Page 24 of If You Could Only Feel
There was only one way I was going to be able to shut this down. Shut him down. And that was with the truth. “Do you love me, Gabriel?” I said, finally asking the one thing I’ve always been scared to know the answer to. “Are you in love with me like I’m in love with you?”
The pressure on my neck constricted and Gabriel said the one thing I always knew, deep inside, would be the truth. “No, Justice,” he replied. “I’m not in love with you the way you’re in love with me.”
I always pictured this moment acting out in a million different ways, but I never imagined it’d be acted out so coldly. I always thought there’d be tears, yelling, destroyed furniture, begging, pleading…but never coldness.
But that’s what I felt. Cold. Cold all over.
However, the one thing Gabriel didn’t realize was that during all these years together, I studied him. I knew I couldn’t go up against him in a toe to toe fashion. He’s a Buchanan. He’d crush me. So, I’d let him win this battle, but I was definitely going to win the war.
Chapter 14
Gabriel~
“Shouldn’t you be on your honeymoon or somewhere?”
I looked up from the pile of reports on my desk as Michael waltzed in without knocking. “You would think,” I muttered before returning my attention back to the paperwork on my desk.
“Trouble in paradise already?” he asked. “I was sure a ring and declaration of love would smooth Justice’s justifiably ruffled feathers.”
I leaned back in my chair and ignored all the work I had to do when it was obvious that Michael wasn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. “Well, it didn’t,” I grimaced. “She wants a divorce.”
Michael visibly winced at that as he sat down on one of the chairs sitting directly across from my desk. “Seriously?” I nodded. “But…come on, Gabe. She has to know that you’d never let her leave you.”
You would think.“She thinks the only reason I married her was because I was drunk and feeling like a territorial kid who was told he had to share his toys.”
Michael let out a low whistle. “Ouch.”
“It felt a little more painful than a mere ‘ouch’ let me assure you,” I snipped at him.
Michael pulled out his phone and danced his fingers across the screen. His phone had been chiming, so I figured he was returning a text or responding to an email.
He stuffed his phone back in his pocket and graced me with his attention again. “So, I take it the shindig is off?”
I shook my head. “She said she didn’t see the point in meeting everyone when we’d be headed for divorce by the end of the week.”
Michael’s brows shot up. “Jesus, Gabe,” he breathed out. “How badly did you treat her?”
Michael’s words brought on an unsuspecting pang in my chest. “I didn’t treat her badly,” I snapped. “I just…”Fuck.“I just…didn’t treat her like she deserved to be treated.”
“Uh, isn’t that the same thing?”
“No,” I argued, not really convinced. “It was more…neglect, I suppose, than treating herbadly.”
Before Michael could comment, the door to my office opened, and Mason and Aiden came filing in. I guess I now know what Mike was doing on his phone earlier.
Aiden sat down in the chair next to Michael’s while Mason pulled a chair from the mini conference table and placed it next to Michael. “Problems?” he asked.
I sat up and threw my entire upper body down on my desk. Dramatic? Sure. Warranted? Definitely.
“I’m going to take that as a ‘yes’,” Aiden said, dryly.
I turned my head, still resting on my desk, and looking over at Mason, ignored Aiden. “I fucked up, Mase.”
His lips curled inward, and he just gave me a solemn nod. “Figured when Michael texted us saying you fucked up.”
I sat up and regarded my brothers. I knew they couldn’t help me if they didn’t know everything. So, I confessed my sins since the day I met Justice up until last night’s fuck up. There was a heartbeat of silence before they finally spoke up.
“You’re a goddamn idiot,” Michael grimaced.
