Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 116999 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 585(@200wpm)___ 468(@250wpm)___ 390(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116999 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 585(@200wpm)___ 468(@250wpm)___ 390(@300wpm)
Holy mother of fuck. He did it. He told her.
“You know.” It’s not a question.
“Yes.”
Shit. I never expected this. I don’t know what to do. So many times, I’ve wanted to hate this woman sitting on my settee, and now I find myself wanting to throw myself at her feet and beg for forgiveness. “Did he tell you, or…”
Nodding slowly, she answers, “Yes. He told me. Over a month ago now.”
A month! And he didn’t come back.
My heart sinks all over again.
Wait… “Is he okay? Because I havnae seen him. I mean, if you’re looking for him, he’s not here.”
The message I’ve read a thousand times jolts to the forefront of my mind.
I’m sorry. For everything.
My lungs freeze. William…
“No, I know. I know that.” She rushes the words out, sensing my panic. “I wasn’t actually aware you didn’t know he’d told me. And he’s fine. Physically, at least.”
As relief floods my veins, I sink into the armchair. “Then, Rebecca, forgive me, but I don’t think I understand what you’re doing here.”
Up to now, she’s been avoiding eye contact since she entered the house. But, as she inhales a long, steadying breath, her gaze lands right on mine. “I’m here to ask if you love my husband.”
She searches for the truth in my eyes, her stare fixed in place, so intense I feel like she can see every lie I’ve ever told. “Yes.”
Her expression remains steadfast, though she finally blinks.
“I’ve never loved anyone the way I love him.” I probably shouldn’t add that, but it falls out anyway.
Her smile shocks me. “He’s easy to love,” she says.
“Aye,” I agree quietly before falling into silence. I still haven’t worked out what she wants from me. Is she here to rub in my face that she won? It doesn’t seem that way, so far. Some kind of closure, maybe?
“He’s unhappy.” Her head drops as she tells me, and I know it must kill her. I watch her hands lock on top of her knees, her fingers twisting until the knuckles turn white. “I didn’t know for sure until I came here, but I suspected you hadn’t seen each other for a while. There’s something missing in him. Something broken. A spark. Energy. Life. I think…I think that something is you.”
“Fuck…” My hand clamps my chest, claws at my shirt, certain my heart will burst through the skin any second. “Why are you doing this?”
You’re his wife.
He doesn’t want me.
He told me as much!
“Because I love him,” she says. “And he loves you.”
“No, he doesn’t. I’m sorry, Rebecca, but I think you’ve had a wasted journey.”
“So, that’s how you fight for someone you’ve never loved as much?”
“What?” My eyes squeeze closed, half expecting her to be gone when they reopen, for this to have all been a crazed delusion. She’s still here. “What even is this? You’re his bloody wife and you’re, what? Begging me to take him from you?”
“Don’t you dare presume to know how I’m feeling,” she says, the words spitting like acid from her tongue. I imagine if her leg wasn’t broken, she’d get up and slap me. Honestly, this is more like what I would have expected. “I’ve already lost him to you! So now I can either spend the rest of our lives watching the man I love most wither away miserably, or I can see him be happy. That’s why I’m here. Not for you. I’m not here for you.”
Oh. My muscles melt along with my attitude. “Well, he told me nae to contact him. So…”
“He’s afraid,” she says.
“Of losing you.”
She raises a knowing eyebrow. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Does he know that?”
For the first time, she looks unsure. “No. He doesn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I needed to see for myself how real this was, that he wasn’t some notch on your bedpost…and because he’d have stopped me.”
Maybe he should have. “What do you want me to do?”
What even is this? Her permission? Her…blessing? Goosebumps mottle my arms at the thought of how fucked up that sounds.
Sighing, she reaches for her crutches. “I didn’t come here to tell you what to do. I came to look you in the eye, and to tell you how William is feeling because he’s too scared and stubborn to do it himself. What happens next is nothing to do with me. Not anymore.”
I can’t stop looking at her, analysing her every movement, every line on her face, every twitch of her mouth. Her posture is stiff, expression resigned. This doesn’t feel real.
“If you don’t mind me saying, you’re being very…understanding of all this. I’m finding it hard to process.”
“What I mind, Laurence, is that you fucked my husband knowing he was married to me.”
Wow. “Okay. I deserve that.”
“I want to hate you.”
I’m familiar with that feeling. “I deserve that, too.”
“But for my own sake as well as Will’s, I’m going to work on that.”