Page 118 of Deceit

“Now, Em—“ Her tiny palms slam into my chest, and she shoves as hard as she can. I allow myself a few steps away before I’m in her personal space again because she’s trying to leave me. “Listen to me, Emmy. I’m getting rid of her.”

She scoffs. “Sure you are. And when those sixty days are up, guess who’s gonna be checking her ass out and running right back to your house saying she’s changed and that she’s sorry. To take her back and that she misses you so much and I’m not fucking doing this with you, Bish, I can’t. I don’t have the mental space, and I’m not going to play second best to some cunt who broke your heart so bad that you couldn’t love me or—“ My hand clamps onto her biceps and finds that she’s trembling.

“Calm down, baby,” I coo gently, stopping her from holding her breath as she speaks. “She’s gone the moment Ledger gives me the word.”

“I don’t buy it,” she retorts. “She’ll never let you go.”

“But I let her go...a long, long time ago.”

She shakes her head, strands of blonde hair falling into her eyes, but she doesn’t bother to move them away. Instead, she peers up at me with tears glistening in her eyes.

I want to stab myself for creating them.

“But you didn’t want me. Not in the way I needed you to. You can tell me to go fuck off, but you didn’t to her. She knows she has a place, a soft and gentle one when it comes to you. She can do no wrong and I’m treated like a second-class citizen in your world. I’m tired of it.”

“Emmy, I just told you that—“

“Do you love me?” Her question should have a simple answer. It’syes. It’s always been the wordyes.

However, when the word enters my brain, the red and piercing screeching of alarm sirens ring off in my head.

They warn me to tread lightly.

That I’m stepping into a similar situation where heartbreak could be the lead ending to this story.

Except I jumped with Emmy like I have with no one before in my life.

I married her.

I craved to give her everything. Children, a happy life and home, and my last name if she wanted it.

My first thought was the one I’ve explained a hundred times. I needed to tell my family that she was mine and I was hers. Which meant extra caution and watch of my wife would be expected. Her being part of B723 and my spouse made her the golden nugget that everyone had to respect and secure at all costs.

There were no other options.

“You see,” she utters in almost a whisper. “Nothing has changed, but everything remains the same to you.”

I close my eyes. “Baby, I—“

“I’m pregnant,” she sneers so viciously that my eyes snap open from the deep intensity of her words. Her light brown eyes clamp onto me and hold me still as she constricts around me so tightly that I can’t make any air enter my lungs.

My body bows in her direction, wanting to comfort, kiss, and speak from somewhere far and dark within my soul. But she continues, and the following comment does change everything.

“And it’s not yours.”

Two days ago…

“Wow…” Mills runs his hand down the stubble on his face as he sits on the edge of my tub and purposely averts his gaze from me. “I honestly didn’t…I guess I assumed Bishop wasn’t your type.”

So, I needed someone to talk to.

I went to the grocery store earlier, minding my own business, when an elderly woman approached me and grabbed my hand. She smiled, her bright green eyes still vibrant as the day she was born, and said I looked absolutely radiant.

She also dropped another adjective that has had me freaking out ever since.

Glowing.

She said I wasglowing.

---