Her jaw tightened.
"I'll handle it."
"Handle what?" I looked at her. "Handle him, or handle me?"
Julia said nothing.
I turned and walked into the bedroom, pulled open the closet, and took out a suitcase. Three years of marriage, and I didn't have much. A few clothes, some everyday things. Not enough to fill one case.
Julia followed me in and watched me pack.
"Where are you going?"
"My mother's place, for now."
"Theo, don't do something rash."
I ignored her and zipped the suitcase shut. She put her hand down on it. "Let's talk this through."
"Talk about what?"
"About us."
"There's nothing complicated about us." I looked at her. "You don't love me. You love Oliver. You married me because he hadn't come back. Now he's back. I'm stepping aside. Happy?"
Her hand pressed flat on the case, the knuckles white.
"There's really nothing between him and me."
"Then do you have the nerve to tell him to my face that you feel nothing for me?"
She didn't move.
I waited ten seconds, twenty, half a minute.
"You don't, do you?" I pulled her hand off. "Then don't get in my way."
I carried the case to the door. Julia caught up and blocked it.
"Theo, listen to me—"
"Move."
"No. You can't leave today."
I looked up at her. Her eyes had gone red, her voice a little hoarse. "I know I was wrong, but you can't just walk out like this. Three years of marriage, and you call it off, just like that?"
"Three years of marriage, three years of you carrying someone else in your heart, and did I say a word?"
Julia opened her mouth and nothing came out.
I pushed past her and pulled the door open.
Oliver was standing outside.
He still had that folder in his hands. He hadn't left at all.
He looked at the case in my hand, then at Julia behind me, and put on a worried face. "Theo, where are you going?"
I didn't answer him and dragged the case out.
Oliver turned to Julia. "Julie, what's wrong with you two? Is it because of me—"
"It's none of your business," Julia said.
But her eyes had already given her away.
I saw it clear as day. When she looked at Oliver, there was a light in her eyes. A light that had never once been there when she looked at me.
The elevator doors opened and I stepped in.
Julia rushed over and, in the last second before the doors closed, threw out her hand to stop them. "Theo, give me three days. I'll get everything sorted out."
"No need."
