He Made Us His Secret, So We Disappeared novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Resignation
Naomi resigns, watches Marcello hand her eight-month deal to Chiara, and signs the divorce papers the night before her son's birthday.
On Monday morning, in front of the whole litigation floor, my husband gave away the deal I had spent eight months building.
I was standing at the lounge coffee machine when Marcello Ferraro walked in with Chiara Lombardi on his arm.
Everyone at the firm believed Chiara was the woman in his life.
Everyone at the firm also believed I was just one of his lawyers.
I had been Mrs. Ferraro for eight years, and no one in that room knew it.
We had married in a London registry office three weeks after one night I could not take back, because I was pregnant.
There was no ring, no announcement and no wedding photo that he ever let me frame.
"Naomi, good morning," Chiara said, and she smiled at me warmly.
She poured my coffee before I could reach the pot. She remembered I took it black.
"Tell Miles happy early birthday from his birthday twin," she said. "Tomorrow is our day, you know. I'll make sure Marcello is home for it."
"Thank you," I said.
I meant it. It was the kindest thing anyone at that firm had said to me in a month.
Marcello did not look at me.
"Naomi, the Marina Hotel acquisition goes to Chiara," he said. "She'll handle the closing."
The lounge went quiet.
"Marcello, I have been on that deal since February."
"Chiara needs a finished project on her record."
"And the work I already did?"
"I am informing you," he said. "I am not asking."
Nine people in that lounge watched me hold my cup.
I had once fought him over every file like this one.
That morning I felt nothing at all.
Chiara took the folder from his hand and gave me a soft, sorry look.
"You did the hard part, Naomi. Thank you."
"I hope the rest goes well," I said.
I put the cup down on the counter, still full, and walked out.
I did not go back to my desk.
I went straight to the managing partner's office and put my resignation letter in front of her.
She read it twice. "Naomi, you have been here eight years. Why now?"
"It isn't sudden. Miles's father is barely in his life. I want to take my son somewhere new."
She hesitated, then closed her mouth on whatever she had been about to say.
She probably thought my son had no father.
I let her think it.
She signed my release form on the spot and did not ask me one more question.
Eight years of briefs, and the exit took one signature.
When I got home that afternoon, Miles was on the living room floor with the water-cycle model he had built for school.
He looked up the second I came in.
"Mom, did you ask Dad?"
His Family Science Challenge was tomorrow afternoon. His seventh birthday dinner was tomorrow night.
For two weeks he had asked me the same question every day.
Would Dad come this time?
I touched his hair.
"I'll ask him again."
"Tell him I really want him there."
"I will."
When he went back to his room, I called Marcello. It rang out.
So I wrote: Miles's school event is tomorrow afternoon, and his birthday dinner is tomorrow night. Can you come?
No answer came.
At bedtime my phone was still dark.
Then Chiara posted a story.
It showed a private screening room, Chiara leaning against a man whose face was cut off by the frame.
I knew the sleeve. I had ironed that shirt.
The comments were already stacking up.
You two look perfect together.
How are you still not married?
Is this finally the year?
Chiara answered the last one with a smiling face.
I closed the app.
Marcello was not too busy to look at his phone. He just did not have a minute for me.
He did not come home that night.
Before Miles fell asleep, he asked again.
"Mom, did Dad text back?"
I pulled the blanket up to his chin and shook my head.
"Not yet."
His eyes dimmed. Then he said, very quickly, "Maybe he's busy."
My seven-year-old had already learned to make excuses for a father who had never been there.
I shut his door and sat at the dining table in the dark.
For eight years I had told myself to wait. Wait until Marcello stopped resenting how it all started. Wait until he named us. Wait until Miles could say Dad without checking the room first.
That day was never coming.
I poured a glass of wine and watched the phone beside it. It stayed black until the glass was empty.
I opened the folder my attorney had emailed that morning.
Divorce Agreement.
My signature was already on the last page.
I did not take it back.
Marcello, this time I was setting you free.
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