Chapter 5 - The Confrontation
The next morning, the heavy wooden door to Lucy's room was violently pushed open.
A red-faced security guard was actively trying to hold back a frantic, disheveled man.
"Sir, you cannot go in there!" the guard shouted.
Alex ignored him, bursting into the room like a hurricane of panic and guilt.
His expensive designer suit was hopelessly wrinkled.
His hair was a messy nest, and his eyes were bloodshot from crying.
He looked like a man whose entire world had just collapsed around him.
Good, Lucy thought coldly, crossing her arms over her hospital gown.
"Lucy!" Alex gasped, rushing toward the foot of her bed.
He reached out desperately to grab her hand.
She pulled it away instantly, as if his touch physically burned her.
His empty hand hovered in the air, trembling violently.
"Don't touch me," she said, her voice echoing with icy authority.
"Lucy, please, you have to let me explain!" he begged, tears spilling down his face.
"Explain what, Alex?" she asked calmly, raising a single eyebrow.
"Explain how you forgot your own wife was stuck in the same elevator as your mistress?"
Alex flinched hard, as if she had just slapped him across the face.
"I didn't know you were in there," he cried, dropping to his knees beside her bed.
"I swear to God, I thought you had left the office early!"
"So that makes it okay?" Lucy fired back, leaning forward with dangerous intensity.
"That makes it acceptable that you were kissing and comforting your assistant while people were trapped inside?"
"It was a mistake," Alex sobbed, burying his face in his hands.
"Valerie means nothing to me, she was just panicked, and I was trying to calm her down!"
"Save the pathetic lies for the judge, Alex," Lucy said, refusing to show a single ounce of pity.
Right on cue, a sharp-dressed woman in a sleek gray pantsuit walked calmly into the room.
She carried a sleek leather briefcase and wore a no-nonsense expression.
"Mr. Sterling?" the woman asked briskly.
Alex looked up from the floor, wiping his nose with his ruined silk sleeve.
"Who the hell are you?" he snapped.
"I am Diane Ross, Mrs. Sterling's legal counsel," she replied smoothly.
Diane opened her briefcase and pulled out a thick stack of manila folders.
She dropped them unceremoniously right onto Alex’s lap as he knelt on the floor.
"You have officially been served," Diane stated without missing a beat.
Alex stared at the divorce papers in horror.
"No, Lucy, you can't do this!" he pleaded, scrambling to his feet.
"Think about our baby!"
"I am thinking about my baby," Lucy said, staring holes right through him.
"And my baby is never going to grow up thinking it’s okay to treat people the way you treat me."
"Get out of my room, Alex."
"Get out before I have you arrested for trespassing."
Alex stood frozen, clutching the divorce papers as his entire life burned to the ground.
Lucy picked up her cup of water, took a slow sip, and turned on the television.
May you like
The message was clear.
He was already nothing but a ghost to her.
