Page 42 of Ruthless Love

My throat tightens as I see for sure it's what I thought it was. "I sent it a long time ago." I reach out to take it. "Not long after I sent it, I messaged my attorney to request that it not be filed. I had no idea it was still floating around out there."

"Then I guess we have a decision to make, Ris. Actually, you have one. What do you want to do with this?"

Reaching forward, I grab the envelope. Looking at it, I think back to the person I was when I signed the papers. The woman who was screaming into the void for her husband to recognize that she needed something from him, he hadn't been giving her.

I've changed so much. Cain and I have come so far. The snow is coming down faster as I glance up at him. "I love you," I whisper, tears popping into my eyes. "I love you so much." I cry, my chin trembling, the tears falling.

"Tell me the words, Ris. I need them."

"I love you with everything I have in me. I don't want to spend another night without you. I'm not sorry I left..."

He makes a noise, rocking back on his heels. "I'm not either. You had the guts to make a change. One we desperately needed. It hurt like hell when I came home and you weren't there, but I see it, for it was now. It was a cry for help. If you hadn't done it, we'd definitely be filing those papers. We weren't happy."

The tears keep coming. "No, we weren't."

"But we are now." He opens his arms, and I step into them.

"We are now." He says the words right along with me. "I love you, Ris. I'm going to spend the rest of my life loving you. No questions asked. Nothing will ever make me stop."

I hug him tightly, vowing that I'm never going to let go. "Thanks for giving me my own happily ever after, Cain."

He tilts his head to the side, his lips searching. "And you gave me mine..."

THIRTY-FOUR

EPILOGUE ONE

MARISSA

A Few MonthsLater

"I can't believe we're here. Not after last night," Cain's voice is pitched low as we sit in the church, waiting.

"Are they going to have the service for Ward here? While everyone's in town for what should've been the wedding?" My heart aches as I think back to Katie coming into the shop earlier this year, telling me about her arranged marriage.

Where we are - should be her wedding, but Ward was killed last night in an accident that no one anticipated. I have no idea what's going to happen, but the service makes sense. They already had this space, along with family and friends gathered.

"I don't know. Neither do my parents." He nods toward where they're sitting up more toward the front, near Ward’s immediate family.

I can't imagine we'd be doing anything else. "How are you?" I whisper, running my hand along his thigh. "That was your cousin."

"I know, but I'm making it, just like the rest of us. We haven't been close in years, and I hate to say it, but being a cop, I'm desensitized."

I get it. I watch a lot of true crime, and I read dark romance. Some things that shock others don't affect me at all. Slipping my hand into his, we sit there with everyone milling around. It seems as if no one knows what in the hell is happening. I cross my legs and glance around. What is everyone else thinking? That's when the preacher appears at the front of the church, and a group of men walk in to stand beside him.

"What the hell?" Cain mouths after glancing over at me.

One of those men is Trace, Ward's brother. He's standing where a groom would, if he were about to get married. "Is this what I think it is?" I ask, murmurs going up all around us.

"I think he's going to marry Katie. Holy shit."

Before I can say anything, the wedding march plays, and in comes Katie at the back of the church. Her eyes meet mine, and she looks terrified, but with her chin firm, she continues the steps up the aisle.

When she gets there, the preacher turns to us.

"We are gathered here today to join this man and this woman..."

THIRTY-FIVE

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