Chapter 40:
Goodbye, What Was Ours

"Who the hell are you?!"

The shout cut through the quiet night like a blade. Olivia's heart lurched, and she threw the door open wide, stepping out into the hallway in her bare feet. What she saw stopped her breath in her throat.

Harry and Andrei were grappling with each other in the dim corridor - fists flying, shoulders colliding. Harry's nose was bleeding, dark red streaks running down his lip and onto his shirt. Andrei was doing his best to block and push back, not throwing punches of his own, but clearly struggling to hold his ground. It didn't take her long to notice the way Harry swayed unsteadily on his feet - his movements were aggressive but uncoordinated, his eyes glassy and unfocused.

He was drunk. And furious.

"STOP!!" Olivia screamed, rushing forward and stepping between them, her arms trembling. "Harry, please! Stop it right now!"

At the sound of her voice, Harry froze. He stumbled back a step, chest heaving, his knuckles still clenched tight. Andrei straightened slowly, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth, wincing as he moved his jaw.

"Do you... do you know who this guy is?" Andrei asked, bewildered, nodding toward Harry.

Olivia ignored him, her focus entirely on the man standing before her. "Harry? Are you okay? What are you doing here? Why... why are you like this?" She reached out gently toward him, but he flinched and stepped sharply away from her touch as if her hand burned him.

The rejection stung worse than any blow.

He lifted his head, and when his emerald eyes locked onto hers, her heart shattered all over again. There was so much pain in them - raw, bleeding pain - but it was buried beneath layers of anger and betrayal.

"I came here to say one thing," he said, his voice low, thick, and deliberate. "I want a divorce, Olivia."

The words hung in the air, heavy and cruel. Olivia felt her knees buckle beneath her. No. This can't be happening.

"Harry... no," she whispered, tears spilling instantly. "Please. Don't do this. Don't say that. Our marriage... it's everything I have left. Please, I'll wait. I'll give you all the time you need. Just please... don't throw us away like we meant nothing."

She sank to her knees on the hard tiled floor, not caring who saw her, not caring how desperate she looked.

"Please, Harry. I'll do anything. I'll fix it. Just don't leave me completely alone."

"Olivia, get up," he said, his voice rising in frustration. "Stand up, please. This isn't you."

"I don't care!" she cried, clutching at the air between them. "I'd rather be on my knees begging you than standing tall without you!"

He shook his head, looking at her with such profound sadness that it felt like he was already saying goodbye.

"Everything we built... it was built on a foundation of lies. All of it. Including us. Including our marriage. How can we possibly stay together when every 'I love you' we ever said was tangled in deception? You have to let me go. Not just for me - for yourself, too."

"I can't!" she sobbed. "I won't!"

Harry glanced over at Andrei then, a bitter, broken kind of smirk touching his lips.

"You've found someone else," he said, his words slurring slightly. "Good. Be happy, Olivia. Truly. Be happy. Just... don't expect me to be the one holding you together anymore."

With that, he turned his back on her - the final, most painful thing he could have done - and walked away. She listened to his car door slam shut, heard the engine roar to life, and watched through tear-blurred eyes as he sped away into the darkness, vanishing from sight as if he had never been there at all.

"Earth to Olivia... you're spacing out on me."

She blinked, the hallway empty now except for Andrei. She was sitting on her sofa, an ice pack pressed gently against his swollen lip.

"Ouch! Easy there!" Andrei winced, pulling back slightly.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her hand trembling. "I'm so sorry he hurt you. He shouldn't have come here. He shouldn't have taken it out on you."

"So... that was him," Andrei said quietly, studying her face.

Olivia nodded, fresh tears pricking her eyes again. "He wants a divorce, Andrei. He looked at me like... like I was something he used to know but didn't want anymore. He wants me gone from his life. Forever this time."

Andrei shook his head slowly, his expression soft but certain.

"I don't think that's what happened out there. He attacked me because he saw me walking you to your door. Because the thought of another man standing where he thought he belonged made him crazy. That wasn't just anger, Olivia. That was fear. And underneath it all? Jealousy."

"Jealousy?" She let out a hollow, disbelieving laugh. "He looked at me like I was the worst mistake he ever made."

"He looked at you like he was hurting too much to stay," Andrei corrected gently. "His eyes? They weren't saying 'I don't want you.' They were saying 'I can't trust you.' Those are two very different things. He's confused. He's hurt. He doesn't know how to reconcile the woman he thought he married with the truth of what happened. But love doesn't vanish just because we're angry. It just hides behind the loudest emotion we can find."

Before she could respond, his phone buzzed loudly on the coffee table, vibrating against the wood. He glanced at the screen and groaned.

"Oh no. I completely forgot - I have an early photoshoot tomorrow morning. My team is definitely panicking. And now I show up with a busted lip? They're going to kill me." He ran a hand through his hair, frustration in his voice.

Olivia's guilt doubled. "Andrei, I am so sorry. This is all my mess. You didn't deserve to get pulled into this. Not at all."

"Shhh. None of that," he said softly, placing a finger gently over her lips. "It's just a lip. It'll heal. You? You matter more than a photoshoot. Don't apologize for someone else's choices."

He stood up, adjusting his suit jacket, and walked toward the door. Olivia checked the clock on the wall - 12:07 AM. Midnight. The night felt endless.

"I'll see you around, okay? Take care of yourself, Olivia. Especially tonight."

"Goodnight, Andrei. And... thank you," she whispered.

He gave her one last reassuring nod before stepping out and closing the door behind him.

The click of the latch sounded incredibly loud in the sudden silence. And then she was truly alone again. No voices. No footsteps. Just the quiet hum of the refrigerator and the echo of Harry's words circling endlessly in her mind.

I want a divorce.

She sank down onto the floor right there by the door, pulling her knees to her chest, and let the darkness wrap around her. She didn't know what came next. She didn't know if there was a next. But somewhere deep down, beneath the heartbreak and the fear, one thing was clear: this wasn't just the end of a marriage. It was the end of the old Olivia - and the beginning of whoever she was going to become.