Page 265 of The Winslow Brothers

“Well, this is certainly some news,” Gwen mutters.

“You should’ve told me, Daisy,” Damien states, and his lips turn down at the corners. “I could’ve helped you. I mean, I’m sure there was another work-around for an expired visa that didn’t include marrying a stranger.”

I grimace through more tears.

But even if you could go back in time, you still wouldn’t change any of it.

The realization hits me straight in the chest, and I have to swallow back another onslaught of tears. Though, it only half works. I’m still crying, just not sobbing like my hiccuping lungs and shaky throat would prefer.

“Damn, doll, when you go, you go all the way, don’t you?” Damien questions rhetorically. “So…you married Flynn, but now, you’re not with Flynn? Did I get that right?”

I nod and rub an irritated hand down my face. “Tonight, at Flynn’s brother Jude’s rehearsal dinner, I lost it. I stormed out and we had a big fight in the street, and I told him I couldn’t do it anymore.”

And then you booked a hotel room, found out you’re pregnant, and took twenty tests just to verify.

Internally, I cringe. And I decide right then and there that even though I’m done with the lies, I can’t tell them the full truth. I can’t tell them I’m pregnant before Flynn knows I’m pregnant.

That would feel completely wrong.

“Why did you do that?” Gwen asks in her always-comforting tone.

I shrug. Sniffle. “I don’t know what came over me. But I guess the guilt of what we were doing, and the lies we’ve been telling everyone, reached a breaking point I couldn’t handle. I just couldn’t keep living the lie. I couldn’t keep acting like we were this happy couple in front of his family when, deep down, I knew it would all come to a crashing end soon.”

Are you sure that’s the only reason?

I’m sure.

“I’m sure that’s why I left,” I say out loud, but it doesn’t make me believe it more. If anything, saying the words only makes it painfully clear that there are two sides to this story of mine.

And it doesn’t do anything to convince Damien and Gwen.

“Doll, no offense, but even though I’m still trying to catch up with the fact that you went through with a shotgun wedding because your work visa expired instead of just telling me, you don’t seem all that sure right now. You seem like a fucking mess, and I have a feeling that’s why you called Gwen and me. Because you’re the opposite of sure.”

He’s right. I know he’s right. The guilt and shame in our lies only make up half of the truth. Probably way less than half, if I’m being honest with myself.

“I love him,” I blurt out, and finally, the words match what’s inside my heart. “I’m in love with Flynn. We may’ve gotten married on a green-card whim, but I’ve fallen in love with him and I…wish our marriage was real. I wish it wasn’t going to come to an end. And his family? Well, I love them too. They’re the family I always wished I’d had when I was a little girl in foster care. I feel like I belong with them. Like I can be myself with them.”

Gwen’s eyes turn soft, and she lifts one hand to wipe below her eyes. “Aw, darling. I’m so sorry.”

“Damn, doll.” Damien sniffles. “Why in the hell did you walk away from him, then?”

“I don’t know,” I cry and swipe at my face. “Because Flynn isn’t a relationship or marriage kind of guy. Because we made it clearfrom the beginning that this was a no-strings-attached kind of thing.”

“But he married you.”

“Yeah, but it was a fake marriage.”

“A fake marriage that involved you moving in with him, spending time with his family, and being all up in his personal space.”

I stare at him through my tears.

“Doll, are you sure he doesn’t feel the same way? I mean, fake marriage or not, he sure seems like he was committed to you.”

“He’s just a loyal kind of guy, Dame. I promise you, this isn’t a romance movie where the girl and guy end up together in the end.”

Gwen lets out a soft sigh. “Darling, you can’t be sure about that until you actually tell him how you feel. Which, it sounds like, is the one thing you haven’t done. The man I talked to on the phone talked about you like hesawyou, Daisy. The real you. Why do you think I got over the whole thing so quickly?” She snorts. “It wasn’t because of his six-pack abs and handsome smile, I can tell you that.”

It…it wasn’t? I just assumed Gwen understood because she has a thing for man candy herself. I never considered that she saw something more.

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