“You do care about me,” he said softly. His voice trembled. “You love me. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have stayed with me for five years.”
Mia met his gaze, her eyes troubled but steady.
“It has nothing to do with love,” she said firmly. “We’re divorced, James. Whatever happened in the past—it’s over. Right now, it’s the present.” Her voice hardened. “And I’m not marrying you again.”
James looked shaken.
He slowly lowered the phone to the table, then turned back toward her, his movements uncharacteristically careful.
“I know the last five years weren’t good,” he said quietly. “But it’s not too late. We still have our whole lives ahead of us.”
Mia let out a sharp, exhausted breath and rose to her feet. She turned fully toward him, anger breaking free at last.
“Itistoo late!” she snapped, her voice cracking. “I’m not going back with you. I told you—we’re divorced. I’m not spending my entire life in a marriage where I was never treated like a wife.”
Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she struggled to breathe.
She glared at him, her voice shaking with hurt. “I was treated worse than a janitor, James! You would allow a janitor into your room and your company without permission—but I, your wife, wasn’t allowed to step even one foot inside your building!”
James flinched.
The impact of her words showed immediately—his expression cracking, his eyes softening with unmistakable regret. He inhaled deeply, as if steadying himself.
“It was my fault. Come back home. I made a mistake.” His voice broke. “I didn’t know how to handle a relationship like that—the responsibility. After we got married, my priority was my business, and I didn’t… shift my priorities in time.” He swallowed hard. “I didn’t understand that you were my family too. It was my first time being someone’s husband.”
Mia looked straight at him, her voice quieter now—but heavy with pain.
“It was my first time being someone’s wife too, James.”
The words hit him like a blow.
Guilt washed over his face so hard it seemed to steal the breath from his lungs. His chest rose and fell too quickly, fingers trembling where they rested on his knee as he tried—and failed—to calm himself.
And then—
His phone started ringing.
Again.
And again.
Loud. Relentless. Irritating.
The sharp vibration buzzed against the wooden table, slicing straight through the tension in the air.
James clenched his jaw, muscles flexing as irritation surged. He grabbed the phone roughly and snapped into the call, “What?”
Whoever was on the other end spoke rapidly, urgently.
James’s eyes narrowed. His breathing stilled. His shoulders locked with tension.
The voice continued for several seconds.
James finally exhaled slowly, his mind racing, tension rippling through every line of his body as whatever he was hearing tightened its grip around him.
Without another word, he rose abruptly and strode toward the bar entrance. The bass of the music pounded against his chest as he shoved the door open and stepped outside into the cooler air. He halted for half a second and glanced back at the two members of his security team stationed near the entrance.
He lifted his hand and pointed sharply toward Mia.
