Emily's New Life - Chapter One

Emily sat in her chair. Her big emerald eyes were locked on the musical Faberge egg he had given to her on their wedding night. It was a beautiful shade of light green with little pink roses painted on it. It opened to reveal a miniature carousel with a red and white top. The little horses danced in a circle to the Carousel Waltz.
Had it really only been three years? She felt she had aged ten years in the last three. So much had happened since that night. That night, when she thought she was the luckiest girl alive.

She remembered the gown she wore. It was dark green with a lace bodice and a satin skirt that flowed to the floor. She remembered how he looked at her when she stepped into the room. It made her feel as though time had stopped. As though they were the only two people in the whole world.

She picked up the egg and opened it, listening to it’s lovely tune. But the tune was sharply replaced with an awful crash as she flung the egg against the wall. How could he do this to her? She caught the two of them making love on her bed. Something she hadn’t done with her husband in months.

“I can’t believe you did that! That was a gift.” She hadn’t heard him come in.

“You can’t believe I did that?” She yelled. “You should just be glad I didn’t throw it at you!”
”
Now, Em, don’t make a scene”

She looked around, exasperated. “A scene for whom? We’re the only ones here! Now that your little friend has left.”

“Look, that’s just...”

“Oh, I know what that was!” She said as she walked to the window. Her reflection looked tired and worn. It wasn’t the way the face of a well-to-do twenty-five year old should look. Her soft ivory skin looked ashen. Her brow was deeply furrowed. Her full, rose-colored lips quivered almost uncontrollably.

”Oh, Em, can’t we work this out?” he asked.

“Don’t call me Em!” She shouted. “And no we can’t. You may be able to make your little lackey’s do whatever you want, but I’m done with it! I’m leaving!”

“You can’t leave! We have to make this work.” He pleaded with her. “If people find out about this, I’m ruined. Please you can’t do this to me!”

She just looked at him. She couldn’t believe what he was saying. She couldn’t find the words to express how she felt.

“Em, er, Emily, This can’t get out. And if you leave people are going to find out!” He was crying now. It would ruin him. His father would most definitely cut him out of the will. He would be out on the street.

“Well,” she said,” You should have thought about that before.”

“Emily I couldn’t help it!”

“You couldn’t help it?” She wanted to take a swing at him. “You cheated on me!”

“I know. I’m so...”

“You cheated on me...with a man!!” She had her suspicions he was having an affair. But she never had proof. But she had no idea it was like this. When had it happened?

“I can’t even look at you right now” She told him.

“I know. I’ll go for a walk and when we come back we can talk.” And he left.

Emily sat down in her extravagant, two story penthouse and looked around. She had the finest furniture, the most expensive jewelry and a wardrobe that would even make Paris Hilton drool. From the outside, it seemed she had it all. But from Emily’s perspective it was all emptiness. She walked around with a smile on her face and tears in her heart. Anyone who took the time to get to know her could see that. But that was the problem. Noone took the time. Not even her husband.

They had met in college. She was the ultra-quiet girl with her nose always buried in a book and he was the rich kid on campus.His name was William Cavenaugh III. The son of William Cavenaugh Jr., the owner of Cavenaugh Estates, Inc. They ran a chain of luxury hotels, as well as dealt in luxury real estate and vacation homes. He grew up spoiled. Getting whatever he wanted. And from the moment he set his eyes on Emily Ann Sheffield, he wanted her. He pursued her for weeks before she finally gave in. They were married right after they graduated.

It wasn’t long after they were married that she started feeling more like a trophy wife than a cherished wife. He’d take her to parties where everyone was so fake. He encouraged her to schedule brunches with some of his business partners’ wives. She would. She’d just sit there quietly sipping tea as they gossiped until their face was blue. It disgusted her. But it was her life. It could’ve been worse.

Emily had always wanted children. William didn’t. He said they got in the way. She knew that before they were married. She just thought she loved him so much, that he would be enough for her. She wouldn’t need babies. But she did. She longed for them. She longed for the experience of being pregnant. Of holding that precious little person in her arms. But that was never going to happen with William.

He was always gone. Always with a client or at a meeting. She wondered how many times he had lied to her about where he had been. She remembering asking if he’d gotten a new cologne. He’d say yes. But she knew now that she was just
smelling the scent of another man on him.The thought sickened her and she ran to the bathroom. She felt like she could throw up. Instead she just curled into a ball and wept.

* * *

“What are you doing down there?” William’s voice woke her. She was still on the bathroom floor. Her eyes were swollen from crying and her neck was stiff. Her normally well kept, fire-red hair was sweaty and stuck to her face.

William looked at her with wide eyes. He looked scared. “Are you okay? I thought you had done something to yourself.”

“I’m fine.” She told him. “Well as good as can be expected anyway.”

“Can we talk now?” He asked. “Can we have a civilized conversation now?”
Emily nodded.

“I’ve thought about it. I can’t expect you to stay with me, I know.” He said. “That would be asking too much.”

“Yes it would.”

“But you know my father can’t find out about it.”

“I know.”

“So what do we do?”

They sat in silence for a bit, thinking of a solution.

“Well, we could tell the truth. That I’m leaving you because you cheated on me.”
William tried to protest. “Let me finish! We don’t have to say it was with a man. Just let everyone assume it was a woman.”

William thought about it. “Well that sounds like it would work. And I can’t think of anything else. So okay. But, Emily, please know that you will be well taken care of. I assume you don’t want the penthouse since it’s in my father’s hotel?”

She was tempted to say she did want it just to see him flinch. But she just shook her head. It was the first time she’d thought of it. Where would she go? She had no family. Her parents had died in a car accident when she was 18 during her freshman year at college. She had no brothers or sisters. She had wanted to be a writer, but the past three years had all but killed her aspirations of that. It had been such an extravagant, but boring life. What would she write about anyway?

That night she stayed in different room of the hotel. She couldn’t sleep. She was trying to figure out how her life got this way. When she was a little girl she was a dreamer. She was so quiet and withdrawn, always lost in her own thoughts. She was the apple of her parents eye. She was the product of a love like no other. She could picture her parents still walking hand in hand today in Heaven. She had been so devastated when they died. They gave her the best of what they could afford. And if they couldn’t afford it, they would do without so she could have it. She wasn’t an only child on purpose. They had almost given up when her mother became pregnant with her. The had already lost 3 babies. And when her mother almost died during childbirth, they decided that was enough.

She had so many happy memories of her childhood. She remembered how much fun she used to have baking cookies with her mother. Her father would always sneak in and steal the bowl so he could eat the leftover dough. Her mother knew he did it so she always left a little extra.

They would have done anything for anybody. They didn’t live for money or material possessions. They lived for each other. But most importantly, they lived for Jesus. Emily was raised in church. She was raised to know the love of Christ. And besides her parents, He was the most important thing in her life. And He was up until the day they died. Then she turned her back on him and anything that had to do with him.

If only she still talked to Him, maybe He’d tell her what to do now. But she thought she had strayed to far from the path. She thought He’d never take her back. She cried herself to sleep. She still didn’t know what she was going to do with her life now.