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I drag my suitcases out of the storage closet and toss them onto the bed. When I open them, I take a deep breath and try not to cry.
This is the last thing I want to be doing, but I’m not going to keep putting up with this. I have more respect for myself than that.
I also don’t want Evan’s relationship with his parents to continue suffering.
There was a part of me that hoped his parents would come to their senses and see that we are happy together. I thought that they would want to be in their grandchild’s life.
Now, I can see how wrong I was about all of that.
They want to control the lives of the people around them. They think that they can use money to do that.
It’s one of the things I hate most about the rich. It’s also something I allowed myself to forget the more I fell for Evan.
Never again.
I head to my closet and start pulling clothing off the hangers and draping it over my arm. When I head back to my bed, I stuff everything into one of the suitcases.
As tears roll down my cheeks, I keep going back and forth, filling the suitcases with clothing until they can’t hold anymore.
Though I know that this will look like I’m running away, there’s nothing else I can do. I love Evan too much to let him lose his family over this.
I won’t take their money, but I will step back and allow them to heal their relationship with their son.
I’ll end it so he doesn’t have to.
“What are you doing here?” Evan asks as I walk into his office a couple hours later. “I’m not heading home for a little while yet. There’s a big project I have to close out on before I can go.”
I take a deep breath and for a moment I consider backing out of what I know I have to do.
“No amount of money is worth the loss of my independence,” I say, looking at him even as my vision blurs.
“What are you talking about?” he asks, getting up from his desk and coming to stand in front of me. “I don’t understand.”
“Your parents just visited the house.”
“I don’t know why they would do that after what happened last week,” he says, a thin line forming between his eyebrows.
Evan perches himself on the edge of the desk. He reaches for my hand but I pull it out of reach and take a step back. Hurt flashes through his eyes, but I know the second he touches me I won’t be able to say what I need to.
I’ll melt back into him and forget everything horrible that’s happened in the last several weeks.
I can’t allow myself to forget. I need to be strong for myself and for our baby. I need to make the decision that he is never going to make for himself.
“They came over today to offer me money to leave you.”
The expression on his face shifts, becoming something much darker. I can see the suspicion in his eyes, and it feels like a knife to the chest.
To know that he thinks I would allow myself to be bought—especially after knowing me this long—disgusts me.
You allowed yourself to be bought once by him. He offered you money and a better life and you took it without considering everything that could come of it.
“And what did you have to say to them?”
“You really have to ask me that?” I look at him, my chest constricting. “After everything that we’ve been through and how much I love you, you really have to ask me?
Evan shrugs, his jaw tightening. “I don’t know what I have to ask you, Kendall. I want to say that I know you would never take money from them, but I know you need the money.”
I shake my head, tears fully blurring my vision. “They offered me two million dollars and I said no. It doesn’t surprise me that you would think I would say yes though.”
