“Oh, remember when we used to play doorbell ditch?” Viv sat up on her heels.
“I remember when you used to play,” Audrey corrected her. “You would hit the doorbell, run, and leave me standing there.”
“Sorry,” Viv smiled widely, looking anything but sorry.
Grace stepped back inside the suite and when she did, she bent down and picked up an envelope.
“What’s that?” Viv asked, she suffered from classic middle sibling syndrome. She always had to know everything and was scared of being left out.
Grace shrugged and handed the envelope to Ava. “I don’t know, it just says Ava on it.”
Ava took the envelope. “It’s Ian’s writing.”
“Aww, how sweet. It’s probably a love note,” Audrey smiled.
“He’s not really the love note type,” Ava commented as she pulled out the paper, suddenly getting a very uneasy feeling in her gut.
“Oh, I hope it’s a dirty note, then.” Viv wagged her brows.
In all the years she and Ian had been together, he’d never written her a love note or a dirty note. He’d never even sent a sweet or sexy text. He was very cerebral. Which made him an incredible surgeon, but not a very emotive partner.
When she unfolded it, she wasn’t at all prepared for what she read. Sure, she’d known that it wasn’t going to be a declaration of his undying love or some kind of naughtiness. But she hadn’t thought it was going to be a Dear John, or she guessed in her case a Dear Jane letter.
She read it twice, and the words still weren’t sinking in.
“What does it say?” Grace asked, concern tinting her voice.
Ava lifted her head and saw all three of her sisters staring at her.
Viv’s eyes widened. “Damn, how dirty is it?”
“He left,” Ava said the words out loud, but even hearing them coming from her own mouth wasn’t enough to make the situation real.
“He left?” Audrey repeated.
Ava nodded. “He’s gone.”
“Where did he go?” Grace asked.
“Home,” Ava stated plainly.
“What?” Audrey shook her head in confusion.
“Why the fuck did he go home?” Viv asked bluntly.
“He broke up with me.”
Apparently, Viv wasn’t getting the answers she wanted fast enough. She grabbed the letter out of Ava’s hands and read it aloud.
“Ava, I can’t do this. I can’t marry you. I love you, but I’m not in love with you. We can discuss this further when you come to collect your things or I can send them wherever you want.” Viv lifted her head, fire lit in her eyes. “Collect your things?! Send them wherever you want? So this piece of shit just assumes he’s getting the house?”
Ava shrugged. The house was the least of her concerns. Sure, her name might be on the papers, but she hadn’t contributed to the down payment. That had been all Ian. All she did was pay half the mortgage every month, so it was basically like she’d paid rent. “He put up the down payment. It’s his house.”
Viv didn’t seem happy with Ava’s response. She looked like she was about to argue when Grace took the paper from her hand and continued reading.
“I know that marrying you is the right thing to do. It’s what is expected. Last month when you came to the hospital to surprise me with dinner and you asked me about the woman that you saw me talking to and I told you that she was a nurse that was off duty. Well, it’s true that she is. But she’s so much more than that. Kylie was my lab partner back at Cornell. She was engaged at the time but we did spend a night together before she was married. We didn’t see each other for years but since I took the position at Mercy, things started up again.”
That would explain why we haven’t had sex in a year, Ava thought to herself. Not that their sex life had been that active before Chicago. They’d go months at a time without being together. Whenever she brought it up, Ian claimed that he was exhausted or under a lot of stress.