Phoenix Of Ruin: My Second Life Comes With A Better Man novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: I Want a Divorce

Her three brothers arrive, and Leigh tells the whole hospital lobby she wants a divorce while Blaine insists she has no name without him. Police step in to arrest her for poisoning Talia.

Three black cars came into the parking lot at once and stopped across the lanes.

The drivers who had been chasing Leigh stopped running.

Four men got out of the first car, and the tallest one was Conroy.

He was her eldest brother, and she had not seen him in three years.

He had gone gray at one temple. He looked at her bare finger, her torn sleeve and the bruise coming up on her wrist.

His face did not change, but his hands closed into fists.

"Who did that?" he said.

"Blaine did," Leigh said.

She had meant to say it calmly.

Her voice cracked on his name.

Conroy crossed the lot and held her against his chest so hard that her feet left the ground.

"You idiot," he said into her hair. "You stubborn, stupid idiot. We would have come for you any day."

"I know," she said. "I'm sorry."

Her second brother came up on her left and her third brother on her right.

The third one wiped his eyes with his sleeve and pretended he had not.

"Told you she'd call," the second one muttered. "Pay me."

"Not now," Conroy said.

Leigh still had the old woman's flip phone in her hand.

She walked back to the bus stop and returned it with both of hers. "Thank you. I'll find you and repay you."

The old woman only nodded, and looked past her at the three men waiting.

Then Conroy turned around, and the drivers saw the three men looking at them.

Both drivers moved away from the doors.

The second brother cracked his knuckles one at a time, to make sure they saw.

"Inside," Conroy said. "I want to hear her say all of it where everyone can hear."

They went through the lobby together, the three brothers around her like a wall.

The crowd that had filmed her ten minutes ago parted for them.

Blaine stood by the check-in desk with Talia wilting against his arm.

He saw Conroy, and the color left his face.

"Mr. Aldrich," he said, straightening. "This is a family misunderstanding. Leigh is unwell. I was only trying to get her the help she needs."

"Help," Conroy repeated.

"Leigh." Blaine turned to her with his gentlest voice, the one he used for investors. "Come home. We'll talk about it."

Leigh looked at the man she had married.

She looked at the tie she had bought him for his birthday.

Last time she had carried his dinner into his study every night for three years, and he had never once thanked her.

"No," she said.

Blaine's smile thinned.

"I want a divorce," she said.

She said it clearly, in front of the desk and the waiting families and the phones.

The whole lobby went quiet.

Talia gasped and put a hand over her mouth.

"Leigh, no," she said, her voice shaking. "You don't mean that. Blaine loves you."

"Keep out of this," Leigh said.

Talia flinched and looked at Blaine for protection.

He gave it to her at once.

"Don't talk to her like that," he said, turning on Leigh. "She's sick because of you."

Then he laughed, short and ugly, and the laugh was for the room.

"A divorce? You walked out on your own family for me, and they've ignored you for three years. You don't have a name without me. You don't have a cent without me. Where do you think you're going to go?"

"Home," Leigh said.

"Home." He shook his head. "They'll turn you away at the gate."

Conroy stepped forward and put his hand flat on Blaine's chest.

It was a small push.

Blaine went back three steps and hit the desk with his hip.

"Say that again," Conroy said quietly. "About my sister having no name."

Nobody in the lobby spoke, and the phones did not lower.

Blaine stared at the hand that had shoved him, and then at the three men behind it.

He had spent three years assuming nobody would ever come for her.

"You don't scare me," he said. It came out too high.

"Good," Conroy said. "I'd hate to waste it."

Then a woman's voice cut across the lobby from the emergency corridor.

"Mr. Pemberton? Officers, he's over here."

Two uniformed police officers were walking toward them.

Behind them was a doctor in a white coat, pointing.

Blaine's expression changed.

The shock went out of his face, and something very close to relief came into it.

He looked at Talia, who had gone pale again, and then at Leigh.

"The doctor filed a report," he said. "It's already done. I couldn't stop it even if I wanted to."

The first officer took out handcuffs.

"Leigh Aldrich?" he said. "You're under arrest for poisoning Talia Whitby."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend