Walk Away, The Romance of Nick and Layla (Part 1) (16 page)

"You fucking liar. You never told me
that you and Missy dated. And from what she said, you were pretty
serious!"

Nick’s face fell. Caught you now, bastard.

"She told you that?" He looked
incredulous.

"Yes! And she told me about how you
cheated on her with me! Jesus Christ Nick, have you ever not cheated on one of
your girlfriends?"

"What does any of that matter? I said
I was sorry. Fuck Layla! We’re supposed to be moving on!" He ran his hands
through his hair and wiped away at his eyes. "And I went out with Missy
once or twice. I’d hardly call it serious. Jesus Christ. I can’t believe you
let her feed you all those lies."

"Oh, like I’m supposed to believe
you?" I shouted.

He looked so pissed. "Of course! I’m
your husband! I’m the
one
person you’re supposed to believe above
everyone else!"

"I don’t know what to believe anymore,
Nick."

"Believe
me
. Okay? I’m not
going to lie to you. Go ahead, ask me anything. I’ll tell you the absolute
truth no matter what!"

"No thanks." I shook my head and
bent down to pick up my purse. I fumbled with it but finally got it over my
shoulder. "I think I’ve heard enough from you."

"Where are you going?"

"I’m going home, Nick! And I’m doing
something I should have done a long time ago. I’m leaving you. For good this
time."

"What?" I watched as Nick’s face
quickly changed from anger to total sadness.

"I can’t handle you anymore. I should
never have gotten involved with you in the first place. I just... can’t. Not anymore.
I can no longer distinguish between truth and lies with you and it’s too
painful to keep trying. I don’t trust you, plain and simple."

"Don’t leave tonight. Please Layla.
Don’t leave like this. We have to talk this through. Work this out." He
was crying. All I could do was shake my head, which only made him cry more.
"Please?"

"We’re done Nick." I could barely
stand to look at him, whether due to disgust or the haze of alcohol I was stuck
in.

He grabbed my face and forced me to look
into his eyes. I was sorry he did because it only broke my heart to see him
crying as hard as he was.

"Layla, please don’t leave me."

I shook my head and peeled his hands off of
my face. "I’m finished."

It wasn’t the first time I walked away from
him. But it was the first time I did it and meant it. And this time I knew....
we were really over.

You have nine new messages.

"Layla, it’s me. Look, I don’t know
what Missy told you but it sounds like she just fed you bull shit. I wish you’d
talk to me about it. At least give me the chance to tell you the truth. Come on
baby, please."

"Lay, it’s me. Come on girl answer
your phone. I know you’re screening. Just... Please call me, Layla."

"Okay, you’re not speaking to me.
Okay, you win. I wish you wouldn’t do this. You never even gave me the chance
to explain myself. Call me back."

"Baby would you pick up your damn
phone already?! I’m not going to talk to your voice mail forever. Like it or
not I’m still your husband and that... Fuck."

"I can’t stand this anymore! Would you
please just talk to me? PLEASE?! Goddamn it Layla. Don’t put me out like this.
You can’t just not speak to me!"

"Okay fine, you want to play this game
with me? Okay. We’ll play it. You want me to leave you a dozen voice mails
before you get the point across in your thick head... Damn it!"

"I’m sorry. Just... please Layla. I’m
going out of my mind here. I have no idea where you are and it’s scaring the
shit out of me."

"What the fuck happened to you saying
you were going to give me another chance? One test and you threw it all out the
fucking window! You’re supposed to trust me! You know I would never hurt you
and you can’t honestly believe that I did all that horrible shit to you. So
pick up the damn phone ALREADY!"

"You’re not going to ignore me forever
sweetie. I’m flying back from New York right now and we’re going to work this
out. I don’t care if I have to tie you up to a chair... No matter what it takes
I’m going to make you listen to my side of the story.... Layla... I love you. I
do. More than I love myself. Okay? I love you. I’ll be there in a few
hours."

Of course I knew he would find me. There
was only one place I could go. Home. My home. As soon as I arrived I crawled
into the bed and just lay there, crying... sobbing... holding our wedding
picture tight against my chest.

Of all the....

Fuck.

But I hadn’t gone straight home. I had made
a stop first and my business was finished. Sometime earlier that day a man
delivered the papers. The only time I got out of bed was to answer the door.
And I ignored the look on the young lawyer’s face when he saw that I hadn’t
changed my clothes or washed my face in two days. Fuck if I cared.

I just took the papers, held the pen in my
hand, and shakily signed in all my designated places.

It was almost over.

The movers would be here the next day. So
would the realtor. And then I’d be gone.

Away from Santa Monica. Away from
California. Away from my marriage. Away from my life. And most importantly....

Away from Nick.

And he didn’t even know it yet. But he was
about to find out.

I heard the bedroom door open but I didn’t
acknowledge him. The bed moved when he sat down beside me. But I didn’t move. I
just laid there; the picture pressed against my chest, and dried tears on my
swollen cheeks.

"Layla."

I closed my eyes. Hearing him say my name
was the worst sound in the world. It was once the only thing I loved to hear.
His voice, his beautiful voice, breathing my name. But I had since come to hate
it. I hated the sound. And I hated him most of all.

"Baby, I wish you’d talk to me."

I have nothing to say to you Nick. Nothing
whatsoever.

"You have to talk to me at some point.
You can’t ignore me forever."

Yes I can. We’re over. It’s done.

"Layla."

"Don’t say my name," I said to
him. I barely recognized my own voice. After two days of not saying a word, just
sobbing like a baby, my voice had become coarse and rough.

"What do you want me to say?"

"I don’t want you to say
anything." I pushed the comforter off of my body and slowly stood up.

"We need to have this talk Layla. You
know we do."

"We don’t have anything to talk about
Nick."

"Like hell we don’t."

"We don’t. It’s over."

"It’s never over. We promised each
other. Remember? Until death do we part?"

"I don’t have the strength to kill
you, Nick." I picked up the papers from the bedside table. I hated the way
they looked. Long sheets filled with legal words and figures. But this was what
would end it all. Once and for all. "So this will have to do." I
tossed the packet on the bed and walked to the window. It was such a beautiful
day outside. I couldn’t help but think about the billions of people living
their lives. Everywhere people were dying. People were being born. People were
getting married. And like me and Nick, people were getting divorced.

"How is this possible?"

"Simple. You sign your name next to
the green stickers. That’s how it’s possible."

"This is a Decree of Divorce."

"Yep." So many people living
their lives. And here I was, about to end a part of mine.

"How the hell did you get divorce
papers drawn up in two days?"

"My father is a very powerful man,
Nick. All he had to do was make a phone call."

"I’m not signing these."

"Don’t worry Nick. I don’t want
anything from you. I don’t want any of your money. I don’t want any of your
possessions. I’ll take what’s mine and you keep what’s yours."

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"I’m not doing anything to you. I’m
doing it for me. For the past three years I have loved you unconditionally. I
waited for months at a time while you were on tour. I took care of you when you
came home. I married you. I gave you my heart, my body, my soul. And I lost it
all. Maybe with this I can get some of me back. Maybe I can become Layla
Garrett again."

"What was so wrong with being Layla Hudson?"

"It’s just a name Nick. A name that
represents something I hate. And I want to give it back to you."

"Please don’t make me sign
these."

"I’m not making you do anything Nick.
Like I said, this is for me."

"What about what I want Layla?"

"That’s not my business any more.
That’s all on you now. From now on everything is up to you. I quit."

"I don’t want a divorce. And I’m sure
as hell not signing these."

When I turned around I wasn’t surprised to
see Nick crying. But I couldn’t feel for him. Not anymore. So instead I picked
up the pen from the bedside table and gently placed it on top of the bed.

I turned away, headed for my bathroom. I
locked the door behind me, slid down to the cold tile, like I had so many times
before, and I cried.

I’m not sure how long I stayed in there
for, but by the time I finally unlocked the door, the once bright house was now
dark and cold. Eerie. Empty. And sitting there on the ground was the Divorce
Decree.

With two signatures.

Layla Catherine Garrett.

And Nicholas David Hudson.

And so it was finished.

I don’t believe in love. And maybe I never
should have. But the point is that I don’t anymore. All the love I had, I gave
to Nick. And he took it with him when he walked away. And I walked away with
nothing.

Maybe it was never meant to be. Maybe Nick Hudson
wasn’t my soul mate after all. But for a long time it sure as hell felt like he
was.

I recently heard a song that made me cry.
It was as if it was written for me. I knew it wasn’t. In fact it had nothing to
do with me.

But at the same time, it had everything to
do with me. Had I heard this song earlier, things might have been different.
Maybe Nick and I would still be married. Maybe not.

But one thing was for certain. I had
finally walked away from Nick Hudson. Now my ties to him would be limited to
one: my ex-husband. I’m not sure where it went wrong. I’m not sure I care. But
I walked away. And it was probably the smartest thing I had ever done. And now
all I have is me.

But Lord help me, because I’m a liar. I
guess I learned from the best. Because I knew better. I knew better than to not
believe in love.

Because the truth was... I still love that
man. And I probably always will.

And despite the feeling in my gut that told
me we would likely never be over, I planned to keep on walking.

To be continued...

“Sorry, The Romance of Nick and Layla (Part 2)” is now available on
Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009ND3CU0

Four
months after their bitter fall-out, Nick and Layla are on the brink of divorce.
He wants to start anew, but she's keeping a secret that could change the very
shape of their relationship for good. Still, their emotional manipulations are
the only way they know how to communicate, even when it seems there is little
left to save of their tumultuous marriage.

Also by Crystal
Cierlak
:

“
Sorry, The Romance of
Nick and Layla (Part 2)
”

“
White Flag, The
Romance of Nick and Layla (Part 3)
”

“
Zoe Thanatos
”

On
her 25th birthday Zoe Thanatos is ready to end her short and unhappy life by
jumping off a cliff into the Pacific. But her plans irrevocably change when a
stranger intervenes, preventing her death while seemingly cheating his own. She
demands answers but unearths a whole new world of questions when her savior
confesses his true identity - that he isn't from her world - and leads her down
a path of discovery that reveals truths about the life she was meant to live
and those responsible for taking it from her.

Discover
a new world with "Zoe Thanatos", the first of three novels that is as
intelligent as it is modern, and transports the classic hero narrative into a
multiverse rich with possibility and intrigue.