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“Victoria, if you can’t be available for Dylan, if you can’t be relied on to be here for the child, then its better you move out.”
“What?”
Shock caused the blood to drain from her face. She collapsed onto the nearest of the two long, black leather couches, suddenly chilled and weak. “What are you talking about?”
“I think you know.”
Divorce. He was talking about divorce. “But you promised.”
“What?”
“That you wouldn’t end it between us.” Victoria placed her fingers against her temples, hunching over where she sat as she struggled to gather her thoughts.
She heard his footfalls across the carpet as he moved closer. Those perfectly shiny shoes came into her line of vision. “Things have changed, Victoria.”
Dana and Paul had gotten married.
Connor had realized that this fake marriage was never going to be enough for him.
And now he wanted out.
She spoke at his shoes. “You can’t do thi—”
“You’ve hardly been home for Dylan over the past ten days.” The words were as harsh as a whip. “You spent last Sunday and most of this past weekend at work.”
To avoid him. Because she’d been unable to bear the tension, the antagonism between them. She looked up, her gaze unconsciously pleading with him. “I’ll make sure—”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Victoria. I have to end this. For Dylan’s sake.”
His words cut deep into her heart.
If she’d thought the pain unbearable before, she now bled pure grief. This was what she’d feared all along. Marriage to Connor was supposed to have roadblocked this outcome.
The first burst of angry determination fired up. No. She wasn’t going to let Connor shove her out of Dylan’s life because he hadn’t gotten the woman he’d really wanted.
She put out of her mind those glorious hours when they’d managed to live together only too well…that magical wedding night that had changed everything between them…that had made it impossible for her to live under the same roof when she knew Connor still loved Dana.
It was unbearable that Dana’s wedding had triggered that night of ecstatic passion and incredible emotion. It was worse that he was going to end their arrangement because of a woman who didn’t deserve him.
She swallowed the thick ache that misery had lodged in her throat.
“This is all about Dana.”
Her voice came out all wrong. Instead of sounding cool and composed, it was an accusatory croak.
“Dana?” He did a wonderful job of looking totally blank.
“Yes, Dana.” So he was going to make her spell it out. “Dana, who used to work with you, who used to share your bed—”
“I know who Dana is,” he cut in impatiently, putting his hands on his hips and managing to look even more intimidating than ever. “But I fail to see what she has to do with this discussion.”
“Everything!” Couldn’t he see it? It was so obvious. “She got married last week.”
“Yes, I know Dana got married. So what?”
Somehow Victoria didn’t think he’d appreciate her telling him he was still hung up on his ex. Especially if he was desperately denying that truth to himself.
Denial was a terrible thing. Ask her, she knew all about that. She’d been telling herself for two years that she disliked Connor, despised him, that he was the most arrogant jerk she’d ever met. When the truth was so much more shameful. She wanted him, she craved him, she’d been wanting to crawl into his bed and do exactly what they had the night of Dana’s wedding.
And she’d reveled in every minute of it.
But she wasn’t telling him her sordid little secret. “You only married me to get back at Dana.”
“That’s utter rubbish.” His eyes had started to blaze with unfamiliar emotion.
She drew a shaky breath. “It’s not rubbish—”
“It’s crap.” He glared down at her. “We got married because of Dylan. You’re making it sound like I’m still hung up on Dana—I’m not.”
Maybe she was over-reacting.
According to the newspaper article, he had known Dana and Paul were getting married. No argument there. Victoria tried desperately to regroup her thoughts.
His eyes snapped with fury, and it took all Victoria’s determination to carry on with him towering above her like a dark lord full of fury and wrath. But she had to—if she wanted any chance at keeping Dylan.
“But knowing that they were getting married is different from living with the reality of Dana wedded to Paul.” If his love for Dana was anything like the unfurling love she’d discovered for him, that would have been terribly painful. “It took her out of your life permanently. I can understand—”
