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The funds must have come from the money he’d been saving to buy the new location along the coast. He’d backed out of the real estate contract.

It was time. This made it painfully obvious that Whitney had to tell him the truth right away.

Hiding her deteriorating health was getting harder, and she didn’t want to keep lying by omission. As soon as he got home from football practice, it had to happen. She couldn’t be with him knowing there was such a big possibility that she’d never be able to give him the family he wanted, the one he deserved. She’d been keeping things from him for too long, and even though it was going to break her heart, she had to let him go.

And find a way to repay him for the Rejuvenation costs.

Focusing on the other emails in her inbox was impossible, so she lay back against the sofa cushions and closed her eyes until she heard the sound of his Jeep pulling into the driveway. The headlight beams illuminated the living room through the window, and she sat up as she heard him unlock the front door.

“Whitney?”

Controlling her trembling body took all her strength, so she didn’t answer. Instead, she sat waiting on the edge of the sofa until he entered the living room. Her engagement ring caught her attention, and with trembling hands and unshed tears burning the back of her eyes, she reluctantly took it off. This would be the only way to show him she was serious. The only way he’d believe it was truly over.

“Hey…you feeling okay? I wasn’t expecting you home from the office yet or I would have come home earlier.” He set his football gear down, the duffel bag against the wall in the hallway, where it would stay until next week’s practice.

Another habit of his that drove her crazy. Something else she’d miss.

“I came home early.” In her hands she clutched her engagement ring, the edge of the diamond cutting into the flesh at her palm. Removing it had been one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do, fueled only by the fact that giving it back to him was the right thing.

“Are you sick?” he asked, running a hand through his hair, still wet from his shower at the sports facility.

Yes.

The word was on the tip of her tongue, but she shook her head. He wasn’t getting that version of the truth. One he could argue with, make her change her mind…or try anyway. “Trent, I need to tell you something.” Her voice wavered and she swallowed hard. She refused to cry, to give in to the tearing sensation in her chest. She had to be the strong one while she still had enough strength left.

Sitting next to her on the couch, the look of concern on his face was almost enough to break her, but she forced a neutral, unfeeling expression of her own. This was for the best. For both of them.

“Whit, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?” He reached for her hand, but she kept hers in tight fists on her lap.

“I haven’t been honest with you.” She cleared her throat when the words came out a whisper.

“About what?”

Everything.

She opened her hand to reveal the engagement ring.

Trent’s expression clouded with a mix of confusion and hurt. “What are you saying, Whitney? You’re breaking off the engagement?”

More than that. The relationship. “I’m not able to be the person you need, Trent.”

“What I need is you.” He knelt on the floor near her knees and took her sweaty hands in his. “Look at me, Whitney, please.”

She couldn’t for fear of caving, so she shook her head. “This is for the best, Trent. I want my career, and I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready for motherhood.” It wasn’t even an option for her unless there was some miraculous cure for her sickle cell anemia, and her bitterness at the injustice of it helped give her voice the hint of coldness she needed.

“Okay, so we wait awhile. See how you feel in a few years. Just because you’re not ready right now doesn’t mean you’ll never be. And calling off the engagement makes no sense. This is something we can work through together.”

She couldn’t. Not anymore. “This will never work, Trent.”

“You mean us—wewill never work?” he said, reluctantly taking the ring.

She nodded, her eyes on her now empty hands. Looking at him was too hard. Breaking both of their hearts was torture, and the stress had her vision turning blocky again.

“No,” he said. “That’s not good enough.”

She forced a breath. “You don’t get a say in this.”

“The hell I don’t,” he said, standing and pacing the living room. “I’m not going to let you throw us away. I love you, and we will find a way to work through this.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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