I wipe away my tears, but they keep trickling down my cheeks. My heart has been yanked from my chest. My stomach can no longer hold anything in it. I feel numb.

           “Ivy!” I plead, the pain in my voice clear. “Why? Fifteen fucking years! I’ve given you everything. I’ve done everything you’ve asked. I’ve done illegal things for you when we were at our lowest. Now we have everything we could ever want, and you want to leave? I married you at sixteen for a fucking reason! This life was supposed to be ours!”

           Her dry, deep brown eyes stare at me with no emotion. Her bleach-blonde hair sits on her shoulders, waiting to be tugged by the man she’s been cheating on me. But it almost shouldn’t surprise me after the life we’ve had so far.

           I hold my hands out. “I’ve paid for you to get the body you wanted, and you allow some fucking nasty piece of shit from off the streets to touch it?”

           “He’s not nasty.” She argues softly, almost like she doesn’t care to argue. “He’s handsome and pays attention to me. He understands me. And I don’t care if he has money or not. He loves me.”

           I slam my fist into the wall close to her head. I’d never hurt her. “I fucking love you!” I roar in anger. “Why him? Why would you give all of this up for him? Please!”

           A small laugh pours from her mouth. How can she fucking laugh right now! “You’re mistaken, Noah. You have this all backward. I’m sorry. I truly am. I gave you everything for fifteen years. And they weren’t wasted years. But anything continuing forward between us would be wasted years. Anyway, I’m taking money with me. You’re not getting the money.”

           Thank God I had her sign that agreement after my book turned successful. Did she forget?

           I want to scream that she’s not receiving a damn dime! But! Even though I hurt so damn bad right now and want to end everything, I know I have to keep my mouth shut until I visit my lawyer.

           My hand wraps around the chair, gripping it tightly as I slowly sit down, staring at the ground in pain and not wanting this to end.

           “I can forgive you for cheating,” I say softly, refusing to look into her eyes. “We can still make this work. I’ve never been in love with anyone like you and…fifteen years! Fifteen fucking years, Ivy!”

           She raises the suitcase handle, her eyes still empty as she looks at me, and my eyes struggle to look away, but I can't!

She exhales softly, “We were fifteen, Noah. We didn’t know we would get married and spend fifteen years together. But we did. I never wanted this marriage, but I did it anyway. I’ve always loved you. But I don’t think I’ve ever been in love with you. That’s part of why the past few years have gone the way they have. And you know what I am talking about.”

“Then why the fuck did you marry me?” I cry harder. “Jesus, I gotta stop fucking crying.”

“It’s okay to cry.” She says, releasing her hand from her suitcase. “Look, you and I spent a long time together. And I’m not going to lie. This new guy might be a few months. I don’t know. But what I do know is you made it. I’m proud of you. I’m just not sticking around.”

“Because you’re not in love with me?” I ask, wiping more tears away.

She nods. “Exactly. Look at it this way. I’m doing you a favor.”

I cry-laugh. “How the fuck are you doing me a favor?”

She points at the watch on my wrist and then raises her finger to point at my face. “You’re a very wealthy man. You’re built because you love your cardio and strength training. You have a strong jawline that mesmerizes me to this day, along with those hazel eyes and deep brown short hair. You are what every other man on this planet wants to be. You have everything. You’re hotter than you’ve ever been. You can have women of any age. We both know the world knows about us now and how…intense our sex life is…was.”

I scoff, rolling my eyes and wiping away more tears. “How can you sit here and tell me you’re leaving me, yet I’m the sexiest man you’ve ever seen? That doesn’t make any fucking sense. If anything, you just admitted all the reasons why you should stay.”

“It’s true.” She admits. “That doesn’t mean I want you anymore. Like I said. I’m always going to love you. Hell! I could still sleep with you if you wanted. We both know you are very talented in bed. And I mean it. If you’re ever looking for a hookup…”

“You sound like a fucking slut right now.” I scoff in disgust. “How can you tell me you’re leaving but you still want to sleep with me?”

