All Chapters of Never What It Was: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

Chapter 1

I bought replacement gifts and went to my parents' house for the holiday alone. They both found it strange."Where's Linnea? Didn't she say she was coming today?""Is everything all right between you two?"I smiled. "Sorry. Her office called her in for last-minute overtime."They both nodded. "Work comes first."However, I was staring at my phone, at a social media post from my wife's ex-boyfriend, Grant Tierney.There was a caption and a carousel of photos.The caption read, "The holiday surprise she put together for me. She really went all out."The gourmet gift box I had spent weeks researching had been unwrapped, everything arranged and plated exquisitely. He had already gone through all of it.In one of the photos, a pair of hands was arranging the contents. The fingers were slender and delicate, with a small scar across the right thumb.I recognized them immediately. They belonged to my wife, Linnea Fairchild.I also noticed that the wedding ring was gone from her left

Chapter 2

I opened the bags and found that every piece of clothing had already been unwrapped. The tags were gone, and there was a smear of dried sticky stuff on the beige slacks that had not been cleaned off. It had hardened, but the stain was obvious.They could not be returned.I stared at that stain the way I might stare at the wreckage of my three-year marriage."Who opened these?"Linnea hesitated, then lowered her voice. "Grant opened them. He signed for the package and assumed they were for him, so he just..."My tone was even. "He opened them. He got them dirty. And you brought them back for me to give to my parents?"Her patience vanished."They were already open! What do you want me to do? The tags are cut off. I can't return them."These were sized for your parents. They wouldn't fit anyone else."If you don't want to give them to your parents, just throw them away!"Would not fit anyone else. I did not need to ask who "anyone else" meant.The truth was as absurd as it w

Chapter 3

However, the very next second, Linnea's expression shifted to blame."I didn't remember, so why didn't you say something?"And even if you can't eat seafood, there's still the beef carpaccio."Still, I had never eaten anything raw. Linnea used to know that. At some point, she had forgotten everything.I suddenly could not see the point of sitting there any longer. I stood up and left.Behind me, Grant's voice was full of concern. "Is Theo upset?"Linnea's barely lowered voice did nothing to hide her irritation. "He just has to kill the mood no matter what. Ignore him. Let's eat."I walked out of the restaurant alone and took a cab home.This time, there was no room left for denial. I sent my resignation to my company first, then started packing.The study was where I began. Linnea's work could only be done at her office, so this room had always been mine. The books, the sketches, the notebooks. All of it mine.I was halfway through when Linnea came home.The smile on her fac

Chapter 4

Linnea had booked a large private dining room with two tables, packed with close to 30 people.Grant was seated at the same table as Linnea's parents. He was right beside them, with Linnea on his other side.When the hostess opened the door for me, the first thing I saw was Linnea leaning toward Grant, saying something to him in a low voice. Their faces were close, both of them smiling.The room went quiet for a beat when I walked in.Linnea jerked back, putting distance between herself and Grant. As if to cover for the moment, she stood and walked toward me."You made it."She waved a server over and turned to me. "We were just waiting on you. Come sit."I nodded and went over to greet her parents.Linnea leaned in to explain. "Mom missed Grant, so she asked me to invite him."She dropped her voice so only I could hear. "There are so many colleagues here tonight. One more person doesn't make a difference, right?"I stepped back, away from her."It's your call," I said.I w

Chapter 5

Linnea stared at the divorce agreement in front of her, stunned. The entire room went silent.Grant was the first to react. He shot to his feet, panic written all over his face as he looked at Linnea. "Linnie, Theo must have gotten the wrong idea. Just explain things to him!"He turned to me. "Theo, everyone just had a little too much to drink. They were only joking around. Please don't take it seriously."I watched Linnea's face. The shock and the tension that had been there a moment ago shifted, reshaped by Grant's words, into something harder, full of irritation and anger.She held it back long enough to speak. "Theo, I have colleagues and friends here tonight. My parents are here. People had a few drinks and made some jokes. If it bothered you, you could have just said so. You didn't have to pull this stunt and humiliate everyone."Her parents smiled tightly and tried to smooth things over."Theo, some of the girls were out of line just now, but you shouldn't jump straight

Chapter 6

With my parents' help, I unpacked everything and put it away in no time.I was back in the room I had grown up in. It was small, with just a wardrobe and a desk, but every corner of it felt like mine.That evening, my parents made a table full of my favorite dishes. The day before, for the holiday, I had told them in advance that Linnea would be coming with me.They had gone out of their way to prepare mostly things she liked, and then she never showed. Her tastes were nothing like ours, so most of the food had gone to waste.Now, for the first time, our family did not have to cater to Linnea anymore.After dinner, my parents insisted on taking me out for a walk. We strolled along the winding stone path near the house."Life isn't about never running into trouble," they told me. "It's about not letting trouble knock you down so hard you can't get back up."If you've made your decision, then don't let Linnea get to you anymore."I nodded. "Of course. I wouldn't have brought up d

Chapter 7

On the third day of my trip, Mom called."Linnea showed up at our door. Your father wouldn't let her in."She was perfectly pleasant about it, too. Showed up with armfuls of gifts, saying she wanted to apologize to you."You'd never guess she was capable of pulling all that nonsense."If you hadn't told us everything before you left, your father and I never would have suspected a thing. We probably would have invited her right in."She was right.Someone else in my position might have hidden the details out of embarrassment or out of fear of being pitied. They might have kept things vague and said the relationship simply was not working.However, that was not who I was. None of it had been my fault, so why should I act like I had something to be ashamed of? Why should I have to worry about what people thought? After all, the person who had actually done all of it was not worried.I reminded my parents, "She only went to you because I've been ignoring her calls and messages."I

Chapter 8

Mom called from time to time with updates. Linnea had come by the house again, trying to find me through them.Eventually they told her I was traveling, and she stopped showing up at the building, lurking downstairs in the early morning or late at night, startling them out of nowhere.I listened to Mom's gentle voice as she talked about things at home and mentioned Linnea's name. Hearing it stirred nothing in me anymore. She had become part of the past, completely and finally.I barely checked Linnea's message.My original plan had been a month of travel, and I had bought my return ticket in advance. When the date came, I boarded the plane and flew home. Whenever I found something interesting or meaningful along the way, I bought it on the spot and had it shipped back.The address I used was my parents' house. Nothing went to the wrong place, and nobody could claim it was meant for someone else.I even shipped my suitcase home ahead of me. The trip back was lighter than the tri

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