Promises Forgotten
Chapter 11

His back was turned to me and he was looking out the window. I thanked the gods that I didn’t meet his eyes. I think right there I would have crumbled. But seeing his back, being reminded that all I would ever see is this man’s back made me angrier. It helped me look back down at the page and fight through the pain that now hammered in my heart.

Reading over the first couple pages, I went back and started crossing out paragraphs. Fifteen million. They were offering me fifteen f*****g million and part of me wanted to be a petty bitch and take them for all their f*****g pennies. I couldn’t, though. I couldn’t even take them for more than what I was thinking to help Elliot in the future. Reading through more of it, fifteen million wasn’t even all of it. They also added in a trust of five million, which I crossed out and put one million. That would cover all of Elliot’s college and then some if he wanted to invest in something for his future. Everything else though, I crossed out.

I came to a fun clause to where I couldn’t tell anyone about our relationship and I crossed that shit out real quick but amended it myself to say that we could not tell a member of the media; print, video, or otherwise. As much as he didn’t want news of our marriage getting out there, and I had no plans to put it out there, I would not be limited from telling my son about his father or if my son wanted to tell others. We would have that talk when he was old enough to question it, but I didn’t want to be bound by a contract to stay quiet.

Frankly, this whole paper reeked of hush money. It was insulting. If I wanted to out him, I would have done so much earlier. I tapped the pen against my cheek as I read through some of the paragraphs.

“How are you?”

I froze. Every cell in my body froze. Hearing his voice, my heart hammered in my throat and I dug my nail into my finger, causing enough pain to allow me to answer.

“What the f**k do you care?” I bit back at him, not raising my eyes from the divorce agreement in front of me.

Three f*****g years and he asks me how am I? What the f**k is he on? How did he think I would react?

“I’m sorry if you thought that was an inconsiderate question, considering the circumstances.”

I snorted. “Political apologies don’t won’t here. I’m not one of your billionaire friends ready to suck your d**k for a piece of the pie.”

Flipping the document to the next page, a hand stopped me from being able to read the top paragraph. My eyes traveled up to look at the deep blue eyes of my husband. He was leaning over the table, clearly angry from my retort, which made me smirk.

“Evelyn…I would like…”

My brow furrowed and I pulled away from him. He stopped mid-sentence and regarded me with confusion.

“Did I say something?”

“You called me Evelyn…”

He nodded, his hand came up from the paper and his arms crossed over his chest. Gods, he looked the same as my son. I was more shocked, though to hear my full name come from his lips. He knew how much I hated it. How much I refused to allow him to call me that. He didn’t sound like he was trying to patronize me. “Yes? That’s your name?”

I shook my head. “It’s not. Not to you…” My sentence lingered as I looked at the face of the man I loved and realized there was something off. Something missing. There was a tick in his jaw and he turned from me to look out the window that faced the outside.

“I’m sorry. I’m not sure how to address you.”

My words caught in my throat. What the hell did that mean? I could think of at least a handful of names he called me, not all of which would be appropriate in present company, but all the same. None of them included my full name.

“Zach, just f*****g tell her. At least she should understand.” Stacy spoke up and after a minute of him not replying, she shook her head. “He is missing six months of memories. He woke up at the hospital in New York when his parents flew him in from Vegas after an accident. All his memories from the six months prior to that were gone. Which is why it took us so long to contact you. He didn’t f*****g remember he was married.”

My eyes widened as I looked from her back to the man standing up against the window, his eyes closed. Of all the things, all the scenarios I thought had happened as to why he never came back —why he never checked in or tried to reach out — amnesia was never one of them. There wasn’t a single article or even rumor about it. Just that he had been in an accident and suddenly his playboy ways were finished. He became CEO and the rest just fell into place. I swallowed hard. My eyes narrowed for a moment.

“Vegas?” I shook my head. “We were in Greece, not Vegas.” Looking up, his eyes were on me. Never in my life did I feel like I was being swallowed whole as I did in his gaze.

“You know?”

I tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a choking cough. “Know? Your parents swept you away the moment you entered the f*****g hospital in Greece. I woke up, in Greece, alone, six days later. No one came back for me. Do you know what it was like being left in a foreign country with no way of getting home? On our f*****g honeymoon? Honestly, being left at the alter would have been better than what I had to go through.” The bitterness I felt crept into my words, but I couldn’t look at him while I said it.

“You were left in…Greece?”

The confusion and straightforward question hurt my heart. It was like a stab over and over again. My composure was failing me. Three years and I still loved him absolutely. It was like I was staring at the other piece of my soul and it didn’t even f*****g recognize me.

