Page 71 of Dark as Knight

“Why what?”

“Why are you willing to do this—to throw your one possibility of owning your family company away when work means more to you than… than anything?”

I sit back on the edge of my desk. “Why? Why does it even matter?”

“Because you never walk away from a fight, ever.” She stares at me almost suspiciously.

I hang my head, bringing my hand to rub against my forehead. I’m tired. Tired from trying to hide my own feelings from myself. Tired of trying to fight the feelings. And while I hope and pray that she doesn’t sign these papers—not because I’m worried about the shares, but because I can’t stomach the thought of losing her—if she does, I will grant her a divorce and I will let her live her life in peace without me.

“I don’t have any more fight left in me. You won the war, Stella.”

Chapter 23

Stella

“What do you mean?”

My heart feels like it’s about to beat out of my chest. I promised myself that I would walk out of this house tonight a free woman, but now that I have the papers in my lap, a pen in my hand… I can’t do it.

Sign them, I think to myself, my hand trembling as I grip the pen. Tears cloud my vision as I stare down at the papers. I have the keys to my freedom in my hands and I can’t seem to deliver myself.

“Life, work, all of it, it has no meaning without you.” He lifts his face, his eyes staring into my soul. “I don’t care about owning Knight Enterprises. I don’t care about winning a fight or an argument or breaking rules.” He moves down to his knees in front of me, his hands reaching out to cup my face. “All I care about is you and I can’t stomach the thought of hurting you more than I already have.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you.” I stare back at him, wanting to believe him.

“I thought you didn’t believe in love anymore.”

“I didn’t. I thought I knew what love was with Eleanor, but I realized the first second I kissed you, I felt more in that moment than I ever did with her or anyone.”

“Then why lie, Atlas? About her, about knowing her and hiding your entire postmortem breakup chat?” I stand up and walk away from him. “Which by the way I would have completely understood. It’s normal to have that talk. What’s not normal is hiding from me the fact that she came to your office and confessed her love for you. And then you expect me to believe it was just nothing?”

“It wasn’t nothing with her. She and I were together for several years and I was in love with her.”

“When did it end?”

“The first night I saw you at Freddy’s.” He stares at me, emotionless.

“Then why lie? If it was truly over?”

“It was over the night I first saw you. She called me after that event we attended together, the night you met her. She told me she made a mistake leaving me and I told her that I was married and to respect those boundaries. I will admit that it caused me to question things with her, if I made the right choice by telling her that. I thought I was still in love with her… That was the first night I came home drunk. I thought she understood which she clearly didn’t when she showed up unannounced at my office. That’s the second night I came home drunk.”

“Great.” I nod my head like this is just a totally normal conversation I’m having. “And then what, you called her back to say you were free in less than a year?”

“I called her up to apologize to her. She shared some things I had done in our relationship that hurt her and I wanted to make it right. I’m sorry that I didn’t share that with you. I did think I was going to marry her at the time, but not now. I even had a ring made for her.” I swear when he says that he glances down at my hand which makes me look down at it.

This can’t possibly get any worse.

“Where is it? Did she keep it?” I ask, knowing full well this might be the nail in the coffin in his death sentence. I just might snap and lunge across this desk.

“No,” he says, shaking his head. “I never had the chance to give it to her thankfully. But actually”—he gestures toward my hand—“you’re wearing it.”

Chapter 24

Atlas

Stella looks down at her hand.

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