Chapter 56 A call for Help
Vivienne's POV
I read the email three times. Four times. Five times. Like maybe if I read it enough, the words would change into something different. Something that made sense.
But they didn't change.
Work Appointment Terminated.
My legs felt weak. I leaned against the wall beside my office door, the door I could no longer open, and tried to breathe. I tried to think. I tried to understand what was happening to my life.
He didn't just want a divorce. He was erasing me completely. From his life, from his company, from everything we had built together.
How long had he been planning this? How many days had he woken up next to me, kissed me good morning, told me about his meetings, asked about my projects, all while knowing he was going to throw me away like garbage?
My phone buzzed again. Another message. This time from an unknown number.
"Mrs. Moreau, this is David Anderson from Anderson & Associates. I have the divorce papers ready for your signature. Please come to my office at 2 PM today. The address is attached. This meeting is mandatory."
Mandatory.
Like I was being summoned to court. Like I had no choice in any of this.
I stood there in that empty hallway, staring at my phone, feeling my entire world crumbling around me. And still, the tears wouldn't come. They were stuck somewhere deep inside, frozen solid, refusing to fall.
Maybe I was in shock. Maybe my brain couldn't process everything happening all at once. Divorce. Fired. Erased. All within
twelve hours.
"Vivienne?"
I looked up sharply. Rebecca from accounting was walking down the hallway toward me, carrying her coffee and her laptop bag. She looked surprised to see me standing there.
"Are you okay?" she asked, slowing down as she got closer. "You look really pale."
I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out. What was I supposed to say? No, I'm not okay. My husband just divorced me and fired me on the same day and I'm standing here locked out of my own office like some kind of criminal?
"I'm fine," I lied, my voice coming out scratchy and weak. "Just... my access card isn't working."
Rebecca's face changed. Her eyes filled with something that looked like pity mixed with discomfort. She knew. Of course she knew. Everyone probably knew by now. Office gossip spreads faster than wildfire.
"Oh," she said quietly, looking down at her coffee cup like it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. "I... I heard about... I'm really sorry, Vivienne."
Sorry about what? The divorce? The firing? The public humiliation? All of it?
"It's fine," I said automatically, even though nothing was fine. Even though everything was falling apart. "I should go."
I turned and walked back toward the elevator before she could say anything else. Before anyone else could come out of their offices and see me standing there like a fool, locked out, unwanted, discarded.
The elevator ride down felt like the longest journey of my life. My reflection stared back at me from the shiny metal doors. I looked like a ghost. Pale skin. Dark circles under my eyes. Hollow expression.
This wasn't the confident woman who had walked into this building three years ago ready to help her husband save his company. This was someone else entirely. Someone broken.
When I got to the parking lot, I sat in my car and stared at the steering wheel. My hands were shaking so badly I couldn't even put the key in the ignition.
This is real. This is actually happening. My marriage is over. My job is gone. My life as I knew it is finished.
And I had nowhere to go. The penthouse apartment was his. Everything in it was his. The car I was sitting in was registered in his name. The credit cards in my wallet were connected to his accounts.
Even the phone in my hand was on his family plan.
I had given up everything to marry him. My little apartment that I could barely afford. My independence. My own life. I had moved into his world completely, let myself become part of his life, his company, his family. And now he was cutting me out like a tumor, removing every trace of me.
What was I supposed to do now?
I pulled out my phone with trembling fingers and scrolled through my contacts.
Who could I call? Who would understand?
I had a few friends from my diner days, but we had drifted apart over the years. They live in a different world now. A world where you worry about paying rent and finding good deals at the grocery store. Not the world of penthouses and expensive restaurants and charity galas that I had been living in.
I scrolled further and stopped at a name I hadn't called in almost a year.
Sarah Martinez.
She was my best friend before I got married. We had grown up together, worked at the diner together, shared an apartment together for two years. But after the wedding, after I moved into Rapheal's world, we slowly stopped talking. Not because we fought or anything. Just because our lives went in completely different directions.
She had sent me messages occasionally.
Asked me to meet for coffee. Invited me to her birthday party last year. But I was always too busy. Always had some business dinner or charity event or meeting to attend. I always chose Marcus's world over my own.
I wondered if she would even answer if I called now. If she would want to help me after I had basically abandoned our friendship for a man. For a marriage that turned out to be fake anyway.
But I had no one else.
I pressed her name and held the phone to my ear, my heart pounding as it rang. Once. Twice. Three times.
Maybe she won't answer. Maybe she's at work. Maybe she's moved on and doesn't want to hear from me anymore.
"Vivienne?"
Her voice came through the phone, surprised but not angry. Just surprised.
"Sarah," I said, and my voice cracked on her name. "Sarah, I... I need help."