Page 11 of The Butcher

“It’s called honor. It’s called honesty. It’s called integrity. And more importantly, it’s called respect. You did not respect me when you fucked her. You did not respect me when you chose to hide it from me. You spared me the pain of the truth by lying about it, but you hurt me in far more ways by keeping it a secret. I’m done with this marriage, Adrien. Grant me the divorce so we can move on with our lives.”

He stared at me as he breathed hard, watching his world come apart in ash and fire.

“Adrien, you’re handsome and rich as fuck. You can be single and fuck all of Paris if you want. You don’t need a wife.”

“As hard as this is for you to believe, I married you because I loved you.” He said it with complete seriousness, suppressing his anger so it wouldn’t escape in his tone. “I still love you. I can replace you with beautiful women that I’ll forget, but I genuinely, truly want to be married to you.”

It was the first time I felt my anger pause. I crossed my arms over my chest and let out a quiet sigh.

“But once you found out, you took off. We haven’t had an opportunity to really talk because all you’ve done is run. I won’t pretend that this…fling…doesn’t bother me. Doesn’t rip me apart on the inside. But I suppose it is fair…so I can let it go.” With every word, I sensed his massive restraint, like it made him sick just to say these things. “I still want to work this out. I still want you to come home.”

My chin drifted down, my arms still tight across my chest, my eyes on the floor.

“Fleur.”

My eyes stayed down. “You say there was no one else, but I’m not sure I can believe you. That’s the problem.” I lifted my eyes and looked at him again.

“There was no one else.”

“Is there actually no one else, or is there just no way for me to find out?”

He released a quiet sigh in frustration.

“If there’s no trust, I don’t see how this is going to work. There’s shattered glass everywhere, and I’m going to keep stepping on it.”

His eyebrows furrowed like he didn’t understand what that meant.

“The answer is no, Adrien.”

“You won’t even try?—”

“Because I don’t trust you. And no amount of marriage counseling is going to fix that. I’m always going to wonder if there were others. I’m always going to wonder if I’ve become that dumbass woman who actually believes her husband is a good man when he’s lying to her face. I don’t want to be a fool, Adrien.”

“I think you’re a bigger fool for throwing this away?—”

“You’re the one who threw this away. I won’t let you turn this on me.”

He stared at me for a long time, anger and frustration burning in his gaze. “What I said still stands. Try with me—or there will be no divorce.”

“Whoa…” I shook my head. “If you wanted me this bad, then why did you fuck someone else? Where was this fight then? Where was this obsession? Is this actually about love or propriety? Or is it about wanting what you can’t have? Is it because you’re a child who can’t stand it when you don’t get your way?”

The defeat was in his gaze, the frustration that had nowhere to go but deeper inside. “I love you, Fleur. From the first moment I saw you. I refuse to let you go, not just because I don’t believe in divorce, but because you’re the love of my life. I’m willing to do anything and everything to make this relationship work. It’s that simple. So, there will be no divorce, not until I see you try, not until I see some real effort to make this work. If we try and give it our all and you still can’t trust me, then so be it.”

“How many times do I have to say it? I don’t want to try.”

His defeated look morphed into something else, an expression that was subtly deranged. “Don’t fight me on this.”

“You know fight is my middle name.”

His eyes contained the same razor’s edge. “You can continue to submit the paperwork to the courts, but it’ll be rejected every time. And if you try to have a relationship with someone else, I’ll make sure they know you’re married—to me.” The threat was never stated, but it was unmistakable. He was connected to a lot of people in his line of work, because whoever could afford such invaluable pieces of art and had no objection to owning a piece of history that belonged to the people clearly didn’t have aconscience. And they were capable of far worse than purchasing stolen artwork.

“Then I guess I’ll pick my next man wisely.”

Chapter 3

Bastien

It was almost midnight.

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