I looked down at the last page of the divorce papers and flipped them shut. I pushed the papers to Derek who reached out and took them.

“Make the changes I requested. You should see they are perfectly amiable for you. Once you’re done, send the draft to my email. I’ll look it over. If I deem it okay, then I will sign the papers and I will be out of your hair.” I needed to go. I needed to get out of here. I was going to crumble and I refused to do so in front of this man. A man I didn’t know and who didn’t know me.

Standing up, I took a deep breath.

“You saved my life, didn’t you?”

I looked back to him. His eyes full of pain. Shit. I shouldn’t have looked. “Yes. I did.”

“How…”

My anger took over and for a minute, I wanted him to feel more pain than I saw in his eyes. The pain of what it felt to not just lose an entire limb and the life that was attached to that but also to be left in that state, alone. I strode up to him. Inches from him, I looked up at him, my jaw locked and fury meeting his shocked face.

“They aimed for your heart. You would have died the moment that bullet hit you. They didn’t miss, Z. I just got in their way.”

His eyes widened and I waited. His hand slowly came up and I closed my eyes as I felt his hand touch my shoulder, where my arm should have been. Cursing, he hand snapped back as though what he just touched burned him. He stumbled away from me. His back hit the glass and made it shutter. Smiling, I stepped back and nodded to the rest of them. Turning, I opened the door and left. My heels made me too slow. At this point, I wasn’t going to make it out of the building without breaking down. I needed to make it one step at a time. Elevators first. Front door. The street. Then ride to the hotel. Hotel room. Break it down simply into steps. That’s all I needed to do.

I pressed the elevator button multiple times and turned when I saw him slide into view with Jason on his tail.

“Why? Why did you cross off all the money?”

I laughed, brokenly. “I didn’t f*****g marry you for your money, Z. I didn’t want it then and I don’t want it now.”

The doors dinged opened and I walked in quickly, closing the door behind me. I reached down and unzipped my heels. Taking them in my hand, I let my feet adjust to the cool flooring of the elevator. Deep breaths took me all the way down and the doors opened to Jennifer f*****g Sinclair. My husband’s fiancé. I laughed and looked up, shaking my head.

“Excuse me, what is someone like you doing here? I think you have the wrong building.”

I smiled at her. “You know what, so do I. I’ll be on my way.” Walking out of the elevator, I tried to be the bigger man, but I decided to be the bigger bitch instead. Turning, I smiled. “You know, I’ve been a fan of your work for a long time. I’m glad you’re finally branching out and encompassing your full audience now that you’ve upped your weight class. It really gives us normal girls hope.” Flashing her a sweet smile, I turned and strode out of the building. I could hear some cursing behind me, but I was already not going to make it to the door. Running and pushing out the door, the street was right there. I was so close. All I needed to do was grab a taxi

My legs failed, though, before I got to the street and I fell to my knees. My heart felt like it was breaking into a million pieces. He didn’t hate me. He didn’t choose his dream or his old life over me. He didn’t think they were better. He didn’t decide he could do better. I couldn’t hate him over this. I couldn’t f*****g hate him. I couldn’t forget it. I couldn’t move on. Because he didn’t f*****g remember. He never remembered me. Our time. All of it. The whirlwind, the promises, the adoration, the love. I was the only one who held it. The half of a heart and soul that was left of me screamed in pain. It was as though it all never existed.

Trying to take a breath, it wasn’t working. I couldn’t take in enough air anymore. I was out of time. Curling up into a ball, I just let it out. I screamed out, sobbing along with it. Tears streamed down my face, I squeezed my eyes tight. The pain was too much to care about the scene I was making, too much to feel anything other than drowning. My wailing dissolved and I just sobbed into my hand.

After a while, I felt a hand on my shoulder that made me look up. I saw a gentleman, his eyes glossy with tears. He was holding an umbrella over us. Hell, I hadn’t even noticed it was raining. It hadn’t even registered. I was soaked through, but I couldn’t feel it.

“I can get you a cab.”

I nodded and wiped my eyes. “Th…thanks…” My voice came out hoarse.

“Honestly, you reminded me of when I lost my wife. I couldn’t…leave you like that.”

My heart fell and I looked around, multiple people were standing around, some with tears in their eyes. I didn’t realize how utterly broken I sounded, but apparently it was enough to stop people in their tracks. A cab pulled over and the man leaned in, speaking with the cab driver for a minute.

“He will take you wherever you want to go. Don’t worry about the price.” Trying to smile, he shook his hand and brushed my cheek. “One day it will get easier. The pain will be less. It won’t go away, but it will.”

I nodded and got into the back of the cab. “Hamilton Downtown please.”