for a long moment before finally saying, “Get in. I’ll take you back.”
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π Gifts
7/7
Her Sacred Lie
1/8
Chapter 20 What’s There to Be Jealous About?
“No, I’m not going home,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head drunkenly. “I’m sleeping at the office tonight.”
I hadn’t expected this. She stumbled toward me and tilted my chin up with her finger.
“Julian, I know what’s bothering you,” she said, her voice suddenly gentle. “Tonight you showed up, and I’m doing what you want. Gideon and Callum are at the house, but I’m not going back. Does that make you happy?”
Faced with Elizabeth’s soft probing, I instinctively took half a step back, my emotions in turmoil.
It was ironic that after five years of marriage, she was finally willing to compromise and accommodate me, but only after I’d firmly decided on divorce.
Even her attempts at meeting me halfway now just felt like a cruel joke.
Elizabeth knew what I was upset about all along. Yet when I still had hope for us, she stayed silent and made unilateral decisions. in our marriage.
It’s too late now, Elizabeth. I don’t care anymore.
Chapter 20 What’s There to Be Jealous Abo…
If you only learn to value something after losing it, then you never deserved it in the first place.
“Where will you sleep at the office?” I asked. “Let’s just go home.”
I didn’t take the olive branch she extended, my expression remaining as detached as a stranger’s.
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Elizabeth hesitated in her tipsy state, then explained, “I have a small bedroom in my office. I often rest there when I’m tired from work.”
A bedroom in her office? As her husband of five years, I was just learning about this today.
So she’d kept a backup plan at the office all along.
Elizabeth, you probably wouldn’t realize that your instinctive explanation just revealed how little respect you had for me.
I couldn’t help wondering if she and Callum had private meetings there. Was that where their child came from?
I was in the dark about everything, like some clueless idiot who never saw the truth.
But Elizabeth, if you two had a private meeting spot, why did you go to a hotel that day?
Looking at this perfect woman standing before me, I suddenly
Chapter 20 What’s There to Be Jealous Abo…
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felt like she was a complete stranger, as if I’d never truly known
her at all.
“Fine,” I said. “Go up then.”
A mix of complicated, ironic emotions swirled inside me, but on my face, they translated into nothing more than a bland smile.
We were getting divorced anyway, so what did it matter how much Elizabeth had lied to me or kept from me?
She clearly wasn’t the right person for me, so why keep torturing myself over her?
“Sure,” she replied.
Elizabeth had no idea what I was actually thinking. Seeing me finally smile, she assumed I was satisfied with her concession.
My change in attitude even brought a hint of a smile to her face.
Little did she know, that smile wasn’t forgiveness, just me finally cutting my losses.
For the next five minutes, I helped her with her bag, locked the car, and escorted her to the executive office on the top floor.
There was a time when I’d followed behind her like this countless times, worried about her stomach, concerned when she’d had too much to drink.
But now, though the scene looked the same, my feelings couldn’t
Chapter 20 What’s There to Be Jealous Abo… 4/8 be more different.
We were barely 20 inches apart. Before, that distance existed because Elizabeth practiced Buddhism and didn’t want me touching her, not even to help her walk.
Now, I simply had zero interest in her. I kept my distance like I would with a stranger, polite, but cold.
For some reason, though, as we walked, Elizabeth began drifting closer to me. She was mumbling under her breath, giving off an enticing scent.
“Julian, I’ve had too much to drink. I’m a bit unsteady… could you help me?”
“Just hang in there a little longer. We’re almost there,” I said flatly.
There was a time when Elizabeth’s request would have sent me over the moon. I would’ve jumped at the chance to hold her close and gently tuck her into bed.
But now, keeping my distance from my soon–to–be ex–wife seemed like the smarter move.
As Elizabeth moved closer, I sidestepped away. I couldn’t let her actually fall, though, so I reluctantly extended my hand like an assistant and gave her arm the lightest support possible.
“Careful,” I murmured.
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Chapter 20 What’s There to Be Jealous Abo… Elizabeth froze al my warning. Her beautiful eyes widened in disbelief, like she couldn’t comprehend that the husband who had bent over backward for her, who’d spent five years chasing her cold shoulder with nothing but warmth, would treat her this
way.
“Thanks,” she muttered, suddenly deflating. She stopped leaning toward me and walked ahead on her own.
We entered the office where she expertly retrieved a key from the drawer and unlocked a small door hidden beside the bookcase.
That was when I stopped in my tracks, refusing to go any further.
I had zero interest in seeing the bedroom she’d kept secret from me, and even less desire to discover evidence of another man living there.
What did her bedroom have to do with me anyway?
“Julian, where are you going?” Elizabeth turned around with a confused look when she noticed I wasn’t following her.
“I’ve dropped you off. I should get going now,” I replied calmly.
My response left Elizabeth completely stunned. “What do you. mean? You’re not staying with me tonight?” she blurted out.
Now I was the confused one. “You want me to stay?”
Chapter 20 What’s There to Be Jealous Abo…
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This wasn’t Elizabeth’s style at all. Throughout our marriage, she’d been constantly irritated with me, practically wishing I’d disappear from her life forever.
Only on that one day each month–the day she actually needed me–would she show me even a hint of warmth.
“Of course you’re staying. Why else did you come over tonight?” Elizabeth’s voice suddenly rose as realization seemed to dawn on
her.
“You pulled a false fire alarm to force me to come here,” I
reminded her.
My response hit a nerve. Elizabeth’s expression immediately crumbled. Her brows furrowed tightly as her tone shifted back to the cold, superior questioning I’d endured for the past five
years.
“Julian, I think you know exactly what I mean when I ask you to
stay…”
“I know what you’re getting at. And my answer is no,” I said firmly.
We were both adults, married for five years, no less. Some things didn’t need to be spelled out. Elizabeth taking this step had already surprised me more than I expected.
But so what? I was supposed to jump for joy just because she made a move for once?
Chapter 20 What’s There to Be Jealous Abo…
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No way, Elizabeth. From now on, that Julian who loved you so much, who cared about you was history.
“Goodnight,” I said quietly, turning to leave.
Behind me, Elizabeth’s voice immediately cracked with
frustration.
“Enough, Julian! What more do you want? Or what do you want me to do for you?” she demanded. “Do you really want me, a woman, to beg you for this?”
The untouchable goddess begging me to sleep with her? I wouldn’t dare dream of it.
“Of course not,” I replied coldly. “You’re the untouchable goddess, and I’m just a normal guy, a mortal. I wouldn’t dare. hope for anything more.”
This was the cold, hard truth. It was also the lesson Elizabeth had taught me throughout our five–year marriage.
A mortal couldn’t make demands of a goddess. That would be sacrilege.
Yet somehow the very class difference she’d made me internalize had now become the reason she was breaking down.
“Stop with that passive–aggressive bullshit!” she snapped. “You know damn well that’s not what I meant.
“Julian, don’t think I don’t know what this is about. You’re just
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Chapter 20 What’s There to Be Jealous Abo… jealous, aren’t you? When is this going to end? I seriously don’t understand what you could possibly be jealous about. How can you be so incredibly petty!”
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