Page 59 of Cursing My Cheating Husband

“And think how easily you could have cleared that up, if you’d ever come with me to visit,” she said, her tone brittle.

She was right. I could have avoided all my current misery, loss, and struggle simply by agreeing to visit my mother-in-law.

I had missed out on so much by being such a piece of shit. To have understood any of this during the marriage…

“And being teleported! The power of that! It was awesome!” I blurted.

She looked skeptical. “Even with the nausea?”

“The nausea was bad, but yes, even with that! I can’t believe you had that power all this time, but to live in my world with me, you were just driving everywhere. That must have been so frustrating to have to drive yourself to the grocery store or⁠—”

“Oh gods,” she hissed. “You would never use teleportation magic for errands in your own town.”

“Why not?”

“Would you ever go to the grocery store by flying there on a Boeing 747?” she asked, rolling her eyes.

“Well, no…”

“Exactly,” she pronounced with finality.

I couldn’t say I understood that at all, but I was massively impressed all the same. “That’s so cool!”

Callie ignored me and knelt to brush her hands across a purple flower with needle-like leaves. As she touched it, suddenly it illuminated with bands of sparkling blue light, running along the stem and leaves before quickly fading.

Magical plants!

I stepped gingerly toward her. “Callie, I’m so sorry I wasn’t listening when you told me where you came from. I wish we could have been talking about this our whole marriage. You’re such an incredible person, and you come from this incredible world. I can’t believe how much I overlooked all of that. I can’t believe how much I overlooked you.”

She turned to me. The moonlight was dim, and I was almost certainly deluding myself, but I felt like I saw something in her eyes that I hadn’t seen in a long time. A softness. A vulnerability.

I cleared my throat. “I was thinking about these video games I used to play as a kid⁠—”

Well, that fucked it up immediately. Her face wrinkled in disgust.

“Maddox, I could barely listen to you talk about video games when I was happy in the marriage.” The contempt was scalding.

Fuck. Fuck. “I promise this isn’t really about video games. This is about you.”

She took a few steps away, returning her attention to admiring the plants. “Fine, let’s hear it.”

“I used to play these video games where you go on this magical quest, and the whole point of the game was to save the princess. And seeing you here tonight, I kept thinking how I fell into that for real. I won the princess—or the daughter of the High Priestess.”

“You may find this shocking, but you’re not winning any points with me by acting like my value comes from who my mother is,” she sneered.

“I’m sorry, I’m fucking this all up. It is about you. It’s about seeing how you grew up, with all of this coming at you… it makes it even more incredible that you’re the person you are. With the way the other witches treat you, it would have been so easy for you to become stuck-up and entitled, but you’re the furthest thing from it. You’ve always been so warm and down to earth with everyone, despite the fact that you were born into all of this.”

The sneer faded from her face.

Steel entered my voice. “Somehow, against all odds, I got the ultimate hero fantasy, for real. But I didn’t rise to that at all. I was given an opportunity to be the champion of an extraordinary woman, and I was too stupid and selfish to see it. When I should have been your hero, when I should have been protecting you, I was your villain instead.”

“You’ll get no argument from me,” she said bitterly, meeting my eyes once more.

I held her gaze. “I failed to be a man, as completely as any man has ever failed. I’m so sorry I wasn’t worthy of you.”

I realized suddenly we were much closer to each other than we had been a moment ago. The drizzle had become a warm, light rain. I was close enough to touch her. I yearned to wrap her in my arms and hold her tight.

But I couldn’t do that anymore.