AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Rose, it’s going to be okay. Take this one step at a time. When Alex called me, he sounded worried about you. I don’t think he’s going to be—”
“He’s going to be furious,” Rose interjected with a shake of her head. “I would be.”
“Okay, but he loves you. He’s going to want you to come back. He can’t afford to go off on you too much.”
“What about when I tell him I have no intention of coming back?”
Morgan paused. “Do you want me to come with you? Sam’s home today, so he can watch Noah, if you want me to be there.”
“No, I need to talk to him alone. But thank you. I really appreciate you not telling me I’m being a complete idiot.” And you reminding me that you married your son’s dad and that everything worked out fine for you, despite what our parents thought.
“Hey, you’ve seen me do a lot crazier. Maybe.”
Rose rolled her eyes. “I love you. I have to go deal with this.”
“I love you. Let me know what happens and if you need anything.”
“Will do.”
Rose hung up and tabbed over to her voicemail, and she clicked one from Alex at random.
“Please tell me this thing I found in the trash is a bad joke. Are you actually pregnant? We need to talk about this, Rose, please. Please call back, or better yet, come home. Please.”
By the time the message ended, his voice was so panicked that it brought tears to her eyes. She fought them back and told herself she could handle this. It wasn’t like she had another choice.
***
She knocked on the white-painted front door and held her breath. She still had her apartment key on the ring with her car keys, but it didn’t feel right to barge in, given the circumstances.
It’s going to be okay. Just be honest with him. That’s all you can do.
When the door opened, Rose fidgeted on her feet. She’d changed out of the dress in the car for a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved pink shirt, because she was certain showing up in the short black dress without her underwear would’ve ended badly. She already felt like he was looking straight through her with those brown eyes she’d stared into for the past three years. She could still see the small cleft in his chin through his short brown beard, and she couldn’t deny that he was handsome, just as he’d always been. Dark circles ringed his eyes, and the sight of them twisted her stomach.
“Hey,” she said lamely.
“Hey.” The word came out hard and rough, and when Alex stepped back to give her room to enter, his movements were stiff. He’d already begun to shut her out. She knew she couldn’t begrudge him that, but it stung all the same.
She stepped into the apartment—her apartment, until yesterday. It had been that since a year after her college graduation. After she’d returned to Chicago from Carbondale, she’d moved back in with her parents for a little while, but that had quickly proven to be a bad decision. Then she’d taken the leap with Alex, which had seemed like a far better option, at the time. She had loved him. She had wanted to try to start their life together.
As she surveyed the familiar cream-colored furniture of the living room and the sculptures and flower arrangements full of chrysanthemums and daffodils she’d selected herself, a wave of dizziness swept over her. The apartment building had been her first real project after she’d graduated with her bachelor’s in interior design. Her firm had partnered with the one where Alex worked for architecture, and in Rose’s mind, there had been no better place to move than one they’d designed together. Alex had been delighted to watch her work, to listen to her explain every little detail about the way she’d envisioned the space.
“I’m sorry.”
The words slipped out before she registered exactly what she was sorry for. She’d never meant to hurt Alex or to throw away the good memories they had shared. She hated that he would be left staring at everything she’d made here, like some kind of twisted memorial. Rose sank down onto the nearest chair and dropped her head into her hands.
“I don’t even know where to start,” said Alex as he quietly closed the door.
“I need you to hear me when I say that I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She looked up to meet his eyes, and he stood watching her hesitantly from just beside the door.
“That doesn’t sound like you’ve changed your mind.” His tone was even. Controlled. He’d shut her out more fully than she’d realized—she knew he hated showing the extent of his emotions to anyone other than the people he trusted most, and the fact that she’d lost that trust gnawed at something within her.
She forced herself to sound as calm as she could manage, though her voice trembled with her next words. “No, I haven’t.”
“Then why are you here, Princess?” Alex snapped.
The words cut deep, and Rose stared at him, her eyes narrowing. She hadn’t anticipated him turning his pet name for her into something that hit her with the force and bite of an insult.
“Because I wanted you to know that I still care about you, Alex. That I’m not just going to run away and never talk to you again. I want you to be in this child’s life, regardless of how you may feel about me.”
