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“How I feel about her no longer makes a difference.”
“But it does.” Ethan pressed the elevator button and stared at him. “I know it doesn’t always change the outcome, but it should change how hard you fight.”
“What do you think I’ve been doing? I’ve spent months trying to get her to understand. To get her to forgive me even though I didn’t do anything wrong. I thought…It doesn’t matter. She’s made up her mind.” He waved the envelope at the other man as they stepped into the elevator. “She wants a divorce.”
“Nothing’s over until you sign those papers.” Ethan walked out of the hospital. “You haven’t signed them yet, have you?”
“No, but it doesn’t matter if I sign or not. She can still divorce me.” But it would piss her off if he refused, and right now, he wanted to make her hurt like he did. “I can't believe she's actually going through with this.”
“Maybe she needs a reason not to.” Ethan stopped at his car and pressed his key fob before opening the door.
“A reason not to?” He almost shouted as he got into the passenger’s side. “What reason does she have to divorce me? She signed the fucking contract without understanding it, not me. That’s not my fault, and as for the rest, I’ve done nothing but be there for her.” He’d done everything he could to be with her—to talk to her, to hold her, to fuck her.
“Oh, I think you did a bit more than that.” Ethan laughed as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“Fine, I wasn’t perfect, but I was there for her and not just for sex.” His throat closed up. When he wasn’t with her, he thought about her. She’d become everything to him. She knew him better than anyone ever had, and yet, she’d done this to him—done the one thing that would hurt him the most. “You know, maybe she's right. Maybe it is over. If she could give me these papers today, barely twenty-four hours after our daughter was born…I don't know if I can be with a woman who’d do something like that.” Not when she knew how alone he’d been before her.
“You’re not innocent in all this.”
“I’m not the villain either. I’ve done everything I could to make her happy.”
“That’s part of the problem.”
“What the hell does that mean?” His friend wasn’t making any sense. Neither of them believed in the “treat a woman like crap so she wants you more” adage.
“Knowing you, you’ve done everything that you think she wants. Everything you think is best for her and will make her happy.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said.”
“You didn’t marry a sub, Harker. For whatever the fuck reason…with you being a dom and all…you picked a woman who isn’t naturally submissive.”
“She’s a sub in the bedroom, and that’s all I need.” Okay, she was mostly a sub in the bedroom and—he smirked—he’d found that he liked the surprises when she wasn’t.
“For sex, yeah, but not for a relationship.”
“Ethan, just say what you mean. I’m in no mood for riddles.” He rubbed his temples. All this bullshit was giving him a headache.
“What I mean is that I bet you’ve been treating her like a sub both inside and outside of the bedroom. Stop making decisions for her. Stop forcing what you think is best on her and let her make her own fucking choices.”
His chest froze. “I can’t do that.” She’d leave him, and she’d never come back.
“Why not?” Ethan glanced at him.
“She’ll make the wrong ones.” And he’d lose the only person he’d ever loved besides his mother. His mom had been allowed to make her own choices, and they’d killed her.
“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to let her.”
“I can’t. You don’t understand.”
“You’re right. You’re the only one who understands. I run a sex club and have to deal with all you mother fuckers—doms, subs, littles, bigs, sadists, masochists, the list goes on—but I don’t understand.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. I know you have more expertise in non-subs than I do but—”
“But what? If you accept that, then take my advice and let her make her own decisions.”
“I can’t,” he repeated.
“Why?”
