Sometimes, love isn’t loud or obvious. Sometimes, it hides behind silence, distance, and excuses—until one day, you realize you’ve been holding on to something that was never truly yours to begin with.
I had been secretly married to my CEO husband for six years, but he still would not let our son call him Dad. After he missed our son’s birthday again because of his secretary, I took out the divorce agreement and left with our son for good. The usually calm man lost control and stormed into the office, demanding to know where we were. This time, neither my son nor I would come back.
“Mr. Clark, I’ll be going abroad for further studies next month. Here is my resignation letter.”
Mr. Clark looked at me in surprise. “This is so sudden.”
I told him the excuse I had come up with. “My husband is in Australia. I want to take our child there so we can be together.”
He nodded. “That makes sense. Raising a child alone here must be hard. We all thought you were a single mother.”
I smiled. I wasn’t, but soon I would be.
As I stepped out, I ran into Matthew Grant and Quilla Alexander walking toward me. Matthew was my boss and the father of my child. Seven years ago, I had been his personal secretary. One chaotic night, after too much drinking, we had a child. This year marked the sixth year of our secret marriage and the sixth year he refused to let our child call him Dad.
Matthew walked slowly, as if deliberately matching the pace of the woman beside him. Quilla was holding a report in one hand and clutching the hem of Matthew’s suit with the other. Their overly affectionate behavior was almost painful to watch.