“You do this, and I’m filing for divorce.”
Mason stumbles back as if I’ve thrown a spear straight into his chest. I hope it burns as severely as the one he threw at me.
“That’s just great. I talk to Natalie, who happens to be a friend. I break a few vows here and there, and suddenly you want a divorce. Fine, go get a divorce, see if you get a dime from me.”
I recoil — everything inside of me, pulling tight.
My hand draws back before I can stop it, and I barely register the force as it flies through the air stinging my palm as it cracks across his face.
Shock. Both of us feel it.
We are shattering.
“The damage is done, Mason. You could tell me you aren’t going to fight, and it still wouldn’t matter. You betrayed me in many ways. You are a self-centered son of a bitch. You did this to us, not me. It’s gone, Mason. The trust I had in you is gone. In one night, it has vanished. It wasn’t one night, though, was it? It’s been two years in the making. I was just the wife you decided to leave in the dark. The wife who doesn’t want a damn thing from you.” I whisper as my heart falls to the floor.
“Fine, don’t let the door hit you in the ass.”
The tender spot in my chest rips wide open.
“It won’t, but my absence from your life will knock you on yours.”
Grief spreads through me as I spin around, leaving my husband and my heart behind.
Chapter Seven
Mason
Before I have the door shut, a scowl gathers on Eden’s face. Her tormented features lit by the moonlight as she stands in the middle of the living room of our cottage.
I stand frozen. The only thing moving are my eyes as I search for my wife behind all that misery I’ve inflicted.
Frown lines crease her forehead, her body straight as a rod.
A vision in pain. I want to reach out and touch her. Every part of me hated I can’t while knowing it won’t take but a minute before I cave and do it anyway.
Something cold bathes my veins; my chest squeezes painfully. Guilt and shame are slithering out from the depths of my despair, both so damn powerful I’m reasonably sure I don’t have the strength to handle the way I hurt her. And I sure as hell will never admit that I’m in denial. Regardless of how we’ve hurt one another, I have to fight for my wife. To get her back to calm. I need her to come home. I need to place a smile on her unforgettable face.
Eden starts sobbing into her hands, and I stand there unable to get my feet to move so I can console her as I watch the tears drip between her fingers, dripping down onto the floor.
I feel every single one soaking through my flesh, hitting my blood, scorching my muscles and digging at my bones.
Tension flows through her body, anguish in the rise and fall of her chest. It’s heavy, growing thicker with every breath we take.
But there’s one thing I know without a doubt. Eden and I are tied together. Bound by a love that I’ve split in two.
And I’ve no idea how to fix what I’ve done.
With each breath and tear, I can feel our bond loosening. It leaves me shaken and rattled in desperation.
I’ve gutted her.
I’m nothing but a coward — a man heading straight to hell.
“Get out.” She whispers, voice raspy on a tremble, eyes red and puffy from crying. Seeing her this way, knowing I’m responsible for placing those tears, that distraught written all over her gorgeous face about chokes the life out of me.
“I never wanted to do anything to hurt you, I’m sorry.” My throat clogs with guilt, and too many other emotions to swallow down at once. I’ll deal with those later, right now my concern is trying to make things right with my wife.
Every cell in my body clenches when Eden turns her head away from me, gulping around the disaster between us that roars louder than the sudden rain that starts pelting against the windows.
Southern Californians often gripe about the area’s lack of rain, a mostly valid claim. But here, when it rains, it pours — the same as the storm blistering the fate of my marriage.
“Where you go, I follow. We are deep inside of each other, Eden; no distance will change that. Not ever. You are buried deep inside me, the same as I’m in you. I love you. Say you love me too.” I take a step toward her. Those big eyes that shed so much pain pool as she whips her head back in my direction, body flinching and takes a step back.
She does those things again, and I’m going to unhinge more than I am.
“Did you honestly think I’d let you walk out our door and not come after you? That’ll never happen, Eden, you are my wife. You always have and always will be my biggest dream come true. You are worth everything to me. My beginning. My middle. My end.” Eden is the total tally on a scorecard with me, the winner.
There is no comparison between her and boxing. Nothing comes close to comparing to the woman I love.
“Sweet talking will get you nowhere, not with this, Mason. What happened is much worse than a fight.”
“I know.” It doesn’t have to be if she’d stay calm enough to listen. In all honesty, as she said, there isn’t anything I can say to take back what I’ve done.
“Either you come home, or we sleep here. The choice is yours. Either place, I’ll be sleeping next to you, holding you tight the way I always have. Protecting you just in case there’s a storm brewing. I know you hate them. They’ve scared you since we lost power one night when we were eight. Remember that night; I held your hand while you slept? I told you everything was going to be alright.” She trusted me back then; it can’t have vanished as she said. That’s something I can agree to deny.
Her breath hitches when thunder rolls and lightning flashes across through the windows. Eden hates storms.
It pushes hope through that we can ride out our storm. That she’ll let me wrap my arms around her and distract her with pleasure like I’ve done so many times before. That is until she takes another step back, sending an active torrent of anxiety that forms in my stomach.
I’m not giving up on settling this tonight. I want my wife in my arms where she belongs.
“We promised never to leave each other. I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. You want to move here, then let's move. Together. We love it here. We’d have Aubrey, Chance, and the kids to hang with all the time. We can raise our children here. We can do whatever you want. Just let me back in.”
Something shifts in my chest the longer she remains silent. Rattled nerves of unsettledness only amplifying the sensation. Desperation, unlike anything I’d ever experienced before washes through me. We’ve never crossed a road quite like this one, and it scares the hell out of me that with every second, she’s pulling further and further away.
I can’t let that kind of distance happen. If it does, that freight train will barrel at the speed of light to hit me head-on.
I knew following her here was foolish. I kept telling myself to give her a day or two to come around so we can sit and talk this through. The thing is, the minute I heard her car pull away, the only thing I thought was, what if she doesn’t come back? What if something happens to her? What if the damage I’ve done is irreparable? I wasn’t about to take those chances.