Page 9 of Wynter's Second Chance

My jaw clenched so tight I thought it might snap. “Yeah, I bet you were happy to see the back of me. Maybe you were hoping I’d die out there in some desert so you could live your life in peace.”

CHAPTER 4

WYNTER

“Wynter!” Lisa snapped, a flush creeping up her high cheekbones. “How dare you?”

“How dareI?” The anger flared hotter, threatening to consume me. “How dareyoudo this to me? Whose baby is it?”

The words fell out of my mouth, sharp and bitter, like they had a life of their own. A searing pain throbbed in my chest. An agony that felt worse than a gunshot wound—I should know. I’d gotten hit more than once in the line of duty. The pain I felt then was nothing compared to what was happening inside of me right now.

“I never meant to hurt you.” Tears filled her eyes. Hazel, brownish-green today. But all I could see was the betrayal shining in them. Her lip trembled like she was going to cry, but I wasn’t buying it.

I let out a bitter laugh, raking a trembling hand through my hair. “Cheating on your husband while he was halfway across the world, risking his life for a wife that didn’t even care, was pretty much guaranteed to hurt him.”

Him. As if I was talking about someone else. Someone I barely recognized anymore.

How messed up was I that I couldn’t even say ‘me’? I was referring to myself like I wasn’t there, like I had stepped outside my body and was just watching the wreckage.

The thought clawed at me, made my skin crawl. I strode past her into the kitchen, the rage eating me alive. I yanked open the fridge, grabbing a beer, cracking it open with more force than necessary. If I broke the neck of the bottle, who cared? The cold liquid slid down my throat, but it didn’t douse the inferno raging inside me.

“Wynter…” Her voice was softer now, hesitant, like she didn’t know what to say.

I slammed the bottle on the counter. “What, Lisa? What could you possibly say to fix this?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice cracking. Her hands shook as she sat at the table.

“Sorry?Sorry?” I felt the laugh bubbling up, harsh and bitter. “You think that fixes this? You’re pregnant with another man’s child, Lisa. When were you planning to tell me? After the baby was born?”

“I was going to tell you this week. I swear.” Her voice was pleading now, desperate. “It was a mistake. A stupid, reckless thing. I was lonely, Wynter.”

Lonely. The word hit me like a slap. I stared at her, the woman I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with. She was sitting there, asking for forgiveness I wasn’t capable of giving.

“When is the baby due?”

“I’m eight months along.” She bit her bottom lip hard.

I could see the dent she made in her delicate skin. But my heart was too filled with anger to care. “Damn it, Lisa! I’m not even convinced you were going to say anything until I came home and found a baby in the nursery.”

“No! It’s not like that. Please believe me. I swear I was going to tell you. It’s just—it was so—I should have told you before, when I got involved with him.”

Her voice wavered, but I was beyond caring. The fury inside me was a relentless storm, whipping around my chest with a force that made it hard to breathe. If that man were here, I wouldn’t just want to punch him—I’d want to obliterate him.

“Who the hell is he?”

She sucked in a ragged breath, her eyes wide and pleading. “He isn’t a part of my life anymore.”

The words hit me like a physical blow. My chest felt hollow, a cold ache spreading through me as if I’d been struck by lightning. “He left you?”

The sight of her tears taunted me, their shimmer mocking the raw pain clawing at my insides.

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.” She was sobbing now, her hands covering her face. “I wanted to tell you. I really did. But there was never a right time or a right way of doing it. How could I tell you over the phone that—I was involved with someone else?”

My heart pounded so hard I thought it might break. “It would’ve been better than me finding out like this.”

“You’re right. You’re right.” She chanted the words like a broken record, her head dropping as if in defeat.

Maybe I should’ve felt pity, but the rage swirled so fast through my veins that there wasn’t any room for sympathy. She stood in a church and vowed to love me till death did us part. I’d agonized over thoughts—no, no, no, traces of thoughts—about Taran while Lisa was out there betraying me, creating a new life with someone else.

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