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He took a deep breath. “It’s over, Grace.”
“I know it’s over. You told me that six months ago.” She couldn’t believe he’d flown all this way just to dig the knife in personally.
“I mean it’s over with Lissa. We’re not together anymore. I moved out a while ago.”
Of all the things she’d thought he might be about to say, that hadn’t even made the list.
Grace felt the earth rock beneath her feet. “You’re—”
“I ended it, Gracie.”
She wished he wouldn’t call her that. It added another layer of intimacy when she was struggling hard to be detached.
“I— There’s so much I want to say to you.” He walked toward her, and she took several steps backward.
He’d had an affair. He’d slept with Lissa. There was no coming back from that.
“You told me you loved her.”
“For a little while, I thought I did. I was crazy. I don’t know—” He jammed his fingers into his hair. “I made a stupid, horrible mistake for all those clichéd reasons you read about. The thought of Sophie leaving home. End of an era. I felt old. Redundant. Isolated. You didn’t seem to be feeling it the way I did.”
Grace swallowed. She’d felt it, but she hadn’t talked about it. She’d been so determined that Sophie would leave the nest happily, without feeling any sense of responsibility toward her parents. “You’ve already made it clear that you think this is all my fault.”
“I never thought that.”
“You think the idea of Sophie leaving home didn’t affect me?” Surely he knew her better than that?
“You handled it so well. You were always so positive, talking about the future—you didn’t have the slightest wobble about our daughter leaving.”
She’d wobbled more than a plate of jelly, but she’d done it on her own. She’d tried to be strong.
Why hadn’t she shared her inner thoughts with him?
Because part of her had been afraid that if she acknowledged her feelings out loud, they’d grow.
“I had feelings, too, David, but I chose to focus on the future.”
“You make it look effortless. You’re so capable, you organize everything and I didn’t feel needed—not that I’m blaming you,” he added hastily, “and then one day there was Lissa—”
Lissa, whose father had walked out when she was seven. Lissa, who had never had an adult male in her life that she could depend on.
Grace was shocked by her own thought process. Was she making excuses for her? No! She wasn’t going to do that. Lissa was old enough to know what she was doing. David was certainly old enough.
She lifted her chin. “I’m not interested in the details. I can’t imagine why you’d think I would be.”
Her phone rang and she checked it, thinking it might be Sophie.
It was Philippe.
Never in a million years did she think she’d ever have to take a call from her lover while standing in front of her husband.
New Grace having a face-off with Old Grace.
Her life was turning into a farce.
David watched her steadily. “If you need to take that, then take it.”
She thought about what a conversation with Philippe would be like with David listening.
