Page 4 of Loving You

“Youdivorcedme,” Jules all but shouted.

Bronx shrugged. “You left me with a note while I was out of town with my son.”

“Yourson? Now he’syourson? I thought we made him together.”

Bronx held the bin between his hip and the wall and dug his phone out of his pocket. He was losing his grip on his control, but the fact that he’d had it for this long was a damn miracle. He swiped open the screen and pulled up Jules’s text. “Hey,” he said, reading aloud.

“Bronx, don’t?—”

“I don’t want to take too long with this house thing so it’s probably better that you don’t bring your kid. I really don’t want to deal with him having a meltdown about the court stuff.” Bronx lowered the phone and raised a brow at his ex. “Tell me again about how he’s our son?”

Jules took a step back and threw his hands up in the air with a loud groan. “I don’t know what you want from me, Bronx. You knew from the beginning that I wasn’t going to be a good dad, and you chose this anyway.”

Bronx finally let his laugh go. It was bitter, hollow, echoing through the empty house. “I chose this because I wanted a child. You agreed because you thought we’d have some picture-perfect family, and when he didn’t live up to your expectations, you checked out. You should have just left.”

Jules deflated, wrapping his arms around his middle. For the first time, Bronx thought there might be actual pain and regret in his expression. But he couldn’t be sure. Jules’s acting deserved a goddamn Oscar. “I don’t know what you want from me, Bronx.”

“I don’t want anything from you. I thought I was pretty clear about that in the divorce.”

“So you’re going to throw away twenty-five years just like that?”

Bronx blinked at him. He took a breath, then hoisted the bin back onto his hip and walked out the door. He could hear Jules following him, but he was laser focused on his car.

“Like this all meant nothing? Likewemeant nothing?” Jules shouted as he followed him out.

Bronx popped the trunk and set the box down next to the spare tire, then slammed it shut. He took a beat, then turned to face Jules. “You know what? There is something I want.”

Jules’s arms sagged down to his sides. “Anything. I’ll give you anything.”

“I really want to know what the fuck is wrong with you.”

Jules’s mouth dropped open, and he took a step back. “Me? You’re the one acting like I’m a stranger.”

“You are a stranger. The man I thought I married wasn’tthe sort of man who waited for his kid’s sports tournament to leave their family with a fucking note on the table. The man I thought I married wouldn’t send a fucking text telling me to leavemykid at home because he doesn’t want to answer uncomfortable questions about why he destroyed his life.”

Jules’s mouth shut with an audible click, and then he said very softly, “I never wanted the life we were living. That wasn’t my dream. That was yours.”

Bronx felt like he’d been punched in the gut. “Then you should have said that from the beginning.”

He started to walk off, but Jules darted after him. “You really didn’t notice I was miserable, Bronx? You really didn’t notice that I was so fucking unhappy I had to look elsewhere just to survive?”

Maybe that was true. Maybe Bronx had been so distracted by his desire to have a family that he missed all the warning signs. But he wasn’t a mind reader, and that wasn’t fair. Instead of saying anything, Jules had just started cheating. And then he was gone. Just like that. Like a goddamn magic trick.

“The process took three years, Jules. Three fucking years before the surrogate had a viable pregnancy. Three years of jerking off into cups and paying thousands upon thousands for her hormone treatments. Thousands of dollars and dozens of hours waiting for your sister to have eggs extracted. You had all that time to tell me it wasn’t the life you wanted. Instead, you let everyone go through all that because it was what? Easier than telling me what you needed?”

“You would have left me,” Jules shouted, his face red. “If I told you I didn’t want a kid, you would have left!”

“I wouldn’t have married you in the first place.I told you I wanted a family, and you said you were on board,” Bronx spat.

Jules swallowed thickly. “I could have lived with it if he wasn’t…” He stopped, then shook his head. “Look, he’s a nice kid, okay? But we never bonded.”

“You are a piece of shit,” Bronx spat. “The man I thought I married is not whatever the fuck you are. But congrats on fooling me for so long. Congrats on being a lying, selfish, ugly asshole. I hope whoever you have on your yacht is worth it.”

“He is,” Jules said smugly.

Bronx smiled at him. “Good. See you at the signing tomorrow.”

He started to turn, but Jules’s words stopped him. “What makes you think I’ll show? I could drag this out for months, Bronx. Leave you nice and broke.”

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