“Yes, she’s going out to buy some workout clothes. There’s a gym in her building. She wants to take advantage of it.”

“Good,” she murmured, what she didn’t ask hanging in the air, which was the reason for Axl’s mood change.

He answered it anyway. “He’s texted seven times so far today.”

“Honey,” she whispered.

He told her something she knew. “He’s pissed, behaving like a dick and acting like this is all about him. Not a surprise.”

It could safely be said Sylas Pantera was blindsided in coming home on Friday evening, thinking he’d have dinner with his docile, soul-sucked-out-of-her wife and then do whatever it was his father did when he was winding down from a week.

Only for him to find her closet empty, her vanity vacant, picture frames and pieces around the house missing.

And then, after searching, finding a note on his desk in his home office that shared his wife had left him. She gave him her lawyer’s details, asking that, for the time being, they speak only through their attorneys.

So far, the only good news was, Sylas had adhered to this request.

The rest…

Axl predicted thirty seconds after he found that note, Sylas called his son, but Axl wasn’t answering. He was with Hattie, Don and his mom.

But after eleven calls, on Saturday morning, Axl picked up.

Once Sylas finished sharing how he discovered his wife was gone, he then ranted for a full ten minutes about respect and commitment before Axl could get a word in to ask if his father really found any of this a surprise.

His dad’s response was, “Are you insane? My partner for thirty-six years leaves with no discussion, no warning, and I’m not supposed to find it a surprise?”

It was at that, Axl lost it.

“She’s not your partner, Dad. She doesn’t occupy an office across the fucking hall. She’s your wife. The woman you married. The woman you had a child with. The woman you’re supposed to love. And that’s why she’s no longer there. Because you’re pissed you lost your partner. You’re not destroyed that you lost your wife.”

He hung up after that, and since, had not been taking his father’s calls or returning his texts.

Both of which there had been many.

After sharing that his dad had been in touch, and he was unsurprisingly not handling things well, he didn’t tell his mother more.

She was buying workout clothes and trying to find Pekingese breeders.

She’d had enough of his shit.

And so had Axl.

But Hattie had been around, and she knew Sylas was badgering the witness.

“Maybe you should block him,” she suggested. “Just for a few days. Or, um…weeks.”