AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Twenty-Four
Annulment.
No. Dissolution.
That was what Emmett had asked for. Whichever one would leave them both blameless.
Well, tough.
Stefanie couldn’t stop blaming him. He was the one to blame! Another tear tumbled onto the cardboard box she was unpacking. Her things had arrived today via courier. She hadn’t left much at Emmett’s place. Only a few toiletries, sleepwear and—oh yeah—her stupid heart. She sifted through the box again, but there was no sign of the necessary organ.
She’d entertained a few scenarios—one involving keying his SUV, another taking a baseball bat to the headlights in true Carrie Underwood fashion, but Stef’s rage had been eclipsed by pain.
When they’d entered into a marriage it’d been with an understanding: that they would say “I do” and walk away when it was time. Now that he’d lured her in, made her love him and then took away her choice of staying, she regretted proposing. She couldn’t see an ounce of good that could come of his leaving her decimated in a roomful of her family and her family’s friends.
She stopped rummaging through the box, reminded by the shards of regret that her heart was right where it should be—eating a hole through her chest like battery acid. She hated herself for falling in love with him.
A dissolution made the most sense. She’d been completely disillusioned by their marriage.
After Emmett had left the party, her brothers and Penelope and Mimi surrounded Stef in a semicircle. Once they were sure she was okay, Chase had started for the door. She’d stopped him with a plea.
“Chase, please don’t.”
He’d turned to argue, but the anger in his expression quickly faded to concern for her.
“Please,” she’d repeated.
She didn’t need her brother taking up for her any longer. She didn’t need to cause any more problems like, oh, say, Chase punching out Emmett in her mother’s driveway. Besides, what good would it have done? It wouldn’t have changed Emmett’s mind. Just as she hadn’t been able to change his mind about loving her. About making their marriage work.
And so Chase had stayed at the party and the Dallas Duchess didn’t have the scoop on the dysfunctional billionaire Fergusons stepping in it yet again.
Stef was grateful for one thing—that Chase’s reputation was in fine standing. His campaign was in full swing, the polls in his favor. It looked like he would still be mayor come May...which couldn’t come soon enough.
She longed to skip forward a few months. To pass over the valley of the shadow of hurt and arrive at a place of peace and acceptance.
That kind of closure was an impossibility in three days’ time. It was impossible for three weeks’ time.
Hopefully it’d be a distant memory in three months. It’d better not take longer than three months. If it did she was going to move to the mountains and live in a yurt.
Emmett believed he didn’t belong with her, that he couldn’t love her the way she loved him. He’d been raised by a cold, disconnected father and evidently her soon-to-be ex-husband was a chip off the old ice block.
“Can I top you off?” Mimi carried in a thermos of homemade hot cocoa. It was too early in the afternoon for wine, and the warmth and sweetness of the cocoa had set Stefanie’s innards at ease, if not her heart and mind. Warm innards would have to do.
Chase and Miriam had stopped by to check on her and Stef was so glad to see them, she’d promptly burst into tears. At least they loved her.
Chase carried in a tin of fancy homemade marshmallows. His eyebrows were bent in distress. Stef was the one problem he couldn’t seem to fix.
“I’m so sorry, Chase.” Her chin wobbled but she refused to cry anymore. Emmett was testing her limits, but she was tougher than this.
“Don’t apologize for anything.” His voice unyielding, as per his usual. The mayor of Dallas was nothing if not decisive.
“Worry about yourself, babe.” That came from Miriam. She popped a marshmallow into her mouth as she sat next to Stefanie on the couch.
“I’m going to his house. Do you have anything I need to drop off to him?”
“Sure. You can give him this.” Stef held up her middle finger and Mimi chuckled.
Chase’s smile was sad—sad for her.
