Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 25883 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25883 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
"Can you just tell me why..."
"Please...please don't ask me that."
Emmy felt like she was going crazy. Didn't Charlotte realize she was already giving away the truth by not wanting to answer her?
"I need to know, Charlotte."
"Ask me anything else but that—-"
"I have to know," Emmy said brokenly. "I h-have to know b-because I c-can't..."
I can't believe Rowland would be the kind of man to...
"I'm sorry," Charlotte choked out. "I'm so sorry, Emmy, but he said he wants a divorce because he..."
"Because what?"
Please God, please let him not be the kind of man...
"Because he changed his mind about having a stablegirl for a wife."
Who would be ashamed of me.
Chapter Twenty
NO ONE LOOKED AT ROWLAND in the eye when he came back to Evergreen. They were still unfailing courteous and efficient like always, but the change was still noticeable. When Emerald came to live with him, laughter was always in the air, never mind if it usually had to do with Emerald finding something new and gross to throw at him, accidentally of course.
But that was all in the past.
With his wife no longer around, it was as if the light had gone out of the entire ranch, and even his own damn heart felt empty inside.
He went straight to the bedroom he had shared with Emerald for the past two months, and the first thing he noticed was how it still bore traces of his wife. The cabinets were still full of her clothes - or at least those he had bought for her. It seemed as if she had left every damn thing he had ever given her, but he knew he could not - he knew he fucking mustn't let this change his mind.
Because this already happened before, Ashfield!
A distant aunt who had given him a tearful goodbye after her stint as his potential legal guardian, telling him that he was like a son to her and that she didn't need his money because she had her own.
And because he was still a gullible sixteen-year-old boy at that time, Rowland had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. He had asked his parents' lawyers to reconsider her, and even to this day, he couldn't forget how the lawyers had looked at him with soul-destroying pity when tried to make his case.
She loves me, he had insisted. She wants to be my mom!
I'm sorry, Rowland. But your aunt lied.
And before he could tell them they were wrong, the lawyers had played for him an audio recording of his aunt laughingly bragging about how her fake tears would soon net her millions of dollars.
And all I had to do was make this brat think I love him.
Another month had already passed, but memories of his wife still haunted Rowland, and the hollowness inside of him only continued to grow.
Why, dammit?
Why couldn't he forget her?
He was no longer the same stupid boy he once was. He should be smarter now. Tougher. No matter how much he wished she could be different—-
She's just like the rest, Asherfield.
And the fact that she had divorced him was already proof of this.
So why, dammit?
Why was he still unable to move on?
Why couldn't he free himself from the past when his ex-wife was probably having the time of her life spending his money?
Mack had already cornered him last week, telling Rowland bluntly that he looked like someone who had lost everything in a tornado. And his secretary had been just as frank, with Anita telling him point blank that he shouldn't have divorced his wife if he would only end up pining for Emerald for the rest of his life.
She was perfect for you, Mr. Asherfield. I don't know how it is that you don't see that.
Everyone who knew about his secret wife seemed to think the same thing - or at least everyone except for Charlotte.
Valerian was hosting a garden luncheon for his wife's birthday, and it was at his friend's home that he unexpectedly bumped into the owner of Heart's Match. She was already glaring at him across Valerian's living room by the time he noticed her and a humorless smile crossed his lips at how the other guests were staring at them.
It seemed as if they thought he and Charlotte were an item when nothing could be further from the truth.
"You look terrible, Rowland."
"Nice to fucking see you, too," he drawled.
Charlotte's first urge was to leave. Rowland was the last person she ever wanted to see, but she should've also expected there was a chance he'd be here. Valerian was his friend after all, and their friendship was actually why she had taken such a huge and crazy risk in saying 'yes' to the conditions he had asked for.
She had made a similar gamble when she matched Valerian with the girl who regularly trimmed his hair, and the couple were now happily married. The two of them just made sense, and that was exactly how she had felt, the first time Rowland asked her help with Emmy. The two of them had also made sense...so how had it come to this?