Page 110 of Ramsey & Emerson

I could feel the blood in my veins turn cold.

I could feel a dangerous calm settle across my chest as I stared at my wife.

I could feel myself going slightly insane.

“Would you like to repeat that?” I finally asked.

Instead of answering me, she said, “This is all your fault, Ramsey. If you trusted me, none of this would have ever happened.”

“I do trust you-”

“Quit lying!” she yelled.

“I’m not!” I yelled back. “I know that you’d never cheat on me!”

She shook her head again. “That’s not what I’m talking about,” she said angrily. “If you trusted what I feel for you, then you would have seen Adrian as inconsequential as I do. Instead, you’ve ruined everything. I no longer have a happy marriage, my forgiveness isn’t good enough, and now I might lose my job, and for what? All because you don’t think that you deserve to be happy? Because you think you don’t deserve my love?”

“Emerson-”

“What the hell am I supposed to do with that?” she went on, cutting me off. “You don’t think that you deserve my love, but at the same time, you won’t allow me to love someone else.” I stepped to her at those words. “What the fuck do you want from me, Reed?”

“The truth?”

“That’d be nice,” she snapped.

“I want to be the only one, Emerson,” I told her truthfully.

Her head reared back in shock. “What? What are you talking about?”

“You asked me what I wanted,” I reiterated. “I want to be the only one, Emerson. I want to be the only one, and when I say that, I mean that I want to be theonlyperson in your life.” I didn’t care that I sounded unhinged or how wide her eyes grew with my honesty; it was the truth. “I want you to give up everything in your life, so that it’s just you and me. As much as I love every single member of our family, and as much as they mean to me, my idea of a perfect life is just me and you. It’s me and you on some private island somewhere, and our life is one where I’m with you every fucking second of the day.That’swhat I want from you. Now, am I going to get it? No. I know that. I know that’s not how the world works. Still, when I’m willing to forsake myown fucking children just so that I can spent every second of my life in your company only, then what in the fuck do you think another man coming after you is doing to me?”

“Ramsey-”

“When you tell me that you love me, it’s by the definition of the word,” I continued, on a roll. “When I tell you that I love you, it’s something much more, Emerson. I amobsessedwith you. I’ve always been fucking obsessed with you, and it’s just gotten worse over the years. You’re this miracle that just keeps on giving, and I can barely breathe when I’m not with you.” I let out a deep breath as her eyes began to shine with unshed tears. “You like to say that we have this unhealthy co-dependency in our marriage, but it’s way more than that for me, baby. What I feel for you burns inside my chest like the fire of a thousand suns, and it’s the most exquisite fucking thing that I have ever felt in all my life. For me, you’re the moment that God presented Eve to Adam, and that’s why I behave the way that I do when it comes to you.”

A couple of tears escaped, but Emerson was nothing if not stronger than the both of us. “How can you even live like that, Ramsey? That’s so much more unhealthier than I ever imagined.”

“It’s the only way I want to live, baby,” I told her honestly.

Emerson let out a troublesome sigh before she turned, then walked out of the conference room, and I let her.

Chapter 24

Emerson~

Iwas sitting in the living room, thinking about all that Ramsey had said earlier, the television on for the sake of background noise only. I’d always known that Ramsey had an unhealthy fixation on me, but I hadn’t ever imagined that his level of madness had grown that much. This was no longer about love, and I could see that now. While I loved Ramsey with every part of my soul, Ramsey had turned me into the reason that he lives, and I didn’t even want to think about what he’d do if anything ever happened to me.

It was also a lot of responsibility to bear. Though Ramsey hadn’t asked me to bear the burden of his feelings for me, it was kind of hard not to. All these years later, it never occurred to me that Ramsey mightreally actuallybe scared of losing me, but he was.

“Mom?”

I snapped out of my thoughts as I heard the front door shut, Maddox’s voice echoing through the empty rooms of the house. Now, normally, the kids always texted or called before just stopping by, but since both Maddox and Ram worked at RMM, they probably knew that Ramsey was still at work, so it was ‘safe’ to stop by unexpectedly.

“I’m in here,” I called out, and five seconds later, both my sons were making their way into the living room. “Shouldn’t you two be at work?”

They both took turns leaning down to kiss me on my cheek before Maddox took a seat next to me, Ram making himself comfortable sitting on top of the coffee table. While it was on the tip of my tongue to point out the cost of the furniture, I decided against it. I was never going to get used to our wealth, but that was my problem, not theirs.

“You need to quit fighting with Dad,” Maddox announced.

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