Chapter 6 - JULIAN LEARNED CHLOE NEVER LOVED HIMJulian requested to hear Chloe’s full recorded conversations.
Against my better judgment, I agreed.
He sat in my attorney’s office.
I sat across from him.
The recording began.
Diane:
“Is he attached to you?”
Chloe laughed.
“He thinks he is.”
Julian’s face changed.
Diane:
“Can you get him to sign?”
“Maybe.”
“What does he think this is?”
“Love.”
A pause.
Then Chloe:
“He’s easy when he feels admired.”
Julian stopped the audio.
For years, he had believed himself the charming one.
Successful.
Wanted.
The man who could step outside marriage and still control the terms.
Now he was hearing himself described as useful.
I expected satisfaction.
I felt none.
Humiliation is ugly even when it happens to someone who betrayed you.
Julian whispered:
“She used me.”
I answered:
“Yes.”
Then he looked at me.
“And I used you.”
That surprised me.
“How?”
“I liked being married to you.”
“Romantic.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“I mean I liked what it said about me.”
There it was.
My family name.
My company.
My competence.
Julian loved me.
I believed that.
He also loved being the man married to me.
Those things had become tangled.
Then when marriage became ordinary, Chloe gave him admiration without history.
He chose it.
That still belonged to him.
Not Diane.
May you like
Not Chloe.
Him.
