A sad smile came to my lips. Noah didn’t like how thick and sticky peanut butter was.
“Put your packs away and meet me back in the kitchen,” Brayden said. His voice was closer, which suggested he was making his way to our room.
I sucked in a breath to prepare myself to see him.
He stepped into the doorway and, for a moment, I remembered the man who’d stolen my heart ten years ago. As I looked at him objectively, I thought that he was more handsome now than when I’d met him. His six-foot three-inch frame carried a muscular physique which he maintained through regular exercise at the office gym. At least I thought he was still muscular. I didn’t see his body too often anymore. I couldn’t remember the last time we’d had sex. A few weeks ago, I caught him in the shower masturbating. There was a time I’d have found that a turn on and joined him, letting him jerk off into my mouth. But that time was gone. When I watched stroke himself, I felt hurt instead. Unlike him, my body wasn’t anywhere close to the size two I’d been when we met. I was sure he wasn’t thinking of me as he shot his load. It was probably his secretary.
“You’re home.”
“Yes, I finished earlier than I expected.”
He stepped into the room and shut the door, a sure sign we were going to fight and he didn’t want the kids to hear. “You said you were busy and needed me to pick up the kids.”
“I thought it would take longer.”
He set his hands on his hips as he looked down on me. “I had to cancel an important meeting to get the kids, Terra. You could have picked them up.”
Work. Perhaps he was banging his secretary, but his real mistress was work.
“I didn’t know I’d be done so soon.” I stood, not liking the feeling I was being interrogated. I took off my jewelry as I didn’t usually wear it unless I was going out. Raising kids was messy work, so I didn’t dress nice or wear jewelry in my everyday life.
“Now I’ll have to stay late. My wife gets annoyed when I work late.”
I hated when he talked to me in third person. “Yes, heaven forbid she would want her husband home to have dinner with her and the kids.” I closed my jewelry box.
“What’s this?”
I looked at him through the reflection of the mirror over my dresser. He was holding the letter from the lawyer. For a moment, I had a feeling of panic, but then I figured there was nothing to hide. Maybe he’d be relieved.
He frowned as he looked toward me. “You want a divorce?”
I turned toward him, noting that he still looked pissed, but not upset or worried as I might have hoped his reaction would be to my consulting with a lawyer. Of course, divorce was out of the question now.
I shook my head. “No.”
“Then what’s this?” He waved the letter at me.
“I thought about it—”
“This looks like you’ve done more than think about it. You’ve retained a lawyer.”
“I’m not going through with it.”
He studied me. “So, you don’t love me anymore.”
“I never said that.” That was the tragedy in all this. I still loved him. But we were too broken to fix. I wasn’t even sure he would want us to be fixed.
He didn’t respond.
“Are you relieved or annoyed that I’m not going to follow through,” I asked, genuinely curious.
“I’m wondering what happened to you.”
I laughed derisively. “Me? It’s not just me. It’s us, Brayden.”
“I work my ass off to make you and kids happy, but you’re impossible to please.”
He did work his ass off, but it wasn’t about me. That’s the excuse he told him himself to justify the long hours. No, he worked for him.
“Well, perhaps you’ll get lucky and you won’t have to put up with me anymore,” I said.
“So, you are leaving me?”
I shrugged and, for a moment, I wondered if he’d be happier if the cancer that was growing in my breast killed me as it had my mother.
Continue reading Terra and Brayden’s story here (FREE in Kindle Unlimited).
More Books in the Series
Enjoy these emotional second chance romances in the Heart of Hope Series. All books are standalone and do not have to be read in order.
Our Last Chance (Heart of Hope Book 1)
An Irish Affair (Heart of Hope Book 2)
So Wrong (Heart of Hope Book 3)
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So Wrong (Heart 0f Hope Book 3) Page 20