Page 18 of Kiss From A Rose

"What the fuck, Holden?"

He looked at me, confused. "I…well, it seemed like that's sort of what you've been wantin'."

"What?" I felt like I was living a life that I didn't know about, at least, one that others saw very differently than I did.

"I mean if you asked for a divorce you'd have to pay some serious alimony, but if she left, we know she walks away with nothing," Holden explained as if it wasthatsimple.

"I don't want a divorce. I love my wife."

Holden raised both his eyebrows. "Well, buddy, if you love your wife, why the hell have you been bangin' your secretary?"

I downed some whiskey and set my glass down. My life was a clusterfuck. That's what it was.

"Why would you think I was sleepin' with Aimee?"

Holden chuckled. "Come on, Gray, you're with herallthe time. People see you in restaurants. You travel with her. Even at parties, you're with Aimee and Rose sits in a corner with everyone looking at her as thefirstwife who's soon going to be replaced."

I tried to remember those parties. Had I really been that much of a jackass to Rose? If everyone saw it, she must have felt it too. How much had that hurt my sweet wife? My kind wife—the one who never said a bad word about anyone, not even my mother, who humiliated her every chance she got. I’d felt guilty for not protecting her, which was why I finally agreed to move out of my parents’ house. But the truth? I just didn’t want the drama with my mother. I expected Rose to deal with her, and she did. After the first two chaotic years of our marriage, Rose had become exactly the kind of wife I needed. She ran the house, was alwaysthere when I needed her, fucked me when I wanted, and handled my family so they wouldn’t come complaining to me about her.

Fucking hell!I was a selfish prick. It was all about what she didforme. When was the last time I did anything for her?

"Does everyone assume I'm fuckin' my assistant and ready to divorce my wife?"

Holden sighed. "I don’t know what to say, Gray. It’s been obvious for years now—you’re just not interested in your wife. At family dinners, it’s always you and the twins on one side, while Rose sits quietly on the other. I used to feel sorry for her and tried talking to her, but Bonnie would go on a jealous rant, so I stopped."

"Why is Bonnie jealous of Rose?" This was allveryconfusing.

Holden scoffed and then shook his head in disbelief. "You know your wife is fucking gorgeous, right?"

"Yeah." Rose was a classic beauty. Sometimes, I couldn't look away from her face.

"And while Bonnie is on a diet daily, your wife is effortlessly slender and elegant. She's sweet, kind, and easy to talk to. I mean, fuck, I wish I had a wife like that instead…." He sighed. "Well, you know what I have."

I did. Bonnie was a special kind of fucked up.

Basically, what my brother was saying was that I had an amazing wife, who I'd been ignoring to the point that everyone, including friends and family, thought I wanted to get rid of her.

I downed the whiskey and poured some more for myself.

"Your kids talk down to her, and you never stop it. Especially Jude. This Thanksgiving, I had to ask him to cut it out, but you know, Jude, he just shrugged it off."

How was it that my brother was my wife's knight in shining armor? The same man who'd called her a gold digger to her face when she'd showed up pregnant.

"What did Jude say?"

"Just some crap about how she wouldn't understand something because she didn't have a college degree. It was humiliating, and Rose looked like she was going to cry."

Cry?

"Where the fuck was I?"

Yeah, where the fuck have you been, Gray, for the whole hell of your marriage?

"You were talking to Willow, but this stuff happened in front of you all the time, Gray. You can't tell me you didn't notice." When he looked at the pain in my eyes, he was surprised. "You're seriously telling me you didn't see how your kids would shut her down every time she tried to speak? I mean, Willow ignores her, which I started to think was a blessing because Jude can be vicious."

"Why the hell didn't you say something?" I demanded, flustered as hell.

"Why would I when it was happening in front of you?" he countered. "What the fuck, Gray? I thought you were trying to get rid of her. I didn't like your methods, but I have my own marital problems with a wife who cuts my balls off every five minutes, so I'm not equipped to help out with your marriage."

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