Page 222 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

As soon as they got home he went to the kitchen and poured a large glass of water.

‘You want one?’ he asked huskily.

‘No thanks.’ Her throat was too tight to swallow.

He leaned back against the counter, gripping the glass with white knuckles. ‘I’m sorry my family tried to humiliate you. It was cruel. I’ll talk to them. They went too far.’

There wasn’t just anger in his eyes but worry. She gripped her hands together as shame swamped her.

‘Callum shouldn’t have been there. Shouldn’t have said any of that.’ Ramon coughed. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine.’

He drained the glass and set it down. ‘Is what he said true?’

That Ramon was the ‘husband of her dreams’?

‘That you have fertility problems,’ he whispered.

Right now she was more afraid of telling the truth than she’d ever been of lying, but she had to reassure Ramon. He was wide-eyed and ashen. Too late she remembered that his mother hadn’t told him about her cancer symptoms.

‘No.’ Her mouth gummed. ‘Not true.’

‘You’re not unwell?’ he pushed. ‘You’re really okay.’

‘Yes. Healthy,’ she mumbled. ‘Truly, I’m fine.’

He jerkily shoved his hands in his pockets. ‘But you told Callum you—’

‘I lied.’

He expelled a huge breath.‘Why?’

Elodie stared hard at her tightly laced fingers and hated herself. ‘Because I didn’t want to sleep with him. I told him I had a lot of pain with an irregular, difficult cycle. That was an excuse he could accept.’

Ramon was silent for so long that she had to look up, needing to see how angry he was.

‘You should have been able to just say no,’ he breathed.

‘I was hiswife.’

‘Elodie—’

‘I was young, okay? I didn’t know how to assert myself then. Callum said he loved me, he promised that he’d help me handle Dad. He had me on some pedestal, said he would be patient and that I’d feel more for him given enough time, and I got swept up in believing him because Iwantedto. I thought he was my knight, you know? A guy who could cope with my father while also being someone he approved of. I was a childishfool.’ She flushed. ‘And Callum only loved theideaof me, not the reality of me because I just disappointed him.’

Ramon muttered something unintelligible but Elodie shook her head—he’d asked and she wouldn’t stop now. She’d tell him.

‘We didn’t sleep together until after the wedding,’ she said angrily. ‘It wasn’t great, and I soon made those excuses because I didn’t want to tell him that I didn’t...’

‘You didn’t want to hurt his pride so you lied about yourhealth?’ Ramon looked shell-shocked.

‘I thought it was just how I was,’ she mumbled.

‘That you didn’t enjoy sex?’

Ramon’s incredulous expression burned her to cinders.

‘I know I’m an awful person,’ she said. ‘I know it was my fault. I know it was awful to lie.’

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