Chapter 5 I will be back

I stepped back and exhaled, my lungs finally felt like they belonged to me again. I turned and opened the closet. His clothes were still there—perfectly arranged. I stared at them for a moment, then reached past them and pulled my things down one after another.

I brought out a suitcase and just packed everything inside. I didn’t care to fold. I took all my skincare bottles and my hair products. 

When I was done, I stood in the middle of the room with my bags lined neatly by the door. The space behind me looked emptier now, stripped of the version of me who had once filled it with patience, forgiveness, and silence. For a moment, I just stood there.

If anyone had told me yesterday morning that I was going to divorce Gabriel the following day, I would have called that person a big joke. I walked to the door slowly, my hand resting on the handle. My grip tightened for a second. It was not out of doubt, but acknowledgment. This was the line and it was the end. 

Without looking back, I opened the door and stepped out. Technically, Gabriel should have been the one leaving. In every version of marriage I had once believed in, the cheating spouse was the one who packed their things and disappeared into the consequences of their choices.

It was never the woman who had been betrayed. Not the wife who had spent years holding everything together while everyone else chipped away at her quietly. But life with the Bowen family had never followed fairness.

And I knew exactly what would happen when the second news of the divorce reached them. They would circle like vultures. No, worse. Vultures at least waited for something to die first. But, Gabriel’s family devoured things while they were still breathing.

If I decided to keep the house, it would become war territory within hours. His mother would suddenly remember every financial contribution she had never made. 

His sisters would start appearing uninvited, pretending concern while calculating what could be taken. I knew that once the divorce reached them, they would take sides. I would be the problem as always. 

I could already hear his mother’s voice in my head dramatically and permanently soaked in disapproval. She had hated me from the moment Gabriel brought me home. Not because I was cruel or incapable. But because I wasn’t the kind of woman she believed a man like her son should be with.

I had overheard enough over the years to know the truth. “She is too big, too plain and too soft.” Those were the words she had said to her son when she called him aside in the kitchen. 

They were the kind of family whose cruelty could easily wrap in smiles and concern. They made low comments about my portions during dinner. Melanie sometimes gave me suggestions for flattering clothes when she intended to mock me.

She once stared at me during a family gathering and laughed about how “confident” I was for wearing something fitted. It was as if existing comfortably in my own body was some act of delusion.

And Gabriel, he had done what he always did when they taunted me. Nothing. 

Over time, their disdain became less subtle as Gabriel started climbing higher in his career. The more successful he became, the more I became an embarrassment they tolerated instead of accepted. 

I saw it in the women they tried to place around him during parties. Slim women and elegant women. Women who matched the image they believed success should come with. Women like Nyla.

My grip tightened around the handle of my suitcase as I stepped into the sitting room. Exhaustion settled deep into my bones but beneath it was clarity. They had spent years making me feel like I should be grateful to stand beside a man like Gabriel. As if love from someone like him was the best I could ever hope for.

I had four suitcases in total. I had already pulled all four out to the driveway when a car rolled up the drive. For one foolish second, my heart jumped hoping it was Gabriel. Hoping he was coming back for me, he was coming to apologize for the way he had always treated me. 

The thoughts suddenly became pathetic and embarrassing as part of me still expected him to come back and stop this. To tell me he made a mistake. To finally look at me and realize what he was throwing away.

But the moment the car came fully into view, reality settled back in. It was not Gabriel, it was his mother, Mrs Bowen.

A sharp breath escaped me as the black SUV slowed before parking carelessly near the front steps. The engine cut off, and before I could even prepare myself mentally, the driver’s door opened.

Diane Bowen stepped out dressed in cream linen and judgment. She had on oversized sunglasses perched perfectly on her face despite the cloudy weather. Behind her came Vanessa Gabriel’s older sister with her usual expression of barely concealed disgust.

I almost laughed, the scavengers had arrived faster than expected. “Well,” Vanessa said immediately, looking at the suitcases before looking at me, “at least you know when to leave.”

Diane removed her sunglasses slowly, her gaze sweeping over me from head to toe “You look terrible,” she said flatly.

I stared at her for a moment too, I was too emotionally exhausted to even fake politeness anymore. “Good morning to you too.”

Her lips tightened slightly, clearly displeased that I still had enough dignity left to answer back. Vanessa crossed her arms. “Gabriel called. We came to make sure things remain civil.”

I almost smiled at the irony.

Diane’s eyes moved toward the house behind me before settling back on my suitcases. “So you’re leaving willingly?” she asked, and there was relief unmistakably beneath the question. 

I swallowed slowly. “Yes.” Vanessa let out a small hum. “Probably for the best.”

The words should have hurt the Nicole of yesterday before she had walked into her husband with another woman. But standing there now, looking at two women who had spent years reducing me into something smaller just to feel superior, I didn’t feel ashamed. I felt tired.

“A man like Gabriel was always going to outgrow…” Her eyes drifted over my body pointedly before returning to my face. “This.”

My fingers tightened around the suitcase handle until the metal pressed painfully into my palm. “We tried to encourage you,” she continued smoothly. “The gym memberships. The diets. The stylists. But you seemed comfortable letting yourself go.”

Diane  tilted her head slightly. “Nyla just fits his world better.” She smiled, “Bye Nicole. Lose some weight while you’re at it.”

I looked between them quietly, taking in the expensive clothes, the smug expressions and the satisfaction they were trying and failing to hide.

As I turned to leave, I realized I had spent years trying to prove I deserved a seat at their table. These women genuinely believed I was the one leaving empty-handed. They thought losing Gabriel was the tragedy but they had no idea he was the loss.