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He stopped a few feet away. Didn't come closer.
I looked at him. My face was calm.
"Have you read the papers? If you have concerns, take them up with my solicitor."
"I'm not signing."
He met my eyes. Urgently.
"Sylvia, don't leave me. I know — I know I got so many things wrong this year. But those things Bianca said to you — I never said any of them. Not a word. I pulled the security footage from that night. She put something in my drink. I was—"
He stopped himself.
"She used me. And everything she told you was a lie. My heart has only ever had one person in it."
A gust of wind moved along the pavement, lifting fallen leaves.
I waited until he finished.
"Are you done?"
He blinked. Nodded.
"Lucas."
My voice was steady in the cold air.
"Do you think that if you can prove you weren't really cheating — that the child wasn't intentional — that those words were never spoken — then you become the innocent one? The wronged party? And I'm just supposed to forgive you?"
He opened his mouth. Nothing came out.
"Even if all of that is true," I said, "it doesn't matter."
I looked at him. Kept going.
"What matters is that for four years, you were hiding another life. Looking after another woman. Being a father to her child. All while you were married to me."
"What matters is that every time I shook with fear because you were late home, you looked at me like I was behaving unreasonably."
"What matters is that you let Bianca walk into our home — and she used the worst thing that ever happened to me to humiliate me, because you'd put her in a position where she could."
I paused.
He'd gone very pale.
"Do you see?" I said.
"You didn't have anything like basic trust to give me. What you feel now isn't remorse over what you put me through. You're upset because you found out you were deceived. You're embarrassed. You feel like a fool."
I stopped looking at him.
I took out my key. Tapped it against the fob reader. The door opened.
"Sign the papers, Lucas. Give yourself that much dignity."
The door closed behind me.