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"You brought this upon yourself."
Blue eyes flashed. "Son of a bitch."
"I don't know if it's escaped your notice, my dear sweet fiancée," Tanner spat. "But if you notice, we're nowhere near setting a wedding date. Just when I thought we could finally fix this shit we've been wading in for months, you went right ahead and took on that Ramiro Brandt had him fucking living here in our house without even talking to me first!"
Carmen responded with the first thing that came to mind. "This is my house."
"Yes! This isyourfucking house! I sleep inyourfucking bed. I fuck you onyoursheets, onyourcouch, inyourkitchen. The only place for me is your cunt."
Carmen, disgusted at the turn of their discussion, turned to leave. Tanner roared.
"Fucking walk away from me this time and we're over."
She whirled around. First, she paled, then her face warmed as a look of utter shock settled there. It transformed into outrage, one she could barely control, given her thick lower lip trembled.
And then a sea of calm began to rise inside her. It was still and quiet, freezing the cracks in her heart yet strengthening a resolve she didn't know she had until that moment. Suddenly everything was so clear. She no longer willed herself to blindness.
"Haven't we been for a long time?" She whispered.
"You did this."
"No." Her voice was calm. "You did."
Tanner shook his head. "All I want is to love you and marry you, Carmen. Make you mine at last."
"I've always been yours, Tanner, and I don't doubt you want to marry me. But love me?" She made a tutting sound, walking around him like a predator eyeing her prey. "You don't."
He looked at her. "Really. The man who wants to marry you doesn't love you."
"How can you think I don't know?"
"What are you talking about?" He snapped.
"All my life people didn't think much of me. I will always be that ugly, waste of space. No matter how much I have. So I made myself into the person people would respect. If not that, then feared." Carmen put one foot in front of the other as she went to him. "I own this town, Tanner. What do you think that means?"
He stared back at her wordlessly, swallowing. His black eyes betrayed nothing but his entire body was tight with tension.
Carmen sighed, looked around, and found her phone on the counter. She scrolled until reaching the Gallery folder and opened it. She stared at the photos there, images forever seared and carved in her mind despite the time passed.
"I work hard. I got here knowing that it was due to my hard work and people who have helped me. The general manager of Bloom Hotel was my boss when I used to wait tables in high school." She said casually. "He wrote my recommendation for college, basically gave me all these lessons on how to get to the top. You can say he was like a father to me. So he thought it prudent for me to know the sort of man I was going to marry."
Without warning, she tossed her phone to Tanner, who caught it. Her eyes rested on him, her face looking serene, as he watched the slide show of photos of him entering and exiting a room with different women.
She bit her lip as ice settled and began seeping into her heart's raw wounds.
"I couldn't believe it. I should have confronted you but I was afraid that either you'd lie and I'd believe it or you would admit to it and I lose you. I loved you and needed you, and I wanted so much to be with you. I have eyes and ears everywhere, Tanner, whether I like it or not. And those eyes and ears are loyal to me. I forgave the first indiscretions because I loved you and . . . you asked me to marry you. I thought . . . But then I got that . . . I wanted so much to be proven wrong but I couldn't be. Now I know why I can't marry you, Tanner." She let out a long, resigned sound. "It's my fault. I should have confronted you. Less afraid of losing you but I loved you. I can't have total trust you. I don't think I do. And now I can't stomach having you in my life."
Tanner flung her phone to the table with a force that had it smashing into pieces. But Carmen didn't flinch.
"Like you weren't going around spreading your legs for another."
Confused, she stared back at him. His grin was evil.
"I know for a fact that you slept with Ramiro Brandt."
"Never,"she growled.
"No? Then why did my pillow smell like him when I got back?" At her shock, he chuckled. "Try lying your way out of this one. I could smell him everywhere in that bed."