She shrugs, grabbing her suitcase again. “You’re well-built down there. And again, you’re good in bed. Just because I can’t have this marriage anymore, doesn’t mean I can’t have that beautiful piece of art between your legs.”

           “Jesus, Ivy! I’m pleading for you to stay. You’re trying to leave. Yet, you’re sitting here talking about trying to sleep with me. What the fuck do you want?”

She wraps her other hand around the doorknob. “Goodbye, Noah. I think you’ve known this has been over. You’ve just refused to believe it. And if I don’t leave tonight, you’ll just keep trying. Life with you was good. I’m sorry it had to end this way. I just don’t love you like I love James. And I won’t start another argument, but you have something someone else wants. You’ll figure it out one day.”

I huff a small hysterical chuckle. “James? His name is James. Does James know he’s ruined a perfectly good marriage?”

She lowers her head. “Goodbye, Noah. I wish the best for you. I really do. You’re an amazing person. You’ve treated me with the most respect a man could ever give a woman. I know it seems nuts for me to leave perfection when it comes to us, but I have to.”

I run my hands down my face, my fingers removing the tears, finally slowing down and my palms massaging my tight and painful cheeks.

“Yeah,” I say quietly with anger radiating in my tone. “You go do what you have to. Just know I mean it when I say, you’ve ruined the best part of me, Ivy. Right now, at this moment! I’ve officially lost what I care about most. My mind has shut down that part of me. I hope you’re fucking happy. Don’t ever think you can come back here. I want you to remember when you’re thinking of me that I won’t ever be thinking of you ever again. If my pleading can’t save this, I know nothing is there anymore. So, when you come crawling back to me because Mr. James decided to fuck you and take your money and run, you can’t have me.”

She opens the front door. “I’m sorry you feel that way…”

“No!” I snap. “You’re not fucking sorry. You don’t care. That emptiness in your eyes tells me that. You care about getting your cheeks clapped by needle dick and then give him the money that you don’t have and will never…” I stop myself, remembering I cannot tell her she’s entitled to zero.

She raises her eyebrows, confused anger growing in her expression. “Really? You’re going to resort to name-calling?”

“What do you want from me!” I roar. “I busted the woman of my life sleeping with some random fucking person. I watched his dick slide into you, and you moan with pleasure! Then you tell me it’s been happening for months, if not a year. Then you tell me you’re leaving me, taking my heart with you, and as much money as possible. What do you fucking expect?”

I slide my hands across the table, wanting to slam them down over and over again. But I’m a bigger man than that. Yeah! I’m making fun of needle dick, but I have every damn right to.”

She shakes her head. “I can’t believe you saw me. I never expected that. I just expected us to split up.”

“It’s kind of hard to see when my best friend sends me the video you two fucking idiots posted online! Thank God Chris watches porn.”

She steps outside, the suitcase rolling along with her. “I don’t know what else to say, Noah. It was fun. I hope you find someone who loves you. I hope you…”

“I’m not going to!” I argue. “I found who I wanted to spend my life with. I can’t see this life without you. Yet, I’m so fucking angry I don’t care anymore. Just shut the fucking door behind your cheating ass. I hope you find herpes.”

“Disgusting.” She gasps and that’s it. The door slams shut, and now I’m alone in this quiet mansion.

I made twenty million last month, and it all happened because of one single book. I wrote for years, and Ivy was the reason for my success. She pushed me. but now I’m a millionaire with no one to share it with because she’s gone and it’s too fucking quiet. And now I invest that money into businesses. But that fucking book is the hottest seller on the planet and it’s for all the wrong reasons. It’s my sex life. And it’s wildly intense. And women cannot seem to stop reading it.

I’m so angry, yet I don’t want to live any longer. I want to give up, but I’m only twenty-nine and I have a lot of life left. I just have no reason to live. She was my everything. She was my life. And she ended it without a single care in the world.

She’s now my ‘Goodbye’.