The Dissipation of Love

I said, "I lost the baby. I'd like to go abroad as soon as possible."

There was a brief moment of silence on the other line, followed by Bailey's response. "All right. I'll put your name down on the list of employees we're dispatching abroad and make the flight arrangements. You leave in a week, so get some rest before then."

"Thank you, Mr. Jones," I replied gratefully. I heaved a breath of relief after sorting out my work plans.

Throughout my week-long stay at the hospital, Jonathan didn't contact me once. He couldn't care less that I'd suffered a bad fall while I was supposedly pregnant with our child.

I might have thrown a hysterical fit in the past and demanded he make it up to me, but now that I'd come to terms with the cold, hard truth, I saw no point in arguing with him.

During my stay, I overheard the nurses talking among themselves. "The kid in Room 19, Amanda Grossman, sure is lucky to have such loving parents. Her dad got her a whole bunch of toys and health supplements. The other day, he even got his wife a necklace."

I pulled up Charlotte's Instagram post and saw that the new necklace she wore was the exact one I had told Jonathan I wanted. But things like this didn't surprise or wound me anymore.

After I was discharged from the hospital, I hailed a cab and went home to pack my suitcase. The house was exactly as I had left it. It seemed Jonathan hadn't come home or realized I had been in hospital for the past week.

I found his collection of limited-edition stamps and commemorative coins in his study and put them up for sale online. It didn't take long for me to recoup the hundred grand he had blown through on Amanda's medical bills.

Having done so, I threw out our pictures and destroyed the handwritten wedding vows he had given me. I even took off my plain wedding band and set it on the coffee table to make a point.

I cleared any and all traces of me in the house. When I was done, I signed my name on the divorce papers.

…

I couldn't get through to Jonathan, so I sought him out at the hospital. When I peered through the glass window and saw him fussing over Amanda and Charlotte, a bitterness surged through me.

Jonathan wouldn't even lift a finger at home. He didn't fuss over me when I was sick and couldn't be bothered to so much as pour me a glass of water. Yet now, he was taking care of someone else tirelessly.

He didn't realize I was there until I knocked on the door.

Sighing, he left the room and frowned at me. "Where have you been the last couple of days? The summer heat has Amanda changing clothes more frequently than usual. Go get her some new clothes, will you?"

Perhaps Jonathan noticed I was sweating, for he headed back into the room and returned with an apple. He shoved it into my hand forcefully as if to compensate me for my troubles.

I lowered my gaze to hide the emotions flickering through my eyes. Jonathan and I had been married for three years, yet he couldn't seem to remember how I would break out in hives if I so much as took a bite of an apple.

I produced the divorce papers and held them out to him. "Let's get a divorce."

Jonathan looked at me as if I were joking. He snorted and waved the papers away impatiently. "Now's not the time for your nonsense, Tessa. We're busy here."

"This isn't nonsense." I smiled and handed him the pen. "I'm serious about the divorce."

"All right, fine," he said as if humoring a petulant child. I knew he didn't think I would actually divorce him, so he stonily signed the papers and repeated his demands from earlier. "Go to the shop across the hospital and get Amanda some new clothes now!"

I turned and grabbed my suitcase, then set my abortion slip and the divorce papers on the coffee table to mark the end of us.