Chương 5
That was another thing I noticed.
We were both skilled at pretending.
The difference was that I was starting to get tired of it.
My phone buzzed while I was drinking coffee.
It was an email from my lawyer.
I had contacted one the night before after finding a family law office that handled consultations remotely.
I had not hired anyone yet.
I had only asked what my options were.
The subject line was simple.
“Consultation Confirmation.”
Logan saw my expression change.
“What is that?”
I locked my phone.
“Something private.”
His face shifted.
“Private?”
“Yes.”
“Between us?”
“No.”
The answer came before I could soften it.
He looked hurt.
Real hurt.
And for a second, I hated myself for noticing.
Because some part of me still cared.
That was the most confusing part.
Leaving someone did not mean you stopped loving them overnight.
Sometimes it meant loving yourself enough to admit love was not enough.
“Are you talking to a lawyer?”
The question was quiet.
I did not answer.
I did not need to.
He already knew.
He sat down across from me.
“Valeria.”
I waited.
“I think you are making a permanent decision based on a temporary situation.”
I looked at him.
“A temporary situation?”
“Yes.”
“You planned to strand me in another country.”
“I was trying to make a point.”
“You did.”
His eyes narrowed slightly.
“What point?”
“That you believed you had the power to make me scared.”
The sentence stayed between us.
For once, he did not immediately deny it.
And that scared me more than if he had.
Because silence could be an answer too.
Later that afternoon, I received a call from an unknown number.
I almost ignored it.
Then I answered.
“Hello?”
A woman's voice came through.
“Valeria?”
I froze.
I recognized the voice.
It was Chloe.
“Valeria?”
I tightened my grip on the phone.
“Yes.”
There was a pause on the other end.
For someone who had caused so much tension in my marriage, Chloe sounded strangely unsure.
“I know you probably don’t want to hear from me.”
“That depends on why you’re calling.”
She exhaled.
“I owe you an explanation.”
I looked toward the kitchen where Logan had disappeared after our conversation.
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
Her voice became quieter.
“I do.”
I sat down at the table.
“Then explain.”
For several seconds, there was only silence.
“I was in Madrid because I was supposed to meet someone.”
I frowned.
“Who?”
“My therapist recommended I take a solo trip.”
The answer was unexpected.
“What?”
“I was having a difficult time.”
I almost laughed, but stopped myself.
The situation was too complicated for an easy reaction.
“You told Logan you were having a crisis.”
“I was.”
“Then why did you need him there?”
“I didn’t.”
The honesty caught me off guard.
Chloe continued before I could respond.
“I called him because he always answers.”
I looked down at the table.
There it was.
The sentence that explained more than an apology could.
Not because Chloe was innocent.
Not because Logan was innocent.
Because both of them had built a pattern where I was the person left outside of a relationship that was supposed to include me.
“I didn’t ask him to leave dinner,” she said.
“But you accepted when he did.”
“Yes.”
Her answer came softly.
“I did.”
I waited.
“I was selfish.”
The admission was so simple that it almost felt strange.
I had expected excuses.
A complicated explanation.
A defense.
Instead, Chloe gave me something I had rarely received from Logan.
A direct acknowledgment.
“I was lonely,” she said.
“And I knew Logan would come if I called.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
“I know.”
Again, immediate.
Again, different.
I leaned back in my chair.
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because he called me after you landed.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did he say?”
“He asked if I had talked to you.”
“And?”
“I told him no.”
A pause.
“Then he said something that bothered me.”
“What?”
“He said you would come around.”
I stared at the wall.
Not because the sentence surprised me.
Because it sounded exactly like him.
“He said you always do.”
The words stayed in the room after she finished speaking.
I looked at my wedding ring sitting inside my purse.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Her voice cracked slightly.
“I knew he was controlling.”
I closed my eyes.
“But I didn’t understand how much until I saw what he did to you.”
“Why?”
“Because when it wasn’t happening to me, it was easier to ignore.”
That answer was painful because it was human.
People ignored things when acknowledging them required changing their own lives.
“Chloe,” I said.
“Yes?”
“Did you and Logan ever have feelings for each other?”
The question had been sitting inside me since Madrid.
I hated asking it.
I hated that I needed to know.
The silence was longer this time.
When she answered, her voice was careful.
“Not the way you think.”
I waited.
“We dated briefly in college.”
My fingers went still.
“What?”
“Before you met him.”
“How brief?”
“Three months.”
I looked toward the hallway.
The apartment suddenly felt smaller.
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“I don’t know.”
That answer frustrated me.
“I think he liked being the person who rescued me.”
Chloe swallowed.
“And I liked having someone who never left.”
The honesty was uncomfortable.
But it made sense.
Some relationships were not built from love.
Some were built from wounds recognizing each other.
“Did he marry me because of you?”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
“I don’t believe that.”
“Valeria, listen.”
Her voice became firmer.
“If Logan wanted to marry me, he would have.”
The sentence hurt in a different way.
Because it was not the betrayal I expected.
It was something more complicated.
A reminder that Logan’s problem was not that he loved someone else.
May you like
His problem was that he did not know how to love anyone without needing control.
“He chose you because you challenged him,” Chloe said.
