Sabrina shook her head. Tears spilled. “She said she’s going away and isn’t coming back.” She pointed toward the bed. “She said she left you a note under the pillow.”
Elijah clenched his jaw. How could Angelique do this? If she were unhappy and wanted to leave him then fine, she could have done that, but why say something like that and break their daughter’s heart.
His hands shook as he pulled the folded sheet of paper from under the pillow.
Dear Eli, I’ve tried to be your perfect wife and a good mother. But this life isn’t for me. I can’t do this anymore. You and Beenie will be better off without having someone around who doesn’t want to be there. I do love you and her, but because I love you both I can’t stay. I’m sure you’ll be okay. You always find a way. Goodbye. Your Angel.
Elijah crumpled the paper in his hand as the reality of his changing life sank in. His wife had left him and their child. He tried to understand but couldn’t. Tried to understand what would make her leave him…leave them in such a sudden and callous way. He threw the paper across the room and cursed.
Sabrina started crying. Elijah flinched and immediately regretted letting his anger show. He rushed to her side and pulled her into his arms. “Its okay Beenie. It’s okay. Daddy’s here. We’ll be okay.” He said not believing the words. Angelique had been the glue that helped hold this family together. The support system for him and Sabrina. The person who kept their lives running. Had he taken advantage of that? Was that why she left? The hows and whys didn’t matter. Right now he had to figure out how in the world was he supposed to do this by himself?
Chapter 2
6 Years Later
Elijah stared at the computer screen and pretended as if he didn’t see his Deputy Director, Adam, check his watch. He knew why Adam was checking. Elijah was going to be late to his fraternity meet up. Adam had been giving him hell about going. In a few minutes, he’d remind Elijah that he needed to leave if he planned to get there on time. Elijah wasn’t concerned about being late, because he was on the fence about going. He’d graduated from college over a decade ago. He didn’t stay out late on a week night when he needed to finish work and get back home to his daughter. But Adam, was giving Elijah all types of excuses about why Elijah didn’t need to stay in the office and oversee the preparation for the department’s budget presentation. Adam didn’t get that this was Elijah’s second budget preparation as the finance director of New Village, TX. A town east of Houston. Adam also didn’t realize that Elijah had learned not to trust having someone else take over a presentation he was responsible for.
Instead of acknowledging Adam’s watch checking, Elijah held up a hand to prevent another long-winded explanation about why Elijah should just “trust the team” and go out and “have some fun” for once.
“Did the procurement team go over over their budget numbers?” he asked trying to remember the coaching and counseling sessions he’d received in the various leadership trainings he’d sat through over his career. Lessons that said he shouldn’t show frustration even when his employees wereaggravating him about doing something they believed was in his best interest.
Adam placed one hand on top of the other on his khaki clad lap. The fingers of his right hand softly tapped the face of the smartwatch on his left wrist visible beneath the sleeve of his white button up shirt. Tall and thick, with tan skin and a head he kept shaved, Adam had been with the town’s finance department for ten years. When Elijah was hired as the director, he’d asked if Adam had been interested in the position, and was surprised to find out he hadn’t. Adam was good with numbers, but he didn’t enjoy the administrative side of leading the department.
“Rosa put their numbers in the shared drive yesterday,” he said evenly. “To reiterate what we discussed yesterday, every other department director has their information submitted. I completed the revenue projections and will have the final projections on your desk before you go to lunch tomorrow. There’s no need for you to stay after hours today.”
Adam had told him the same thing earlier that day, but Elijah hadn’t had the chance to check if everything was in the shared drive and submitted correctly. “Did you check to see—”
“If all the Department heads put everything in the correct template,” Adam cut him off with a grin. “Yes. I did.”
“What about—”
“The justification for capital and personnel requests? Yes, also submitted. We were missing one file from utilities, but my team followed up and got that today.”
Elijah stared back. He was impressed, but also felt a little dissatisfied. It wasn’t that he didn’t want his team to be able to handle this process. He just felt compelled to make sure everything was good. He tried reminding himself that Adam wasn’t Albert, his administrative coordinator from six years ago.Adam hadn’t shown any signs of wanting to take credit for Elijah’s work and then use that credit to his advantage as Albert had done six years ago. But having been burned like that by an employee on one of the hardest days of his life made it hard for Elijah to trust.
“Look, Adam, I appreciate you doing that, but I still want to check everything myself before putting together the final presentation.”
Some of the satisfaction that had lit up Adam’s eyes as he gave Elijah updates on their progress dimmed. “I get it. You don’t trust our work yet.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that I like to keep a close eye on things.”
Adam’s raised brow called bullshit, but he didn’t voice the thought. “Understood. But I still think you should hurry up and get out of here so you can go to your fraternity meet up.”
“I don’t have time for things like that.”
“Doesn’t seem like you have time for a lot of things,” Adam said with a shrug.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“No judgement, boss. Just pointing out that the good folks in HR keep telling us to have a work life balance. I see a lot of work with you and not a lot of life.”
“I’m good on the work life balance.” Elijah said defensively. Even though, honestly, his work life balance was working and then going home to take care of Sabrina. He hadn’t hung out socially since his divorce and he was good with that. His daughter only had one parent and he was determined to be good at that.
Adam held up a hand. “Okay, I won’t give you a hard time. I’m just trying to give you some advice. I realized I was all work and little life and that left me lonely. Everyone needs friends.”
“I’ve got friends,” Elijah said quickly. Maybe too quickly.
“Do you?” Adam asked with a raised brow. “Because you don’t talk about them.”
