Page 232 of Tormented Billionaire Romance Series

I can’t do this.

I couldn’t live my life with this uncertainty, this extra huge burden.

This wouldn’t be the end of it, either. As long as I was with Carter, I had to be prepared for the fact that this would keep happening, probably for a long time.

My hands shaking, I picked up my phone again and turned it on. I went to the messages between Carter and myself. And I typed, letting the words come, telling myself it was for the best.

“I’ve loved the time we’ve spent together, but as soon as my house sells, I think I’m going to head out of the area. I’m so sorry. This whole ordeal just isn’t what I expected. I don’t want to be the real-life Cinderella. I don’t want you to be the billionaire who has to rescue me. I think it might be over.”

I sent the text as soon as I finished, not giving myself a chance to reconsider and back out. What I felt for him was so strong and so pure, but maybe this was just another dream of mine that wasn’t meant to come true.

Carter didn’t respond. I was okay with that, for the moment. It was better not to hear from him.

Maybe I wouldn’t ever hear from him again.

I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered, trembling, my shoulders starting to shake.

What, are you just going to sit and spend the whole day crying? Is that the kind of person you need to be right now?

I sniffled and rubbed my face on my folded arms, trying to catch my breath. Sitting around like this wasn’t going to get me anywhere, I knew. It was time to get off my ass and start accomplishing things.

You have the whole damn day. Use it,I told myself.

I got up and wiped the rest of the tears from my face. I should use this chance to finish tidying up and finally get everything put back where it belonged. The sooner I did that, the sooner I could contact real estate agents to get a value put on the house.

This whole debacle might be my chance to start over fresh. I could go off on my own and make something for myself, start making new memories in a place that hadn’t been tossed over to me like an unwanted hand-me-down. It wouldn’t be easy, but nothing in my life had ever been, so I was used to that.

I left the living room and went into the dining room. I started at one end and moved off to the other, straightening and tidying as I went. I spot-cleaned here and there, getting patches of dust and crumbs I’d missed during the larger overhaul.

The work helped distract me. I forced myself to stop thinking and keepdoing,and before I knew it, hours had passed and the sun was sinking.

And still, Carter hadn’t responded to my text.

CHAPTER27

CARTER

Iknew life wasn’t fair. I had made it my mission to help change that for as many people as possible, and maybe I had done some good here and there, but the efforts of one man could do nothing to turn the tide of fate. And so life continued to be unfair, and I accepted it, worked within the parameters given me.

But this?

This was beyond unfair.

This was a personal kick in the balls straight from the forces of fate.

Megyn’s text.

I was ruined.

Our relationship was ruined.

She didn’t seem to blame me for it, but that was like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. It did nothing to stop the pain. I could feel all our happy memories bleeding out of me, flowing, a spreading puddle of precious moments I could never get back.

Brian was leaving me alone now, taking over my responsibilities for the day. I hadn’t asked him to, but no one came to bother me when I didn’t answer my calls or show up for my meetings. He naturally migrated to fill in the empty space caused by my absence. I would have to thank him for that eventually, when I had the strength to get up out of my chair.

When I had the strength to look away from my phone.

The battery had died half an hour ago, but I hadn’t moved to charge it. I just kept sitting there, staring down at the screen, feeling my heart throbbing in my chest, feeling the warmth drain from my body. I was little more than a living corpse, the stiff resemblance of a man.

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