Page 109 of Modern Romance Collection February 2025, 1-4

‘Hey, what’s going on? Did something happen? Your father...?’

She went still. And then she stood up straight and faced him. She was pale. Her eyes looked huge.

She shook her head. ‘No, it’s not my father...or anything like that. It’s me. I have to go. I’m going to request a divorce, Primo. I’m sorry, but I can’t wait for the six months.’

Primo was looking at her as if she was losing her mind. She was. She was in full panic mode. She needed to get away from here and from Primonow. This place was the manifestation of the dream she’d always had of what family life could be, but it was also—cruelly—her worst nightmare. Because she could never have this. And she certainly couldn’t give it to Primo.

She took a breath in and forced herself to try and calm down. He deserved to know everything.

She said, ‘I saw you with the baby just now...’

Primo was shaking his head as if trying to understand. ‘A second ago you said you had to leave. You said you want adivorce.’

Faye nodded. ‘I did.’

‘What’s going on? What on earth has seeing me with the baby got to do with anything?’

Faye was wringing her hands in front of her. ‘That’s just it. It has everything to do with everything. With us. I saw how you looked at her, Primo. How you’ve started to heal the rift with your brother. And that’s amazing. But I can see what you’re thinking. That maybe you want this too...what he has. Areallife. Family.’

The wordlovewas on her tongue, but she bit it back. He might want more, but she was sure that love wasn’t part of it.

He looked at her. ‘Yes...maybe. And I have been wanting to talk to you. Can’t you see that what we have between us is so much stronger than we expected it would be? It’s made me think that perhaps...perhaps it could be possible to do things differently. I’d never thought about children before as anything but a means to an end...extending the family legacy and name,’ he went on. ‘But creating a family with you, Faye... You’ve inspired me to want something I never thought I wanted before. Never thought I could have.’

Emotion rose, burning inside Faye. She did her best to stop it from spilling over. ‘That’s just it, you see. I can’t give you that.’

Primo shook his head again. ‘What is so awful about the prospect of having a family with me, Faye?’

‘You’re not listening to me. I said, Ican’tgive you that. Literally,cannot.’

He made a snorting noise. ‘You mean won’t. What is it? Are you using this as a bargaining chip to get something even more?’

Faye was horrified. Never would she have thought he’d go there. ‘No! How could you think that?’

But you have deceived him.

‘Primo, please listen to me. There’s something I haven’t told you. I haven’t been entirely...transparent.’

He opened his mouth, but she put up a hand to stop him. He closed his mouth. She lowered her hand.

‘When I was with my first husband, I got pregnant straight away. A textbook conception.’ Faye tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice. ‘But within a few weeks I was bleeding. A miscarriage. It got complicated. I was taken into hospital. They cleared the miscarriage, but they told me I needed an operation or I might die.’

She forced herself to look at Primo.

‘I had to have a partial hysterectomy.’

Primo was looking at her blankly.

Faye forced herself to spell it out. ‘They took my uterus, Primo. I have no uterus. I cannot bear children.’

After a long moment he asked, ‘Why didn’t you tell me this?’

Faye sank down on the end of the bed. ‘Because I’ve never told anyone, really. Not even my father knows. I hardly knew you. I didn’t think it was any of your business.’ A little defensively, she said, ‘And I told you right from the start that I wouldn’t have children. So youknew.’

Primo was shaking his head. ‘No, you don’t get to pin this on me, Faye. You saidwouldn’t. There’s a big difference between that andcouldn’t. And do you know what that difference is? The belief that there’s a possibility that you’d change your mind.’

‘I didn’t think it would ever be an issue. I had no idea that our marriage would become something neither of us expected. I’m sorry, Primo. I should have told you the truth from the start.’

Even amidst the tension between them right now, Faye felt as if something heavy was lifting from her shoulders. The weight of her painful secret.

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