Page 196 of Reverse

“Easton, you know full well my future rests at the paper and in my relationship with my father. I thought you might be happy about the fact we’re talking, just a little, for my sake.”

“You altered your future when you took my ring and my fucking last name.”

“I know that. You think I don’t know that? Easton, I’m fucking exhausted. My life has been a literal circus since we’ve been apart because I’m trying so hard to get back to you. You might not see it, but that’s what I’m doing.”

“You’re exhausted because you’re living two lives. But while you’re fixing your place with him, we’re breaking. You’re breaking me. Come to me, right now.”

“I can’t.”

Another long damning silence.

“Then I know my place.Nowhere.”

“That’s not true. You promised me I wouldn’t have to—”

“Don’t act like it’smewho’s made it otherwise,” he retorts unforgivingly.

“It is right now,” I say. “I just told you. He’s coming around.”

“Foryou, Natalie, notme.”

“I know you’re upset, but it can’t be tonight. This night is monumental for him.”

“For him. For him.For him. Where is my fucking wife in all this?”

“I’m here, Easton.”

“Exactly. You’rethereand playing right into his agenda and letting him win.”

“This isn’t a competition.”

“Tell that to your fucking father!”

The price for my parents’ momentary peace fumes on the end of the line, his patience gone, an ultimatum currently taking its place. The longer the silence lingers, the harsher the exhales sound between us. “I don’t want to fight.”

“That’s the fucking problem,” he scoffs. “I’m in this alone.”

“That’s not true. We agreed to give it some time. We’ve done this before.”

“Circumstances are a little fucking different now, don’t you think?”

“Of course. You think I haven’t agonized every second we’ve been apart?”

“Yet I’m sitting here forty-four fucking days later, a wifeless man.Actions,Natalie, get on the plane.”

“I can’t. Tonight, I can’t. I’ll come to you—”

“This is a joke,” he declares. “We’ve become the joke the media is fucking making us out to be. A shotgun wedding, yet no marriage to speak of. Very rock and roll and so fucking cliché. I can’t keep defending what doesn’t exist!”

“Since when do you give a shit about what the media says or even read headlines?” I retort, my heartbeat pounding in my ears.

“Since I was forced to see my wife being comforted by another man!”

“You’re not fighting fair. Maybe I didn’t explain the importance of tonight, but it’s the—”

“You were saying goodbye to me at the villa, weren’t you?” He rasps out.

“No, Easton, God, no—”

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