe in the study, punching in the combination from memory.
Click. The door swung open.
I left the gold bars untouched. The only thing I took was the stock transfer agreement for Delgado Group.
Years ago, to help him start his company, I'd sold the jewelry my mother left me behind my father's back. I'd even used the Henson name to co-sign more guarantees than I could count.
He'd held my hands that day, his eyes shining. “Sarah, when this company goes public, I'm making you the largest shareholder. You deserve that.”
Then the company did go public. And he gave me ten percent, hiding behind excuses about avoiding conflicts of interest and protecting the ownership structure.
I'd been too blinded by love to care about the numbers back then. Now I was just grateful I hadn't been foolish enough to give those shares back.
I called Jordan again. “On top of the divorce, I need you to help me sell off my ten percent of the original shares.”
Two seconds of silence. “Sarah, Delgado Group is on the rise. You dump that ten percent and Joe could lose absolute control of his own company.”
My eyes were glacial. “That's exactly the point. I want to drag him down from the clouds and bury him in the dirt.”
“Are you sure about this?” Jordan sighed. “Once those shares are gone, there's no coming back. Not for you and him. Ever.”
I let out a hollow laugh. ：“He never loved me. There was never a 'you and him' to come back to.”
All I could do now was take back everything I'd given him before he realized what was happening.
As for the love that was never mine, the bond with a son who'd been turned against me, I was done wanting any of it.
