the—” I started in a low, rough voice, but Jack cut me off before I could finish my sentence.
“If I could talk to you in private, Rose?”
I looked back up at him, trying my best not to show that I had forgotten how to breathe like a normal person in the last minute or so. I cleared my throat and nodded.
“Kitchen?”
I nodded again and watched as he moved around the counter and walked straight back there. Sally bumped her shoulder into mine and smiled when I gave her a startled look.
“You miss him. Be nice. I think you’ve made him suffer long enough. You suffered enough as well.”
I didn’t respond, just turned to Owen. “I’ll, uh, I’ll be back in a minute. If you could just—”
“I have plenty of things to do out here. Go make up or whatever so we can breathe easy again.”
I hit him on the shoulder as I walked past him into the kitchen. I only had enough time to take a deep breath before I was standing across from Jack again, this time with the island between us. I took in his dark grey suit, crisp white shirt, and black tie. He was made to wear suits and break my heart.
I reached for a kitchen towel just to have something in my hands and looked away. While I was busy trying to find the right words to apologize for what I had said at his office, Jack spoke up.
“You can’t even look at me, can you?”
Startled by his words, I met his gaze. Was that what he thought?
“Jack, I—”
“It doesn’t matter now,” he continued. “I came to give you this in person.” He unrolled the file in his hands and put it on the island, right next to the triple chocolate brownies, then pushed it my way.
My eyes still on him, I reached for it.
“What is this?” My voice came out like a whisper.
When he didn’t answer, I looked down and turned the first page.
Shocked by what I was reading, my eyes flew up to his.
“Divorce papers,” he said calmly.
I was anything but calm. My mind in overdrive, my eyes tried to follow the words and sentences, but it was all a jumbled mess in front of me.
“You want a divorce?” I croaked out, the papers slightly trembling. I tightened my grip to hide it from his eyes.
“Yes. It’s the right thing…for you.”
My brows drew together and some heat started to come back to my limbs. I forced myself to drop the papers on the island and take a step back as if they would come alive and bite my fingers off.
This time I met his gaze straight on, the dread and excitement turning into anger. “For me. How about you? What do you get out of it?”
He tilted his head to the side, his eyes slightly narrowing in a calculating manner. “It’s the right thing for me too.”
A little dazed, I nodded. Barely able to speak through the tightness in my throat, I said, “I see.” Impressive word choices, I know.
I was so out of it that I didn’t even notice him taking out a pen from his suit jacket and offering it to me.
I stared at him as if he had sprouted another head.
“You want me to sign it…now.”
It wasn’t a question, but he treated it as such.
“Yes. I’d like to get it done right now.”
“You’d like to get it done right now,” I echoed.
“Preferably.”
That word—that one annoying word pushed me over the edge of worry and guilt into anger.
Preferably.
I decided right then and there that it was the most ridiculous and annoying word in the world. I didn’t touch the pen. I didn’t pick up the papers.
I crossed my arms against my chest. “The right thing to do would’ve been to be honest with me from the beginning.”
Cool as a cucumber, he pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants as red-hot fury licked over my skin.
“You’re right, which is why I’d like you to sign the papers.”
“No.”
His brows drew together as he looked at me from across the space. “No?”
“No.” I was very good at being stubborn. I was like a cow—if I didn’t want to be moved, you couldn’t move me, no matter who or what came.
“Rose—”
“No.”
He gritted his teeth. “Why?”
I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “I don’t think I feel like signing anything today. Maybe some other time.”
“Rose, it needs to be today.”
“Really?” I asked, making a thinking face and then grimacing. “Ah, I’m so sorry. I’m busy today. Maybe