Chapter 2: The Price Of Goodbye.

SHARON'S POV.

I woke up with a sharp ache in my chest and for a few seconds, I had no idea where I was.

Before everything came rushing back.

Christian. The divorce papers. His cold eyes.

"I never loved you."

I squeezed my eyes shut, wishing that it was all a nightmare but then, a knock came from the door.

Before I could answer, it opened and Agatha stepped in with the stack of papers in her hand. She walked towards the bed and placed it on the table next to me.

"I found these outside." My stomach twisted at the sight of them.

"Sharon?" She called softly but I turned my face away. "I'm fine." The lie barely made it past my lips and Agatha already gave me the kind of look that told me she wasn't buying it.

She'd known me since I was a child and had seen me throw tantrums, she'd heard my countless rants about Christian, enough to know that I had fallen in love with.

She'd also watched me spend three miserable years pretending my marriage was something it wasn't.

I couldn't hide this from her.

"He's leaving me." My voice cracked.

"Christian wants a divorce." It didn't even feel real coming out of my mouth and I watched Margaret's face fall.

"Oh, sweetheart." She sat beside me and pulled me against her. The moment her arms wrapped around me, whatever control I had left disappeared and I cried into her shoulder.

"I really thought things were changing." I whispered.

"After last night, I thought..." I swallowed. "I thought maybe he finally saw me differently." Agatha rubbed my back slowly as I laughed through the tears.

"How stupid I was." I said.

"You aren't stupid, Sharon."

"I am." I pulled away and wiped my face. "I spent three years married to a man who wouldn't touch me. Then we have one night together and I convince myself it means he suddenly has feelings for me." My voice became smaller.

"I thought maybe I finally mattered to him."

Agnes didn't interrupt.

"And then he hands me divorce papers." I looked toward the window. "And then, I saw him with Cassandra afterward and he kissed her." The words burned my throat.

Agnes' eyebrows drew together.

"I watched them. The same woman he told me not to worry about." I twisted my fingers between my thighs.

I remembered the conversations we'd had about her. Cassandra. And how Christian had always been dismissive.

"Cassandra is an old friend. Nothing more."

She was someone he'd known in Boston. Someone who had been part of his life before me. They'd met during college and had a history that neither of them had ever completely buried.

Their relationship had been complicated.

Together, apart and then together again.

Then Cassandra moved back here for work. Christian called it a coincidence but she called it destiny. I called it the reason my marriage had always felt like a competition I didn't know I was in.

"I should have known," I whispered.

"You can't punish yourself for trusting your husband." Agnes shook her head. "Then what am I supposed to do?" I asked her.

"Leave." She said.

"It's not that easy." I replied softly.

"I know." I looked at her. "I love him." Agnes reached over and took my hand. "I know." She said gently.

"I've loved him for years and I gave up everything for him." My eyes filled up again and she looked at me.

"And that's exactly why this is going to hurt."

"Sharon, before Christian came back, you had plans." She continued.

I lowered my eyes because I knew deep down that she was right. I'd always wanted to build my own career and to prove I could do something outside my family's shadow.

I had opportunities other people would have killed for.

I was a Matthews.

My parents had built a business empire from the ground up, and I'd grown up knowing that I could have almost anything I wanted.

There had been men who wanted to date me. Men who treated me well and would have been proud to have me on their arm.

But I turned them all down because I wanted Christian.

Only Christian.

And now he was paying me to disappear.

"Why wasn't I enough?" The question slipped out of my lips before I could stop it and Agnes's expression softened.

"Because this was never about you being enough."

You cannot love someone into loving you back." She squeezed my hand and those words settled in my chest.

Even when she eventually left.

I sat in silence for several minutes before reaching for the papers. I had been too afraid to look at them last night but now, I forced myself to read.

My eyes moved over the pages.

Name.

Marriage details.

Property.

Assets.

Then I reached the settlement section.

I stopped.

Five million dollars.

I stared at the number.

Christian was willing to pay me five million dollars to walk away. Soon, a strange emptiness settled over me.

He wasn't fighting the divorce.

Neither was he wasn't asking me to reconsider. Hell, he wasn't even trying to make the ending less painful.

He had put a price on getting rid of me.

I almost laughed.

After everything we'd been through, apparently that was what our marriage was worth. His signature sat at the bottom of the page and I wondered when he'd signed it.

How long after the night we slept together.

My phone rang in that moment, pulling me out my thoughts and I glanced at the unknown number on my screen.

"Hello?" I answered it.

"Sharon." A familiar laugh came through the speaker and my entire body stiffened.

"Cassandra." I recognized that voice.

"What do you want?"

"I only called you to give you some advice. Christian told me he gave you the papers." Her tone was smug and I said nothing.

"He also told me you're still refusing to accept that it's over."

"That's not your concern." My grip tightened around the phone and she laughed.

"It became my concern a long time ago." Cassandra.

"Honestly, Sharon, I think you should just sign it. I feel sorry for you because it's getting a bit embarrassing for you." My jaw clenched.

"Don't." I muttered beneath my breath.

"It is. You've spent three years pretending you're his wife while he barely looks at you.. At least have enough dignity to walk away now." Her words drove through me like a knife.

"You don't know anything about me." I said.

"But I know Christian and I know why he married you. His father literally forced him into it and he needed his inheritance." She said.

"Once he secured control of the company, he no longer needed the marriage. And five million is generous, don't you think?" I looked at the documents on my lap.

"Because left to me, you'd have gotten nothing."

"So do everyone a favor and take the money and disappear because there's nothing left for here, Sharon." There was a brief silence and then her voice became icy.

"Christian Lockwood is mine."

The call ended and I stared at my phone.

For once, I wasn't angry. I was only exhausted. Exhausted of chasing and hoping and waiting for a man who made it perfectly clear that he didn't want me.

I looked at the papers again.

Then at my suitcase.

I stood.

If Christian wanted his freedom that badly, I will give it to him. But I wasn't going to spend another day begging him to love me.

I opened my closet and started packing.

There was no careful folding this time. I just threw as many dresses and shoes inside the suitcase as it could contain.

Everything else could stay.

I zipped up the bag and walked over to the table.

I picked up the divorce papers and my hand hovered over the signature line.

Then I wrote my name.

Sharon Matthews.

That was it.

I was no longer Christian Lockwood's wife.