Page 162 of The Sinner's Sanctuary

“Really, Gibson? After twenty years of sad puppy dog eyes because I wouldn’t let you in my bed, now all of a sudden you want to run off with your boyfriend, and I shouldn’t besurprised?”

I was expecting the emasculation, but that doesn’t make it any more enjoyable.

“Why are you pissed?” I ask.

“I just sat on a park bench with your boy toy not twenty minutes ago telling him if he hurt you, I would ruin his life. Do I sound like an uninterested party? Fine, I don’t want to have sex with you. If that were your problem you could have left years ago. But we have alifenow. Friends. Status. We’re a partnership?—”

“I want more than a fucking partnership, Marianne.”

“No one’s saying you can’t have your fun. I don’t give a shit who you fuck as long as you keep it discreet. There’s no need toupend our lives because you decided screwing your assistant was a good idea. I could have told you that was a mistake. Don’t lead with your dick, Gibson.”

I force myself to take a deep breath. “About the annulment. I’ll need a statement from you that the marriage was never consummated.”

“Dreamthe fuckon.” She stubs out her cigarette and sits up in the chair, her legs straddling the seat.

“We have piles of NDAs—people you and I have both been with that prove our marriage was open. Every single one of yours is signed by a woman.”

“Those don’t date back the entire length of our marriage?—”

“We have couple’s counseling records?—”

“You can’t use those without my consent.”

“Marianne—what the fuck? We don’t have to do this anymore. You can find someone better than Avery fucking Lawther, and you can be happy, too.”

“I am happy,” she screams, making me jerk. And then she bursts into tears I don’t think are fake. “I’msorry. I’ve told you how many thousands of times, I am so, so sorry I’m not what you wanted, and that I couldn’t become her again. I have triedsohard. Do you have any idea how much I love you? How I would doanythingfor you. Anything, Gibson.”

“Then do this,” I say.

“How?” Her voice cracks. “Do you want to forget I ever existed, too?”

“No,” I say gently. “I could never. This is about moving on.”

“I feel—I don’t—Gibson, you’re my world.”

“You were in love with someoneelse.”

Her eyes blow wide, and her sobbing abruptly stops. “How do you know that?”

“I told you,” I say evenly, while desperately not wanting to play this card. “I know what happened with Avery.”

“How?”

“I suspected, she confirmed.”

“When?”

I meet her gaze. “Today.”

Her face turns a shade paler. “You spoke with hertoday?”

I give her a short nod.

“Why?”

“Please. Just tell me you won’t fight me on this.”

She shakes her head vehemently. “I will fight with everything I have.”

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