AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Which is why you told me about how wonderful our wedding day was instead?” She sniffles as she drops the paper on the couch with her clutch. Rezipping her boot, she puts her foot on the floor before she turns around. “And why there’s a gorgeous dress hanging in my closet? And why the photo album I kept asking about was impossible to find?”
“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell you.” In fact, it’s a relief that she knows. I didn’t mean to hurt her. “It just never seemed like the right time when we had so many other things to talk about.”
“You chose my future for me. You created a fantasy world for me to live in. With you. My God, you even managed to get my best friend to take part in it. And I’m not…” She wipes at the corners of her eyes as she juts out her chin. “I’ve never been free. Do you understand that?”
“I know and that’s not—"
“I have never been allowed to make my own choices. Even now Nicole is trying to control me with this…”
“What?”
“She wants me to have the marriage annulled. She wants me to marry Nathaniel.”
“You can’t be serious.” Is she seriously considering it? “Giving into her is a bad—"
“I thought it was different. With you.” She rolls her eyes to the ceiling and fixates on something she sees there. A pained and watery smile affixes itself to her lips. “I married Rogue Maddox. My mother would have a fit, so I must have really meant it when I said yes to being your wife. To incur that kind of wrath. I was prepared for the humiliation and the pain of facing her.”
“I’m sorry, baby.” I wish I could spare her from what she’s been through tonight.
“But you humiliated me too. I wanted to believe you so bad. I wanted to believe everything you told me about our relationship.” She touches her heart. “Our love.”
“You can.” I grasp her arms.
“Can I?” She blinks at me. “How can I when I don’t remember us? When everything we have now is built on this…lie.”
“We’re not a lie.” I pull her to my chest. “Our marriage is fake, yes. But I never meant for things to go this way when I told the doctor we were married. I just needed to know that you were going to be okay. And then Nicole slapped the restraining order on me. And the press found out that you were my so-called wife. And your memory was gone. Adira and I agreed that it was in your best interest—”
“That’s the problem,” she says, pushing me away. “You decided what was in my best interest. Just like her.”
“That was not what it was.” My voice rises along with my pulse.
“You could have told me,” she yells back.
“Tell me you wouldn’t have left if I’d told you.” I dredge a hand through my hair. “You were fighting me on everything. And I had to keep you safe.”
“You don’t even regret not telling me.” She throws her arms out.
“Not then. Not while it was so hard for you to trust me. Not when it was the difference between you staying here with me or being at Adira’s, which might have set your recovery back. Or worse, under Nicole’s roof where you’d have to deal with her and possibly Alec,” I admit. “Lately, I’m regretting it a lot, when I think about how much I want to ask you to marry me.”
“You…” She makes a choking sound. “W-what?”
“I would marry you in a heartbeat. If you’d have me. And none of it would be a lie. Because I love you. I think I have since the minute we met. And the fantasy is that you would say yes to me. You would allow me to be the man who gets to call you his wife. The fantasy is all mine, because you are incredible and perfect and everything that I want in the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. For so long I didn’t think that I would be the man who needed more. But I am. I want it all. You as my wife. Children. I want it all with you.”
Her chest heaves. “That’s…”
“A lot?” Right now, when she’s trying to wrap her head around the fact that we aren’t married. When she’s furious at me. Possibly considering whether she wants to fight for us.
She swallows. “It is.”
“It’s not a proposal. Not now. I don’t want this to feel like some emotional ambush. I’m not trying to force you.” I close my eyes and take a cleansing breath before opening them again. “That’s not what I want. It’s never been what I want. My entire world now revolves around making sure you are safe and happy. That’s it. That’s all that I care about.”
“I believe you,” she says. “Despite everything, I do believe you.”
“Because you feel it.” I trace her cheek bone with my thumb, gathering some of the wetness there. I want her to see that we are better together than we could ever be apart. “You feel that what we have is real. And nothing, not your family or your missing memories or how angry you are at me in this moment will change that.”
“I need time to think.” She twists the bands on her ring finger up over the knuckle. Once they come free she holds them out to me. “I need you to give Jackson his job back so that he can protect me while I take that time. And I need you to leave.”
“I’ll move into the guest room,” I say.
