Page 82 of The Fate of Us

I scrunch my brow. “But I thought you said she never responded to anything.”

“Apparently she did.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Carson’s trying to figure it out,” he says with his eyes closed.

Something about this doesn’t feel right. “So why is she here?”

He pulls away from me and sits up, gripping the back of his neck. “She had nowhere else to go.”

“So, you decided it would be totally fine for her to stay here?” I bark.

“It wasn’t an easy decision.”

“Noah, it’s a very easy decision. No. You should have told her no.” I take a breath trying to calm the anger building inside of me. “And why didn’t you ask me? You should have called me, Noah.”

He turns to face me. “I called you, Anna. I called you a hundred times that first week you were gone. You didn’t answer one of my calls. You didn’t respond to any of my texts. What was I supposed to do?”

“You could have mentioned it in anyone of those damn texts and I would have called you,” I yell.

“Then what?” he shouts. “You would have called me? Yelled at me? Broken up with me? Anna, I already felt like I was losing you.”

I climb off the bed and head to the dresser. “I needed space Noah. But apparently you thought if I decided not to come back you would have your backup plan here.”

“She isn’t a backup plan, Anna. She is my ex-wife,” he growls.

I put on a bra and pull a shirt over my head. “Who is now living in our house!”

Noah gets up as I pull on a pair of yoga pants. “Why do you think I lock the doors? I do it so she can’t get into our space.”

I laugh at that as I storm to the closet for a pair of sandals. “She’s in our space, Noah. This whole home is our space. Or did you forget you asked me to move in with you?”

He stands in the doorway of the closet, blocking me in. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Don’t do this again, Anna. Don’t leave.”

The last two words come out as a whisper. And I almost go to hold him because I can hear the pain in his voice. But then I hear her on the stairs.

“Stud muffin? I got us some lunch. I thought we could have a picnic,” Claire singsongs from the other side of the bedroom door.

I look at Noah with disgust. “Seems she is adapting to being here just fine.”

I try to push past him but he blocks me in. “Anna.”

“Let me through, Noah.”

“She means nothing to me.”

I look up at him with venom in my eyes and voice. “Apparently neither do I.”

I duck under his arm on the doorframe and attempt to leave the room but he grabs me by the arm. “Don’t leave me again.”

I look down to where he is gripping my arm. “Let go of me.”

He must hear the bitterness in my voice because he lets me go. I grip the door handle and look back at him one last time before unlocking the door.

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