Page 44 of The Life We Left Behind

“This changes everything,” he responded before Cade could reach us. “I want to be his uncle. You don’t have to do this alone anymore.”

It wasn’t what I’d expected, but it was a glimmer of hope.

Maybe bringing Cade to this place wasn’t one of those terrible decisions I would keep looking back on. Maybe this could be the beginning of something good.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

TRACE

Idrove back to my house with a stupid grin on my face. Last night had been everything.Shewas everything.

This was what I wanted for my life. It had always been Delaney. Why had I ever tried to make a life without her in it?

I didn’t care what it took. I wasn’t letting her go. I was done with letting life get in between us. We’d made mistakes, but we’d been kids. We could move past it. I knew we could.

As I pulled up outside my house, my first instinct was to turn back around. And I was just about to shift the car into reverse when my eyes glanced over my rear view, and I saw Chelsea sitting in her car across the street.

Just like that, all the happiness and joy melted out of me, and I sagged in my seat.

I couldn’t do this again. It had to end.

Quickly pulling out my phone, I fired off a text to Ethan, telling him that she was here again. Then I did possibly one of the most stupid things I’d done all week. I got out of the car and headed down the driveway toward her, my phone still clasped in my hand and set to record. I wasn’t risking anything this time.

As soon as I moved in her direction, Chelsea leaped from her vehicle. I could see the determination on her face as she ran her fingers through her cherry-red hair. The black makeup around her eyes was smudged across her face, and I knew immediately that she’d been waiting outside the house all night.

“What are you doing here, Chelsea?” I snapped.

“I knew you were cheating on me with that gutter whore. That’s where you’ve been all night, isn’t it? All it took was for her to look in your direction, and you dropped to your knees to beg her for it.” The snarl on her face warned me that Chelsea was here for a fight, but for the first time in a long time, I was just about ready to give her one.

“When are you going to get it into your head, Chelsea?We. Are. Divorced.Even if I had spent the night with Delaney, it wouldn’t be me cheating on you. You and I are done. Over. You have absolutely no right to come here thinking you get a say in my life anymore. I don’t know how you keep getting the keys to my house, but this needs to stop. Youneedto stop coming here. Youneedto stop breaking in. Chels, you need help. Can’t you see that?”

I didn’t even flinch as she slapped me across the face. I was so used to it now that I barely even felt the sting because my shame still rose up to smother it.

“Hitting me isn’t going to make me be your husband again,” I told her gently. “You were always so angry. Always so intent on hurting me. Why do you want your life to be like this?”

I was so tired of this whole thing that even though I wanted to reach out and shake some sense into her, I doubted I had the strength to do it. All the fight leached out of me and a sense of pity seeped in. Chelsea was on her way to rock bottom, and I doubted she had anyone left that cared enough to pull her back up from it.

“What do you expect me to do?” she seethed. “You’re always sneaking around, pretending you’re oh so innocent. Like you ever cared about me. The only time you ever showed any emotion was if I beat it out of you. And now what? I get left with nothing, and you run away with that bitch and live out your happy little family dream like you always wanted. At least I get that satisfaction. At least I know I took that from you.”

I took a step back, relieved when Chelsea didn’t mirror the move. Instead, she started to pace back and forth, shaking her head and ranting to herself about how it had always been Delaney who stood in her way.

In a way, she was right. I didn’t ever stop loving Delaney, and maybe I had brought the ghost of our relationship into this marriage. Chelsea had deserved better than me, especially if it was my inattentiveness that had driven her to be this way.

But with how badly the court case was going, I knew this was going to be my only chance to get enough evidence for the restraining order. She couldn’t talk her way out of a recording of her own actions.

“You know what? You’re right. I was never the husband I should have been to you because I never got over Delaney. We should never have gotten married. It’s not like you really wanted to, either. We just did what everyone thought we should. But it doesn’t have to be like that anymore, Chelsea. You can have the life you want now. Why do you keep punishing yourself by going over this over and over again? Don’t you want to have a chance to be happy with someone else?”

“Happy? This isn’t about beinghappy, Trace. It was never about being happy. It was about havingeverything. It was about being the one that got picked first, the one that you looked at like I actually meant something.Iwas supposed to get the big house.Iwas supposed to be the woman who ruled over this stupidfucking town. Instead, all I got was you moping over the one you lost.”

She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. It was why I’d loved Delaney so completely. She never saw the Farrington name and the things it would get her. All she ever saw was me.

“How do you keep getting a key to my house?” I asked, wanting to end this once and for all.

Chelsea cut a glare in my direction and scoffed. “It’s not difficult to get what you want when you’re a woman.”

“I don’t—What the hell do you mean?”

It was fairly obvious, but I needed her to say it.

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