After the Divorce: Crushed on My Lawyer Ex-wife

#51 “I Can’t Imagine Being With Anyone Else.”

Collecting herself, Sophia took a deep breath, her voice steady as she responded to him.

“I see that you have solved the puzzle,” Sophia smiles at him, but the smile does not reach her eyes. “It doesn’t change anything, Alexander. You didn’t visit me once in these three years and now you pretend that there was something between us. There is nothing to fix because there was never a real connection.”

Alexander sighed deeply, acutely aware of the gravity of the situation. “I know I was wrong, Sophia,” he began cautiously.

Sophia’s voice turned cold and distant. “You were not wrong, Alexander; you made a decision. Your decision is that you don’t want to know me or have anything to do with me. I accept it.”

“Sophia, that was before I knew you,’ Alexander pleaded, desperation creeping into his voice.

She let out a bitter laugh. “There were three long years in which I sat alone, waiting for you to get to know me. It’s late now. I suggest that the divorce, which was your idea, means that you don’t want to communicate, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

“I know I can’t change the past, but I can change the future. I want to make things right. Sophia, I didn’t even know your name or who you were all these years, and not that it justifies me, but…

Sophia interrupted him with a cutting remark. “You’re right; it doesn’t excuse you. Just like the fact that you now know who I am, and suddenly I’m useful to you, right?”

Alexander asked, stunned

said to me on the phone the day of our divorce. When, once again, I wanted to talk with you. She said, ‘For being a useless ex-wife, he has given you enough. What more do you want?’ And

not about that at all,” Alexander protested, his surprise evident

tone biting. You didn’t know who I was; you thought I was from a poor family, didn’t you? That I clung to you like a leech because I’m incapable of making money. This is where you are wrong, Alexander. I was able to help you in your work, to be your equal partner, and you stuck me in that villa and left

like this; that’s what I want to talk about. To be clear, I obviously offended you. I never thought you were a leech,” Alexander insisted. Sophia wasn’t willing to let him off the hook that

You want to own, destroy competitors, and win new benefits. You’re a money machine. You will go through everyone and

her harsh words, unsure of how to react. He stared at her for a long moment, torn between feeling offended,

all until now,

I have helped you all this time? And why on earth should I bother trying to make you like me if I was just going to use you for my own purposes? You’re a lawyer;

him. “This is where our paths diverge, Alexander. Get another lawyer and don’t look for me for anything,”

turned to leave, Alexander grabbed her arm, desperation in his

“Mistakes don’t make you moan,” Alexander retorted before finally letting her

hoped

*

in the depths of the nearest bar, where whiskey flowed freely and regrets ran deep. The bartender’s concerned glances didn’t register as he continued to order glass after glass, each sip failing to wash away the weight of Sophia’s

believed he was a monster, and, in his moments of solitude at the bar, he

in his role as a husband in every conceivable way. The guilt weighed on him, gnawing

measure. It was one of the things he had always