The Return of the Ex Wife

Ivanna Robinson

Two tears fall from my eyes and run down my cheeks. Only two. My chest burns, I can't breathe, and I feel like I might faint at any moment.

Viena took me out of the clinic, left me sitting in a café across the street, and went back to find out firsthand what's happening with Abigail and her pregnancy.

Her child.

The one she's expecting with Shane, my husband, my subconscious reminds me, as if it needs to repeat it over and over for me to believe it.

A reality I don't dare face. I can't even bring myself to call him and ask for an explanation-not now, when everything between us was about to change. Our lives. Our marriage.

I wrap my arms around my still-flat stomach. A sob escapes me, and I close my eyes so I won't see how many people around me are watching me fall apart. Two whole years trying to get pregnant, going to fertility appointments, crying in secret because I couldn't give the man I love what he wants most. Entire nights watching him sleep, feeling that one day everything between us would fall apart, only to wake up hours later and see in his eyes that he loved me above everything else.

But today my world collapsed. Everything was wiped away. My worst nightmare came true.

I take out my phone with trembling fingers. I find my husband's contact and press call. It rings and rings, nonstop, until it cuts off. My heart aches, but I tell myself it could just be a coincidence. That he's busy.

I open our chat, and when I see the last message he sent me, my eyes fill with tears again.

"I love you so much I can't imagine a life without you. Tonight we'll celebrate our anniversary. We deserve it."

Nostalgia, tangled with pain and sadness, consumes me, because it's not even an anniversary in the strict sense of the word. It's just another month of marriage.

Two years and two months.

That's how long we've been married.

My fingers hover over the keyboard a second too long before I start typing what will be my first test.

"Love, I have a surprise for you. Where are you? I can't wait to see your reaction."

My heart pounds so hard it blocks out sound. My hands tremble as I keep staring at the screen. At the read receipt that appears almost instantly.

But there's no reply for several long minutes.

Until I lift my gaze and see a car pull up to the clinic.

A car I know well.

My phone buzzes in my hands before I see the man I love step out. Before I see him rush into the clinic.

With my soul shattered, I lower my gaze and read his message.

"I'm sorry, Ivanna, now's not a good time. I'm in the middle of something important. I'm not up for surprises today."

If I thought my heart had already broken, now I know it's been reduced to dust.

Completely destroyed.

"Why are you lying to me? Why did you do this?" I whisper, feeling a level of disappointment that physically hurts.

Viena arrives minutes later, and her face tells me everything.

There's no good news.

She sits beside me, pale, her hands trembling as she drinks the water I ordered earlier and never touched.

"Ivy, Abigail lost the baby. Shane was arriving when I was leaving, and I saw him holding her like he felt it... like it was real... like they really are... that they're lovers."

The word lovers feels like a whip cracking across my back. I close my eyes and let my emotions spill out-my pain, my frustration.

How did such a wonderful day turn so toxic?

"What are you going to do?" my friend asks.

I look at her, not knowing what to say. I shrug. I don't have a plan.

"I'll be at home, and I'll wait for him there. If he came to the clinic, he knows I know his secret. He has to face me. The Shane I know isn't a coward."

Viena looks at me like she wants to argue. I can almost read the subtitles on her face.

The Shane you know doesn't exist.

"Are you going to tell him about your pregnancy?"

I shake my head.

"I'm going to see what he has to say. I still want to believe this is all a misunderstanding. Stupid? Yes, I am. But it's hard for me to throw away all my love, my devotion. I want to hear his reasons. I want to know what to do when he tells me the truth. If this ends my marriage, then so be it. And my child-this miracle-will be mine alone."

"Ivy..."

"It's decided, Viena. If Shane really cheated on me and asked Abigail for an heir, then there's nothing left to do. He made his choice. I'll just act accordingly."

***

The house is empty. Lonely. It feels cold.

I know Shane wouldn't be here, but arriving alone feels worse than I imagined.

How can I look at this house the same way now? The place where we were happy?

It's not possible.

I set my bag on the kitchen island and pour myself a glass of water. I drink it all in one go-my throat is dry.

I sit in the living room when I feel steady enough to move, and I wait there. Phone in hand, two hours pass. Three. My stomach growls with hunger.

I call him. It takes too much effort to look up his name, to see the affectionate way I saved his contact. But I stay strong. I can't be weak now. The call goes to voicemail. It doesn't surprise me, but another piece inside me breaks.

There's a knock at the door, the sharp sound making me jump. I know it's not Shane-he has a key, and I don't think formalities matter between us now.

Slowly, I stand and wait for the dizziness to pass before walking to the door. When I open it, I find Shane's lawyer standing there. He's holding a briefcase, and unlike other times, there's nothing pleasant in his expression.

"Mrs. Robinson, I'm here on your husband's orders. May I come in?"

My skin prickles, but I nod. I know nothing good will come of this.

I step aside to let him in and follow him to the living room, watching him sit on the couch and open his briefcase.

I sit in the armchair beside him, still not understanding anything.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" I ask, watching him pull out paper after paper, along with a fine-tip pen.

He looks up at me over his glasses, irritation in his expression. He nods.

"This is the divorce agreement, ma'am."

If I weren't sitting, I would have fallen. A ringing fills my ears and my chest tightens-it feels like I can't breathe.

"Can you repeat that?"

This has to be a mistake. Shane can't do this to me. Not like this.

"I am Mr. Robinson's attorney, and as his legal representative, I am presenting you with the divorce agreement. Please read and sign it."

He extends the document toward me. His grip is steady, nothing like the tremor in my hand as I take it, my mouth dry, my heartbeat pounding in my throat.

"Why isn't Shane here, facing me with this... request?"

"Mr. Robinson has more important matters to attend to. This is just a simple formality."

A punch to the stomach would hurt less. He just made it clear how little I matter to the man I love-the man I thought I would build a life with. A forever.

What changed so much? When?

Was everything always a lie?

I open the document and start reading, but by the first page my head spins, and I close it again.

"This has to be a joke. Two years of marriage, and the only thing he intends to give me in this agreement is my... the ring I bought."

A sob escapes me at the end. I can't believe it.

It's not that I ever cared about Shane's money, but leaving me with nothing, without even an explanation? Just giving me back the ring I worked so hard to afford?

It's humiliating.

I swallow hard and look at the man in front of me as he hands me a thick envelope, which I assume contains the ring.

I take it with a trembling hand.

And out of sheer anger, I grab the pen as well. I find the spaces where I need to sign and, without thinking, I do.

Each stroke of my signature is a piece of my soul I place in Shane's hands.

A final goodbye to everything we could have had-but that is now ruined.

And the farewell he didn't have the guts to give me.