Page 65 of Loving Her Enemy

“Let you explain? Sloane, you’ve had more than enough time to tell me everything. There were plenty of opportunities, even before I moved to Atlanta. Why do I suddenly have to hear you out? I don’t want to hear anything. Just take me home. Better yet, drop me off at…”

She swallowed hard. She had nowhere else to go. She could go to Bristol, but she didn’t want to bring this nonsense to her friend’s doorstep. If she went to a hotel, she would never be able to relax now that people knew who she was.

“If I take you anywhere other than home, you have to take Quiana with you. I can’t let you go by yourself. I can’t let those vultures get to you again,” he said vehemently, and that’s when she noticed the defeat in his eyes and how his shoulders sagged. “It would kill me if something happened to you.”

He ran his large hands down his face, his frustration palpable, but then he started talking.

He told her about how, when he found out she was getting ready to marry Owen, he had to do something to stop the wedding. He learned Owen had been cheating on her with various women. Her ex had also been under investigation at work for violating security laws, and the list went on. Even now, there were warrants out for Owen’s arrest.

“I had no idea he had stolen from you until you told me. Otherwise, I would’ve handled the situation differently.”

“That’s just it, Sloane. You shouldn’t have been handling anything!” she yelled. “You should’ve come to me with this information. Not go behind my back and handle it!”

“Dammit, Halayna! I tried that before and what did you do? You got engaged to the bastard. I knew you wouldn’t listen to me. You didn’t before, and I was sure you wouldn’t again. I had to do something. I couldn’t let you marry him. I couldn’t let him hurt you.”

Halayna couldn’t speak. What could she say? He was right. She wouldn’t have listened just like she hadn’t listened before when he tried to tell her about Owen. She should be thanking him for saving her life, and since they’d been together, hadn’t he shown her what type of man he really was?

He was the man she loved because he had always taken care of her, even when she didn’t know he was. And since they’d been married, he had loved her like no one ever had.

“Sweetheart, I love you. Did I mess that shit up with Owen? Yes, absolutely! But it’s only because you’ve always been important to me. Then when you moved to Atlanta, and I got to spend time with you… Something changed.

“You were no longer my little sister’s best friend. You were the woman I couldn’t stop thinking about. The woman who made me laugh one minute and made me crazy the next. I don’t know when I fell in love with you, Halayna but I did.”

He turned in his seat and cupped her face between his hands, and Halayna couldn’t pull away. She could feel his love to the soles of her feet, and dammit, she loved him too.

“Please forgive me, and I will spend the rest of my life showing you how much you mean to me. How much I love you.” He wiped a rogue tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “Do you still love me? Can you forgive me?”

She nodded vigorously. “Yes. I love you, and yes, I forgive you. I’m sorry for not listening before, and I’m sorry you felt you couldn’t tell me the truth. Do you forgive me?”

He laughed, and she didn’t miss the tears in his eyes.

“Of course I do. Like you said in the restaurant, we’re going to make mistakes, but I promise you, I will love you until the day I die. You’re it for me, Halayna.”

“And you’re it for me, Sloane.”

She placed her hand on his cheek and kissed him slowly, knowing they could get through anything thrown their way.

Epilogue

“All right, little man. Mommy needs you to take a nap so she can get some work done.”

Halayna rocked back and forth in the rocker as she stared down at the most precious gift she had ever been given—her baby boy—one month old Kasai Tanaka Davidson.

She smiled when he yawned with his whole body. Already, he looked so much like his daddy with the same whiskey eyes and strong jawline. His deep sepia skin tone was a combination of both of their coloring, and his eyes were shaped like hers and her father’s, the man he was named after.

Basically, her baby was the most beautiful child on the face of the earth, and Halayna loved everything about him. From his powdery baby scent to the one o’clock in the morning feedings he insisted on, she absolutely adored this new addition to their family. Outside of Sloane, she never knew she could love anyone as much as she loved her baby.

She gently brushed her finger down his soft cheek as his eyes grew heavy with sleep.

The past year and a half had been a whirlwind of activities, and some days Halayna didn’t know if she was coming or going. Yet, there was nothing she would change. Well, maybe there was one thing she could’ve done without. Sloane getting arrested.

The night Sloane beat up Owen had been a nightmare. After they had talked in the back of the SUV, Sloane had been taken in for questioning. From there, he’d been charged with disorderly conduct, as well as assault and battery.

With his powerful lawyers, and the obscene amount of money he had to pay to make bail, Sloane didn’t have to do time inside a jail cell. He got probation and had to do community service, which he actually enjoyed.

To say the media had a field day, at their expense, would be an understatement. For months, they were camped outside of their Atlanta home, trying to get a picture or a statement or anything they could run with. Those months had been a nightmare, but they got through them—together.

After promising never to keep life-altering secrets from each other, she and Sloane had gotten the hang of married life. And it was everything Halayna had hoped for and more than she’d dreamed.