Page 108 of You, Me, and Forever

His head tipped back with a laugh. “Maybe you bend the ‘no contact’ rule, and just see if he’s having a hard time the way you are, you know?”

“No, I can’t open that door, because it’ll be too easy to fall back into that same pattern with him again. Sometimes rules are necessary, Ray. Hence the ‘no cheating’ rule.”

His hand landed on his chest, feigning like he’d just been shot there. “Touché. But I think you’re the kind of girl a guy would change his rules for.”

But he didn’t.

I took a sip of my water and thought over his words. “Thank you, Ray.”

As if she knew what I was thinking, Violet smiled at me. “Blue balls?”

“Yep. I need to go home.” I could feel all that emotion bubbling up.

Ray and Christopher were very understanding, and we said our goodbyes. And I walked home hand in hand with Violet as I let it all out.

I cried and sobbed and told her how much I’d been struggling.

And we sat up on the couch talking all night, and she just hugged me over and over and promised it would pass.

But a little part of me knew it never would.

Because Myles St. James had left town—and he’d taken my heart with him.

Chapter Twenty-EightMyles

“You look tired,” my mother said as she reached for her iced tea.

“I’ve just been putting in long hours at the office.”

“Well, thank you for taking time to meet with me, Myles. I know how busy you are, and I appreciate it.”

“Always. You know that.” I paused when the server set down our plates in front of us.

We’d met at my mother’s favorite French restaurant in the city. I remembered coming here with her when I was young, and we’d spend some one-on-one time together.

“So the divorce is going to be final soon. Your father wants to keep the house in the city, and I’ll live full time in the country.”

“That’s kind of how it’s been for a while anyway, right?” I asked, because their marriage had been broken for a very long time.

“Yes.” She cleared her throat before folding her hands where they rested on the table. “I’m sorry, Myles. I’m sorry that I didn’t do this sooner. I thought I was doing the right thing keeping our family together, but I was wrong.”

“You did the best you could, Mom. I don’t blame you.”

I didn’t blame her. She wasn’t the one who’d been off having affairs and babies with other people. She hadn’t forced me to keep a secret and threatened me about it for years.

“I should have done better. And that’s what I’m trying to do now. I know the damage it did to you, keeping your father’s secret for all those years. I know that you and Samuel are aware that Caleb is your father’s son. I don’t know, maybe I just thought that if we never discussed it, it wouldn’t be real. I’m in therapy now, and that’s really helped me to work through the choices I’ve made. It’s also helped me to make decisions for myself now.”

“I’m happy you’re prioritizing yourself, Mom. You always deserved better. So you know about Caleb?” I asked, because she’d always been nice to him, and she’d never said a word about it to me or Samuel.

“Yes. I confronted Wendy years ago. She admitted that Samuel was his son.” She shook her head. “And that’s why I allowed them to continue living on the property. I couldn’t very well put them out on the street. It wasn’t Caleb’s fault that they did what they did.”

“You’re a much bigger person than I am, Mom. I hope you at least called him out.”

“Yes. That’s when I took you and Samuel on that surprise vacation to the Amalfi Coast. But your father told me that if I left him, he’d make all of our lives difficult. He said it was a onetime thing, but I knew differently. And I just pulled away from him over the years, until I realized that we had more of a business relationship. I can’t even call it a friendship. We don’t like one another, or at least I don’t like him all that much. I wasted so much time, Myles.” A sad laugh escaped her mouth.

I’d always wanted to know why she stayed, and since we were being honest with one another, it seemed like an okay time to ask.

“Why would you stay for all those years, knowing he was having a full-blown affair with a woman who worked for you? A woman you considered a friend?”

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