Page 105 of The Rancher Married the Wrong Sister
But I don’t care.
I plunge into the maelstrom, my bare feet slipping and sliding in the churning mud that sucks at my ankles with every desperate step. The storm swallows my sobs, my labored breathing, the sound of my heart breaking over and over again. Water streams down my face, rain mixing with tears until I can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.
I don’t even know where I’m going, all I know is that I have to get away from him—
Nooo!
But once again, he catches up to me, and a sob tears out of my throat as his hands lock around my waist. Throughthe driving rain, I can see ranch hands emerging from barns and outbuildings, drawn by the spectacle. Staff members press against windows of the main house, their faces pale against the glass. Everyone watching as their boss pursues his fleeing wife through the storm like something out of a gothic novel.
He manages to spin me around despite my struggles, cupping my face, forcing me to meet his gaze past the tears and the rain that plasters his dark hair to his forehead.
“Don’t leave me, please.”
And then he does something that I never thought he’d do.
“Please, Wednesday, I’m begging you.”
This proud, proud man before me...actually crashes down to his knees in the mud like he doesn’t care about all the rain and all the people watching us. The impact sends up a splash of muddy water, staining his jeans, his white shirt now transparent and clinging to his chest. He looks nothing like the powerful and ruthless billionaire rancher he’s always been...and everything like a man who’s lost everything that matters.
“S-Stop this!”
But it’s as if he doesn’t hear me.
“I love you,” he says raggedly, having to raise his voice over the wind. “I’m sorry it took me so long to realize how I feel about you. And I know I don’t deserve a second chance—”
Oh, how I wish I was the type of person to be vindictive, just so I could sayNO.
No, you don’t!
You absolutely don’t after how much you’ve hurt me again and again.
“But I’m asking for it anyway because I’m your husband, and you’re my wife, and I know now...that means something to both of us. So please...”
I want to cover my ears so I’d stop hearing his words.
I want to tell him that he’s asking for the impossible.
Or if he really wants me back then first I want him to earn my forgiveness and make him pay.
Oh, there are so many things I want to do to him and against him, with my mind still reeling from the poisonous words that Jessica threw my way—
You married her to lure me back. You thought I’d come back to save her. You used the prenup as bait.
And my heart still broken because all of them, dear God...
All of them were true.
He never wanted me!
He never wanted to marry me!
Because he’s always wanted Jessica, not me.
“Please, Wednesday. I’m begging you. Please let me love you.”
But as my lips part to refuse him, I remember...
Philippians 4:13.
