4
“You can’t be serious.”
Kevin said in disbelief. Sandra stood a few feet away with her hands crossed over the edge of his desk. She had a smirk play across the corners of her lips. “Ugh, Rosa,” her voice was teasingly light and fake. “You don’t really mean that. We are all just angry right now.”
Rosa glanced at Kevin and then at Sandra, who had a smug look on her face.
“…I mean it,” she said. “I’m tired, Kevin. I'm Sick of standing by you, while your mother stays committed to humiliating me. Yes, I'm sick of living in the same roof with a husband that doesn't seem to support me and you know what? I’m happy. I'm glad I no longer listen to your mother's nagging daily. ” She looked at Sandra, “Let someone else worry about it.”
The smirk on Sandra's face deepened, but Rosa didn't stick around. Kevin stammered out more words. “You’re overreacting. Everything is okay, it's just a fight that happens to every couple we are going to fix it. You can't just dump our years of being together over one—"
But without another word, Rosa turned and walked up to the door. “Go after her.” She heard Sandra's soft and conniving voice from behind her.
It took a few seconds of silence before Kevin broke the silence. “No. Not today. Not when you've given me everything single thing that she was unable to give me.” Rosa stiffened, but did not turn.
Kevin snarled. “My baby and my heir.” Then she heard the sound of them kissing. Rosa tightened her fingers around the handle and pushed the door open.
The rays from the setting sun slapped her face as she left the building. The heat from it wasn't warm at all. It was brutal, beating down on her skin as though it were punishing her. The lights affected her eyes, but not as much as the tearing heartache in her chest. Bit by bit she could feel the mating bond coming apart.
Inhaling a ragged breath, she lifted her chin as she stared at the glass door. She took in her image from the mirror as her hair remained tidy and tucked behind her ears, her coat was done up, and her lipstick was still intact. She looked controlled, and composed on the outside, hollow and beat up from inside.
She walked across the parking lot, her gaze fixed on her car. Every step she took sent a sharp pain through her chest as the bond was ripping apart deeper. She could feel the burn under her ribs. Her wolf was restless, as it kept whining and stirring, but she struggled to shut it down.
As she walked, her phone began to vibrate in her purse, which she ignored, allowing the sound to seamlessly blend in with the symphony of passing cars and slamming doors. Anyone calling could wait, she decided.
As she entered her car, she opened the door and hurriedly slipped in. She clutched the steering wheel, as her fingers held it tightly to a point where her hands turned white.
And then the memories came flooding into her mind.
Rosa thought back to the image of Kevin, laughing in the kitchen as she broke a plate. “You followed the directions adequately, but…what a disaster,” he'd laughed as he wiped out the flour from her cheek.
She thought back to the way he used to pinch her hand under the table during family dinners. The night they did not sleep as they stayed awake, laughing about dreams that would never see the light of day and plans that might only live in their heads.
Rosa had believed all of it. Every laugh, every silence, every memory. But now everything seemed like a performance to her. Her throat tightened and despite her attempt to blink the tears that were forming in the corner of her eyes away, the tears spilled anyway. They rolled in a way that made it difficult for her to wipe them away.
Her phone buzzed again, louder than before in the quiet car. She looked at the screen and recognized the names, most of which were mutual friends and pack acquaintances. A sharp breath left her as realisation hit her. They didn't call when she'd been left alone for days. They hadn't reported calling her after the incident at the party where she'd been humiliated in front of her guests. So why now? Rosa thought to herself.
Another notification returned, but it was a new and unknown number this time around. Rosa placed the phone facedown in the passenger seat, shutting herself off from everyone on earth.
Though the ache she felt in her chest didn't go away, underneath it all was something else. Something Rosa felt relieved about. She was free from his family’s hatred, his indifference, and his rationalizations.
Although the realisation didn't take away the heartache. She had loved him, wholly and truly and he simply ruined them. Rosa released the wheel with her hands, allowing them to fall into her lap. She closed her eyes and tried to force herself to ignore every thought in her head.
She opened her eyes an instant later, to notice that the sun had moved from one position down in the sky, a bit closer to its resting place, as the parking lot slowly became dark. She sat up a bit straighter, as she drove off not sure of where she was going. Though the only thing she was certain of was that she could never go back there again. Not to Kevin, not to their home, and especially not back to the time when she walked her self-righteous ass into his office thinking she might be the one to save their marriage.
Without a second glance, she drove out of the lot.
The city blurred with colors and movement as she drove past. Rosa kept her hands on the wheel but wasn't really concentrating. The engine hummed continuously with a steady buzz beneath the background noise of her thoughts. Each street she drove by served as a reminder of the places that she shared with Kevin on different occasions, like dinners and errands.
As she drove, she wasn't asking for street names, nor did she look at the signs. Her chest still throbbed from the mate bond having been ripped away. Eventually, she snapped out of her thoughts when the road ahead seemed familiar. Her face folded into a frown as her foot pressed the accelerator, but she didn't stop. She kept her eyes straight ahead until the car silently halted outside the gates of the estate.
Her parents’ home.
Rosa hadn't chosen to come here. Her stomach twisted at the sight of the high black wrought iron and then, the widened driveway.
Rosa stared at the gate, with her hands still on the wheel. She could hear the conversations being played out in her mind. She could hear her mother's voice, scolding her for having ever trusted anyone too much. And her father's being strict but not kind, demanding to know why she hadn't been able to hold her marriage together. The thought alone made her heart race.
“They would see me and conclude that I had let them down.”
“They would ask me to go back, and make it right.” She could hear her mother telling her, that marriage isn't about happiness. But about how long she could maintain.
Rosa's chest felt cold and constricted. She needed comfort, she needed to breathe without having to think about the burden of Kevin's betrayal.
She found herself still staring at the closed gates, still unable to move, while her thoughts battled between wanting to find safety and facing her parents' judgment. Her hands tightened on the wheel at the thought of walking into the house and seeing their eyes, eyes that had judged her value based on what she could bring to them.
Her jaw set as she told herself that maybe she could just drive away. This went on for a few minutes when all of a sudden the gates started opening. The slow and metallic noise jerked her full attention back to the moment, as her throat convulsed causing her to blink.
She looked through her window to see her father step onto the driveway. He was frowning, as he saw her car parked just past the gate.
Rosa loosened her grip on the steering wheel but did not let go of it. She sat still weighing her options. She wasn't sure that she was ready to face her family but now,
That chance to think seemed lost.