Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 64979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Three…
Two…
One…
I picked it up and looked down at the results. My heart immediately dropped to the floor while my arm shot up to my mouth. I flung the test across the room, watching as it flew through the air and connected with the wall. I sat there and stared off into space until the reminders of us caught my attention around the room. The presents he’d given me, the memories of us making love all over the bungalow. It all suddenly made me sick to my stomach to see.
It was too real.
Too soon.
I simply reacted.
Leaping off the ground, I allowed the rage, the fury, the craze I felt to take over every inch of my body. I was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode, and once I did…
It was loud.
Disastrous.
Consuming.
In my frenzied state of mind, I whirled around the bungalow as if I was a hurricane, completely merciless and unforgiving. It elicited feelings I never thought possible, emotions no one should ever have to experience. I felt every loss of breath, every tear, every memory, everything he ever said to me, and everything he ever promised.
All of it cluttered my mind for my will to keep going, for me to push through. I couldn’t keep up with the emotions that clamped around my soul. Darting around my room, my feet stomped each step I treaded, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. Throwing the gifts, our clothes, anything and everything I could find. My eyes blurred with tears as I tried to escape the torture I was reliving.
“Why?! Why?!” I yelled, talking to myself. Repeating it over and over, allowing it to sink into my bones.
Through my chaos, I found the pregnancy test again. There in front of my eyes was the truth I couldn’t escape. Not when it was blatantly spelled out for me in big, bold letters. I don’t know how much time flew by, everything just sort of stood still like it was the middle of the night and not bright and early with the start of a new day.
I wanted to love him.
Be with him.
Truly be his wife.
But I couldn’t forgive him.
Not until he told me the truth for the first time.
I was trying to be patient, letting him confess when he was ready to, but there was no delaying the inevitable anymore. I needed to hear, the truth and I needed to hear it right now.
Because at the end of the day we couldn’t move forward.
When the past kept staring us in the fucking face.
Chapter 24
—Tristian—
I walked into to our bungalow, suddenly panicked by the sight before me. It looked like someone had broken in.
“Belle!” I hollered. My heart was in my throat as I rushed around the room trying to find her. “Kitten! Where are you?”
In the corner of the kitchen, I found her sitting on the floor with her back against the wall and a pregnancy test in her hand. Looking back and forth between her and the test, I waited for her to say something, anything.
“Did you take it?”
She nodded.
“I thought we were going to do it together?”
“You took too long, but that’s what you’re good at.”
I spewed, “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“You couldn’t have waited an hour?”
“I’ve waited twenty years. What’s another hour, right?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “What’s it say?”
She didn’t reply. Instead, she grabbed the bottle of bourbon I’d bought at the liquor store and chugged it down.
Seeing the aftermath of her meltdown, I crouched in front of her, sitting on the balls of my feet. “Kitten, we have our whole lives to try for a baby.”
“I’m thirty-seven. That’s not exactly young to try for a baby.”
“Bel—”
“Why are you pretending like you’re not disappointed?”
She handed me the test.
NEGATIVE.
A word I hadn’t expected. Instead of giving in to the disappointment I felt with every bone in my body, I stayed strong for her.
“We can keep trying.”
“Ugh,” she scoffed out, abruptly standing. “Why are you like this?”
I stood with her, cocking my head to the side. “Care to elaborate?”
“You’re always like this. Hiding your emotions like you don’t feel anything.”
“Is that what I’m doing?”
“Don’t patronize me.”
“Starting a fight with me isn’t going to cha—”
“I wanted it, okay?! I didn’t even realize how much I wanted that test to be positive until I saw the word negative beaming in my face.”
I nodded, understanding. “Come here.”
“No!”
“Kitten…”
“Don’t kitten me! I’m pissed, and it’s all your fault!”
I jerked back. “My fault?”
“Yes! Yours! If you hadn’t left me! If you’d have come back for me! This wouldn’t have happened! We’d already have our family!”
I adamantly shook my head. “That’s not fair.”
“Fair? You want to talk about fair? How about you breaking my heart when I didn’t deserve it.”
“You’re right, you didn’t deserve it, but I can’t change the past. All I can do is focus on the future. You’re not pregnant right now, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be next month. At least you know now that you want to have my baby. How about we celebrate that?”