Looking at my mother's unconscious face, I couldn't take it anymore. I dialed the number.
"Listen to me. Seven days. I want them destroyed."
……
A pause. Then:
"You should have done this a long time ago. I told you back then that man was no good. I'll help you. Seven days from now, I'll come for you."
I bit down on my lower lip until the taste of blood spread across my tongue. Only then could I force the sob back down my throat.
"Start by drafting a divorce agreement for me."
The voice on the other end agreed. The tears I'd been fighting spilled over, and I hung up.
The phone slipped from my fingers. I buried my face in my hands, my shoulders trembling.
I had been married to Guy James for five years.
Since high school, I'd loved him for a full decade. No one knew how overjoyed I was when he proposed. No one could have.
He was the James family's illegitimate son, raised on cruelty and contempt, and it had forged him into something cold and guarded, armored against the world.
But I threw myself at those walls anyway. I believed love could melt the ice.
Everyone said Guy James was crazy about me. That if I asked for the stars, he'd find a way to pluck them from the sky and lay them at my feet.