AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
“I want you. All of you. Your flaws. Your mistakes. Your imperfections. I want you, and only you” —John Legend
Later that night, we walked into my estate after her birthday party. This was the first time we’d been back here since the day she took me on as a client. In three weeks, our worlds had been turned upside down. We hadn’t spoken since we left her party, and it was by far the worst silence. When we were deliberately not speaking to each other, it was worse than when we were arguing.
At least then, it felt as if we were fighting for something.
However, she had a lot on her mind at this point, and I did too. Per our contract, our time together would be ending soon, and as much as I would not let her go, there was a chance I wouldn’t have a choice in the matter.
We both battled demons on the ride home, and I had yet to include her in mine that had only just formed an hour ago. We were back in her town. She could have stayed with her parents but came home with me. I didn’t ask her to. She just left on my arm and got in my SUV, waiting at the front door with my driver.
Nobody noticed we were gone from her party. She made it look like she was handling business while I was handling her on my desk. I knew what bothered her. She wanted to tell me she loved me. It was evident in her demeanor of how she acted after we were done.
I couldn’t trust the words she told me in the heat of the moment, regardless of how much I hoped they were true.
From the moment she stepped foot into my house, she started looking around. I don’t think she realized how she inspected the art, the furniture, and the decorations. Running her fingers along the edges of the walls, she made her way back into my office of all places.
I leaned against the bookcase with my arms folded over my chest and watched her move around the room like it was all coming back to her. She stopped dead center in front of her favorite painting.
“Did you buy this for me?” she asked with her back to me.
“Mm-hmm.”
I couldn’t keep up with the turmoil of what she was feeling. I lost everything that ever mattered to me, and it felt like my life was falling apart and spinning out of control.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
Not my thoughts.
Or my questions.
Or my fucking patience.
Or the bullshit that was stirring that I needed to tell her about.
For years I prayed that this exact moment would happen in my life, and there I was, seeing it actually happening but unable to enjoy it because a dark fucking cloud was looming, and I hated that it was going to pour on her too. Probably more than it would on me.
I kept repeating this was just another chapter in our lives.
Something we would work through and tell our kids about one day.
Now I was facing my decisions head-on. There was a reason I never let go of control. With a hole in my heart because she was the piece to make it whole, I watched her continue to walk around my house. She made it into a home, whether she knew it or not.
She remembered every moment we shared as she strolled through it as if following the rabbit down the hole.
From the first to the last memory, they played out in front of me. Everywhere she looked was another memory we once discussed together.
And I loved watching it unfold in front of me despite how much I dreaded stealing this moment from her like I was the villain in her fairy tale.
CAPRI
“What do you think?” I pointed at the four paint swatches I had in my hands for our future home. “Which color?”
“They all look the same to me.”
“Elias, those are three very distinct colors.”
“They’re all gray, beauty.”
