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Something cold settles over my bones. “That’s all very...practical.”
Luke releases my hand. “Good. I’m glad you see reason. Now that that’s settled, let’s go get your stuff and go home.”
It’s the most tempting offer I’ve had in a long time. Going home with Luke, toourapartment. Staying with him. Raising our kid together.
But something’s missing, and it’s too big for me to ignore.
“Wait. You said how this is good for me and our child. But how is staying married good for you? Why doyouwant it?” I ask.
He freezes, a wild animal caught in the headlights.
I wait.
Say you care about me,I pray.Say you care about our kid.
I don’t need him to love me. Not yet.
But I need him to be honest with me. I’m about to embark on the scariest, most important thing I’ve ever done. And I can’t do it if I’m busy loving a husband who’s too emotionally scarred to trust me with how he really feels.
“I...” he wets his lips.
For the first time, I understand what it means to hang on someone’s words. I feel like I’m clinging to the edge of a cliff, and I’m waiting to find out if Luke will say the words that can pull me to him or fling me back into the abyss.
My heart’s pounding so hard it hurts.
“It would help my image professionally,” Luke says at last. “A divorce is one thing, but divorcing your pregnant wife is another. It could hurt my career, with the more conservative board members.”
I sit back, stunned. “That’s all? That’s the only way us staying together would improve your life?”
He looks away, his jaw tight. “We’re compatible. There’s that.”
“We’recompatible?Are you fucking serious?” Suddenly I’m full of fury. Either he’s a bigger asshole than I thought. Or he’s being a goddamn coward.
And I don’t have time for either option.
I jump to my feet, yank my wedding ring off, and slam it down on the table in front of him. “This is why I didn’t tell you, Luke. Because some part of meknewthis would happen. We’re having akid,and you’re too stuck in the past to...to...” I blink back angry tears. “Have one of your staff drop the rest of my stuff off at the hotel. I can’t look at you right now.”
He rises and reaches for me. “Hazel, wait—”
“No! We’re done, Luke. We’re fucking done,” I say.
I’m dimly aware that the whole restaurant is staring at us.
Luke’s holding my ring in his clenched fist. “If this is what you want.”
My laugh is hollow. “What Iwantis a man who loves me so much he can shout it to the whole world. But that’s not you, is it? And it never will be.”
I turn on my heel and stride out of the restaurant.
Luke doesn’t follow.
31
LUKE
Imove through the next 48 hours in a blur.
The inevitable happened. Hazel left me, just like Cooper warned me she would. Because I’m not the kind of man who can give her what she wants.
