Save Her Lose Us (Evangeline and Soren) novel Chapter 30

Evangeline paused to think.

Technically, even though she and Soren were divorced, the waiting period wasn't over yet. That meant, by law, she was still the Fawkes family's daughter-in-law.

Soren's request wasn't unreasonable.

Besides, Old Mrs. Fawkes had always treated her kindly. She owed it to the woman to at least stop by and say hello.

Evangeline didn't refuse. "All right, I'll be there," she promised.

Soren listened to her gentle reply, his gaze drifting to the papers on his desk.

Gregory had handed him a report earlier: Evangeline was living in the worst apartment building in town. The place was shabby, and the living conditions were poor, to say the least.

He'd almost laughed in disbelief when he'd read it.

He sent her nearly four thousand dollars a month for living expenses, yet she'd chosen to move into a place like that?

Was she doing it on purpose?

Trying to gain his sympathy? Or maybe she wanted people to gossip—imagine, Soren Fawkes's wife living in a run-down apartment.

Whatever her motive, Soren found it all rather amusing.

Still, he decided to give her an easy way out.

Magnanimously, he asked, "Anything else you want to say?"

Anything else?

It took Evangeline a moment to catch on. "We should probably tell them about our situation tomorrow too."

Our situation?

She meant Poppy moving into the house, and her insistence on a trial separation?

Was she planning to use that to force him to back down in front of his family?

The irritation he'd just managed to suppress flared up again. "If you have any complaints, just say them outright. There's no need to make such a fuss over something so trivial."

"Trivial?" Evangeline let out a bitter laugh.

All her soul-searching and second-guessing over the past few days suddenly seemed ridiculous.

She'd sacrificed so much for this marriage, yet in Soren's eyes, it was all just a minor inconvenience.

But she'd been through worse. The sting of it only lasted a few seconds before she composed herself.

Her voice was calm. "They're your family. When and how to tell them is up to you."

"If there's nothing else, I'll hang up now."

With that, Evangeline ended the call.

On the other end, Soren listened to the dial tone and let out an incredulous laugh.

Soren glanced at Macy, taking in the wrinkles on her face and the gray in her hair. The criticism on the tip of his tongue faded. He couldn't bring himself to say anything.

Macy ventured, "Is something wrong, Mr. Fawkes?"

Soren stood, dabbed his mouth with a napkin, and placed it neatly on the table. "I'm going out for a while. I won't eat tonight."

Without another word, he turned and left.

Macy watched him go, her heart finally settling back to a steady beat.

With Evangeline gone, she no longer had anyone to share the chores and cooking. Years of an easy life had left her out of practice, so she'd been relying on pre-made meals lately.

Today, with Soren home all day, she'd had no choice but to cook herself.

When he looked at her just now, she'd felt her heart in her throat.

She'd have to come up with a better solution soon.

…

After hanging up, Evangeline didn't feel like sleeping anymore.

She changed clothes and went downstairs to the market next door, picking up a few groceries to make a simple meal.

The nice thing about living alone was that meals were easy and the dishes even easier.

With a smaller place, there wasn't much to clean. What used to take her a couple hours now took less than ten minutes.