Chapter 55 Chapter 55: Stalling Part 2
Cathy's P.O.V
The first few messages were what I expected. Short, desperate pleas.
"Cathy, please answer your phone."
"We need to talk."
"Where are you? I'm worried."
Worried. The word made me want to throw the phone across the room. He wasn't worried about me. He was worried about losing control of the situation, about losing his perfect trophy wife.
I scrolled further, my jaw clenching tighter with each message.
"What you saw wasn't what it looked like."
"Please, let me explain."
"This is all a misunderstanding."
A misunderstanding. That's what he was calling it. Right after he told me to get out of the car? I had seen him with my own eyes, heard the sounds they made, watched as he betrayed our marriage in the most intimate way possible, and he had the audacity to call it a misunderstanding.
Caroline's messages were worse, somehow. More manipulative, more calculated.
"Cathy, I'm so sorry. I never meant for this to happen."
"Please don't blame Xavier. This was all my fault."
"I know I've ruined everything. Please forgive me."
The fake remorse made my blood boil. She was playing the victim, trying to take all the blame so that Xavier would come out looking like the innocent party who had been seduced. And then Xavier would call me manipulative for blaming a pregnant woman for what happened. It was a strategy, carefully crafted to manipulate me into forgiving them both.
I could already see how this would play out in their minds. They would cry, they would apologize, they would swear it was a one-time mistake that would never happen again. And then they would expect me to just accept it and move on, to play the role of the understanding wife who forgives her husband's infidelity because that's what good wives do.
The anger that had been simmering inside me all day suddenly boiled over. My fingers moved before I could stop them, and I turned the phone off with more force than necessary. The screen went dark, cutting off their sob stories and fake apologies.
My mood, which had been almost pleasant just minutes ago, was completely ruined. I wanted to scream, to throw something, to make them feel even a fraction of the pain they had caused me. But I couldn't do that. Hannah was sleeping right next to me, and this wasn't my house. I had no right to lose control here.
I took a deep breath, then another, trying to calm the storm raging inside me. I couldn't let them get to me like this. I couldn't let them control my emotions from afar.
But as I sat there in the darkness, my phone clutched tightly in my hand, another realization slowly began to dawn on me. One that sent a chill down my spine and changed everything.
I couldn't run and hide forever. The thought was sobering, like a bucket of cold water thrown over my head. No matter how much I wanted to stay here in Hannah's house, pretending that my old life didn't exist, I couldn't avoid reality forever. Legally, I was still Xavier's wife. Our lives were still tangled together in ways that couldn't be undone with a simple decision to leave.
And after what I had seen at my mother's house, after learning about all the money Xavier had given them, all the debts they had accumulated in my name, I realized something even more terrifying.
Divorcing Xavier now could lead to me having to pay back money that I didn't have.
The prenup. God, why hadn't I read it more carefully? I had been so in love, so trusting, that I had signed it without really understanding what I was agreeing to. Xavier's lawyers had explained it in terms that sounded reasonable at the time, but now I wondered what I had actually agreed to.
Hunter's words from earlier echoed in my mind. He had told me to read through the prenup carefully, to see exactly what terms had been put in it. At the time, I had been too overwhelmed to really process what he was saying. But now, sitting here in the darkness with nothing but my thoughts, his words took on new meaning.
If the prenup bound me to Xavier in a way that made me have to pay all the money back in case of divorce, then why was he bothering with the apologies? Why was he sending hundreds of messages trying to coax me back? If the prenup gave him that much power over me, he wouldn't need to apologize. He could just wait for me to come crawling back when I realized I had no other choice.
Unless...
Unless the prenup had something I hadn't seen yet. Something that gave me leverage. Something that would be difficult for Xavier to avoid, and that's why he was so desperate to get me to come back before I figured it out.
My heart started racing again, but this time it wasn't from anger or pain. It was from something else. Something that felt almost like hope.
I needed to see that prenup. I needed to read every single word, every single clause, and figure out exactly what cards I was holding in this game. Because if there was something in there that Xavier didn't want me to find, then that was my way out.
I looked down at my phone again, then at Hannah sleeping peacefully beside me. Tomorrow, I would ask for her help. Tomorrow, I would start fighting back.
But tonight, I would let myself rest in this small moment of peace, knowing that I wasn't as powerless as everyone wanted me to believe.