Chapter 3
Eileen's POV
Three days later, it's Ivy's fifth birthday.
That day I wrap up early, pick up her favorite strawberry cake, and grab a set of storybooks she's been asking about forever.
When I get back to the apartment, Nolan is in the living room, packing a suitcase.
He hears the door open, his hands go still for a second, then he closes the case like it's nothing.
"Eileen, something came up at work, a shoot. I've got to go to Hawaii for a week."
I don't answer. I just look at his suitcase.
Inside are brand-new swim trunks, sunscreen, a pair of dress shoes he's never worn, and a suit still in its fancy wrapping.
A shoot doesn't call for any of that.
I set the cake on the table and ask him, "Do you know what day it is?"
Nolan blanks for a second, then slaps his forehead.
"Ivy's birthday. How did I forget?"
He goes over to his daughter, pulls a few bills from his wallet, and bends down to press them into her hand.
"Be good, Ivy. Daddy's got to go make some big money today, so I can't be here for your birthday. Take this and have Mom take you somewhere nice to eat. When Daddy's back, I'll bring you a big present."
Ivy doesn't take it.
She looks up at Nolan, and the hope in her eyes fades bit by bit.
"Daddy, are you going away to marry Emily?"
The air in the room freezes.
Nolan's expression changes, and his eyes snap to me.
I don't call him out. I just walk to the table, open the cake box, and take out the candles.
Nolan crouches down and forces out a smile.
"It's not a wedding, it's a shoot. Daddy's just helping Emily with something she's always wanted."
Ivy doesn't say anything. She backs up slowly until she's behind me, her little hand gripping the hem of my shirt.
Nolan stands, grabs the suitcase, and heads for the door.
"I'm running late. I'd better go."
The moment the door shuts, I hear him let out a long breath, like he's finally free of some headache.
I light the candles and sing the birthday song with Ivy.
She closes her eyes to make a wish, and when she opens them, they're already red.
"Mom, doesn't Daddy want us anymore?"
I crouch down and pull her into my arms.
"Don't be scared, Ivy. Mom's always going to be here."
"Then can we still come back here?"
I look up at the apartment we've lived in for seven years.
The photo from Nolan's first award is still on the wall, and the first documentary we cut together sits on the shelf. The things that used to feel warm to me now just make it hard to breathe.
"We're not coming back here. Not anymore."
"Then where are we going?" Ivy asks in a small voice.
"To a new home." I wipe her tears away. "It has a garden, and ponies, and your own room. No one there is going to make you keep secrets, and no one's going to stop loving you over one wrong word."
She nods hard.
"As long as I'm with you, anywhere's fine."
Late that night, I start packing.
Ivy's clothes, her papers, her medical records, and my passport all go into the suitcase.
The bags, the jewelry, the gifts Nolan gave me, I don't take a single one. They look expensive, but every one of them is soaked in his handouts and his lies.
I set the divorce papers in the middle of the table, the ring on top to hold them down.
I take Ivy's hand and walk out of the home we lived in for seven years.
Downstairs, a black car has been waiting a while.
The butler steps out and opens the door for me.
"Miss Hastings, your father and mother are already at the estate, waiting for you. The private jet's ready too."
The car door closes, shutting the apartment lights out behind me. As the car pulls away from the block, I look back one last time at the building I know so well.
It holds the most miserable years of my youth, and a marriage I never want to take with me again.
I turn back around and hold Ivy tighter.
A week later, Nolan wraps his "shoot" in Hawaii.
He and Emily have their wedding on the beach. Emily, in a white gown, throws herself into his arms, crying, and says it's the happiest moment of her whole life.
Nolan thinks he's finally made up for what she missed out on.
They stay by the water for seven full days, taking photos in the daytime and drinking at night. Nolan even manages to convince himself he's twenty again, back in the days with no responsibilities and no fighting.
That lasts until the plane touches down in Chicago.
Nolan pushes open the apartment door, and the smile freezes on his face.
No lights are on. No smell of dinner. No Ivy running out to call for Daddy.
He stands in the entryway and tries calling out a couple of times.
"Eileen?"
"Ivy?"
Nothing.
He rushes into the bedroom and finds the closet half empty. He runs to the bathroom, where Ivy's and my toiletries are all gone.
All that's left on the table is a document and a ring.
Nolan picks up the divorce papers, and something in him goes tight.
"This isn't happening..."
He yanks out his phone and calls my number over and over.
Finally the call connects.
I'm sitting on the balcony of the Hastings estate in London, listening to him roar into the phone, unable to hold it in.
"Eileen! Where are you? Are you done throwing your little fit? Get back here with Ivy right now!"
I look out at the mist in the distance and say, calm:
"Nolan, you didn't even want a home anymore. So what would I be coming back for?"
