Page 196 of Strange Seduction
“Yes, I do. You’re hurting, Theodore.”
“I’m not.”
“Okay.”
“I’m fine. Perfectly fucking fine!” I spat out, the anger rising. “I don’t need you messing with my head. I have everything I need. I don’t need you or anyone. All I need is Carmen—and you disrespected her, so no. I don’t need a relationship with you. I just need her.”
Her voice lowered, weary. “You’ve made that girl into a damn trophy. What are you going to do if she leaves?”
I snapped. “Did Dad put you up to this? She’s not going anywhere. We’re getting married—whether you two like it or not.”
“Theodore…”
“No! Shut the fuck up. She’s not leaving me.”
A silence stretched between us.
“Well,” she said finally, softer, “if you’re this serious about it, you two should come over for Thanksgiving. I’m hosting this year. And I’d like the chance to apologize to you both in person.”
“What?”
“I want to apologize.”
“Why?”
“I want a chance to make it up to you. Please consider it.”
I hung up on Melissa’s bullshit and looked down at the ring in my hand. The one I spent three weeks designing. The one engraved with the date I first laid eyes on her back in Eden—when I knew, before she even spoke, that I was already in too deep.
And now she didn’t even want to wear it.
I let out a sharp laugh, bitter and hollow. I wanted to break something. I wanted to burn down the house. Instead, I walked to the bar cart and poured myself another drink.
I didn’t even taste it.
She was up there crying. And I was down here unraveling.
The silence in the house gnawed at me like rats in the walls. It wasn’t quiet anymore. The echoes of her voice still clung to the stone walls. Her accusations and my justifications ran through the halls.
It didn’t matter who was right. The truth was—we’d both lost.
?????
I sat in the dark long after the fire died, fingers curled around a glass of whiskey I couldn’t remember pouring. I hadn’t slept. I couldn’t. Every time I closed my eyes, all I saw was the look on her face when she gave me the ring back.
That damn ring.
I stared at it in my palm now, like it didn’t belong to me. I dropped the ring on the counter with a hard clink. I couldn’t hold it anymore. I couldn’t look at it.
I ran a hand through my hair and let out a breath I’d been holding since the moment I saw her walking away from me upstairs.
I’d built this entire place with her in mind, down to the smallest detail. And now it felt like a mausoleum for everything I’d hoped for.
She was never supposed to leave.
But maybe… maybe she had to.
I stood and grabbed my phone. I opened the app and arranged a car to take her back to the hotel by noon. I didn’t want her wandering these halls alone. Not after the way things ended. She deserved better than that—better than me.
