Page 236 of My Rules

No . . .

My face screws up. “Don’t say that. I just panicked, and you scared me, and I don’t know why I acted the way I did.”

“You don’t. But I do,” he says calmly.

My eyes search his.

“You’re never going to leave him, Rebecca, and you don’t even realize it.”

“That’s not true. I love you.”

“On some level ... but not enough.”

“Blake.”

“Get out of my car.”

“Blake, please.” I grab for him. “I take it back. Everything I said, I take it back; I don’t know why it came out like it did. Forgive me.”

“I can’t.”

“You can’t, or you won’t?”

“I’ve taken a job in New York.”

“What?” My face falls. “What do you mean?”

“Just what I said. I’ve taken a job in New York.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to see you every day. I don’t want to look at you and know what I almost had. I don’t want to look at you and have my fucking heart broken again and again knowing that you still love him.”

His silhouette blurs.

“We never had a chance, Rebecca. You’re still married to him,” he spits through tears. “You’ll always be his battle-scarred wife.”

Oh . . .

That cut deep.

If he hit me with an axe, it would be less painful.

I sob out loud, and he gets out of the car and slams the door before walking across the parking lot.

Panic sets in. He’s leaving me.

“No. Blake. Don’t go,” I whisper.

My heart hammers in my chest, and unable to control the hurt as it screams through my veins, I sob. “Please don’t go.”

Chapter 24

The cone of silence.

I’ve been here before. The voices are muffled; the thoughts are magnified.

But it’s the regrets that are overwhelming.

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