AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Stop. I’ve let you do this for too long. I was stupid enough to leave here when I should have stayed. I should have told Leah what I knew all along, but instead I wasted time with you, wondering if she was right. Wondering if I did still have feelings for you.”
Jen stepped closer to him, pressing her body against his again. “You do have feelings for me,” she whispered. “There’s no point pretending you don’t.”
His silence crippled me, and I closed my eyes, hoping to hell he’d tell her she was wrong.
It felt like forever, but then his words cut through the quiet. “You know what I feel for you, Jen? I feel like we could have had everything. We could have had the family you had with James. But that perfect little life I wanted for us back then… it doesn’t compare to what I have now. You don’t compare. You’re still pretty, and you still know the right things to say to make guys want you, but I don’t. I don’t want you.”
He took a step back so I couldn’t see him anymore, but I could still see her, and her face fell as he moved away. “You want her? You want Leah? Who pushed you away at the first sign of trouble? When you needed her? I would never do that to you.”
I heard him laugh. “Right. You would have just gone out and had sex with someone else. That’s your way of dealing with problems.”
“If you didn’t want me, what took you so long, huh? Why didn’t you just come right back here?” She shook her head. “You’re lying to yourself. And you’re taking the easy option. Being with Leah is easy. She’s safe.”
“That just proves how little you know about her. If you think she’s just going to accept me with open arms after all this, you’re wrong. She’s not safe or easy. I’ve never had to fight so fucking hard for anyone in my life, and it was worth every second. Being with her is worth it.”
“Has she ever fought for you?”
“She risked her job for me. She risked people hating her just for being with me. She left her family behind in England to be here with me. So yeah, she’s fought for me. She’s given up a lot for me.”
There was another long silence, and I still didn’t dare to breathe. I didn’t want to break the hope that was building inside me again. God, I wanted to be standing in front of him, having him look me in the eye while he said all this so I could really feel it. So I could watch his perfect lips forming the words I so badly needed to hear.
“You need to leave.”
Radleigh’s words sent a ripple of joy through me, and I looked down at Jen again. If it was possible to see someone shedding their façade, I was certain that was what I witnessed as she squared up to him.
“If that’s what you want, Radleigh, we’ll need to re-think the time you spend with Jayden. I don’t know if I want him around you anymore.”
What a bitch. What an incredibly petty, pathetic bitch. All this time she’d played the caring mother card, as if all this was about Radleigh getting to know his son, when what she really wanted was to regain a hold over Radleigh in the hopes of getting him back. She didn’t want him, she just wanted to prove to herself she could have him if she wanted him.
“I’ll let you think that over,” Radleigh said coldly. “But I’ll have no problem backing up any of James’ claims that you’re an unfit mother if you try to keep Jayden away from me. And since you “lost” your three-year-old long enough for him to ruin a wedding dress, I’m sure my parents will be happy to make a statement about that too.”
Jen’s gaze grew murderous. “You asshole. You wouldn’t dare.”
“Test me and you’ll find out. You need to leave. Now.”
She glared at him for a long time, as if hoping this was some elaborate form of foreplay, and he might eventually throw her against the nearest flat sur
face and shag her tiny brain out, but when he didn’t move, she huffed and stormed out.
I still couldn’t see him, but I heard Radleigh blow out a breath, and then he came into my view. He walked halfway up the stairs before sitting down on them and placing his head in his hands.
Chapter Four - Home
This is it.
Slowly, I stood up and walked the rest of the way down the hallway. As soon as he heard my footsteps on the stairs, Radleigh’s whole body stiffened. If I’d had any doubts about whether he knew I was there, they fell away at his reaction. He didn’t turn around, though. He slowly straightened up but he kept his back to me, and I sat down on the stairs a few steps behind him.
For the longest time, neither of us spoke. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be the first to break the silence, I just wanted to exist in that moment with him, with the things he’d said about me playing over in my head.
“Did you hear all of that?”
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “Yeah. Every word.”
“Does this mean I don’t have to explain it again?”
“No. But… thank you.”
“What for?”
