Chapter 9 You lay one finger on me and I'm calling the police! I swear to God!" I was done wasting breath on Jade. I grabbed Maddie's arm and we walked out without looking back. Getting Derek's signature on hose divorce papers had gone way smoother than I'd dared hope. Sitting in the passenger seat afterward, staring down at his scrawled name on the line, the whole thing still felt unreal. Derek and I went all the way back to high school. First love for both of us. I'd been right there beside him through all those brutal years-the seventy-hour work weeks, the shoebox tudio apartment, eating ramen so we could make rent until he finally landed that promotion and we could afford an actual place. It had been a long, hard climb. }ut now? Now I was sitting across from some appraiser at an estate jewelry shop, watching him examine my wedding ring through his loupe. When he slid that piece of paper across the desk-reducing our entire marriage to a number with a dollar sign in front of it-I Jocketed the check and turned to Maddie. Feel like getting out of town?" I'm thinking somewhere like..." Colorado, maybe? We could catch sunrise over the Rockies." wo full weeks passed without Derek hearing a single word from me. He'd definitely been checking my social media-Maddie onfirmed he was viewing my stories religiously-but I'd blocked him from seeing anything new. His finger had hovered over the all button more times than he could count, but his ego always won out at the last second and he'd shove his phone back in his pocket. n Derek's mind, this was just me being dramatic. d blow off steam for a few days, then come home and we'd hash it out like we always did. Because that's how he saw ne-emotional, yes, but ultimately manageable. 'xcept now? low it had been two solid weeks of complete silence, and Derek's confidence was finally starting to crack. He caved and ordered lowers from that boutique on Fifth that I'd always loved, threw on a nice shirt, and headed to our apartment. Standing outside the loor, he ran through his apology in his head about fifty times. le'd lead with: Riley, I've had time to think. Really think. And the truth is... it's always been you. You're who I want to build a life with." That whole thing with Jade? Ancient history. She's out of my life completely." Baby, can we please just hit reset on all this?" He was still muttering his lines under his breath when our neighbor Carol came out of her unit and spotted him. She smiled at the massive bouquet in his arms. "Well aren't those gorgeous! Riley's a lucky girl." 16:20 Dear Hubby, Your Biggest Mistake? Thinking I'd Beg Instead of Burn 6.1% Chapter 9 Then her face shifted slightly, like she'd just remembered something. "Actually, I haven't seen her in a couple weeks now." "Last time we talked, she had some girlfriend over helping her load up a bunch of suitcases. I asked if she was going somewhere fun and she mentioned a trip. Guess she's still gone." Derek's entire face went slack. For a long moment, he just stood there like his brain had completely blue screened, unable to process what he'd just heard. Carol waved and headed for the stairs, and only then did he finally snap out of it. His hands shook as he punched in the entry code. The door clicked open, and he stepped inside expecting... what? Me waiting on the couch? The smell of dinner? Some sign that I'd been there? Instead, he walked into absolute silence. The apartment felt hollow. Empty. And when his eyes dropped to the shoe rack by the door, his stomach dropped with them-my running shoes were gone. My Birkenstocks. The little slippers I always wore around the house. All of it, just gone. His heart lurched violently in his chest. The bouquet slipped from his hands and hit the floor. He called out softly: "Riley?" Nothing. "Riley, baby?" Still nothing. The living room looked exactly like it had when he'd left-same furniture, same layout-but something felt fundamentally wrong. His feet carried him toward the bedroom before his brain could catch up, some desperate part of him hoping her clothes would still be hanging in the closet, her books stacked on the nightstand. Instead, he found empty space where all her things used to be. Every single item that had belonged to me-vanished. Even the framed wedding photo on the wall had been cut in half. Just him left in the frame, smiling alone. That smile suddenly looked grotesque, Take the universe's cruelest punchline. Right then, standing in that half empty bedroom, Derek finally understood what he'd actually lost. "Riley..." His hand shook so badly he could barely unlock his phone. When he managed to dial my number, he pressed it to his ear with this pathetic, desperate hope-only to hear that automated message telling him the caller was unavailable. I'd blocked him. 16:20 Dear Hubby Your Bloggal Mistake? Thinking I'd Rog Instead of Burn 6.4% Chapter Panic rising, he opened Instagram next. My profile used to show the last three days of posts. Now there was just a grey bar and a message: No posts yet. I'd blocked him there too. The whole time Derek had convinced himself I was just being petty and emotional, I'd already been moving forward. Building a completely new life without him in it. He started firing off texts in a frenzy-apologies, explanations, desperate pleas. Every single one disappeared into the void, undelivered. Finally, out of options, he tried calling Maddie to find out where the hell I'd gone. She picked up on the first ring, and immediately tore into him. "Oh, now you give a shit? That's rich." You know what this is called, Derek?" Consequences. You're experiencing consequences for your actions." Rot in hell, asshole!" After Maddie hung up on him, I awkwardly pulled myself up off the ground. I was heading to my office when Jade appeared out of nowhere, blocking the entrance. Chapter to