Page 73 of Mistletoe Missus
Mitt whispered hoarsely, “I don’t love you.”
“I don’t believe you,” I answered with certainty.
Mitt grunted. He swallowed hard and cracked his neck, followed by him grinding his teeth together. I had put him on edge, but I was good at that. I wasn’t about to back down when I knew the truth. Mitt Morgan loved me, he’d do anything for me.
Right?
“This is what you wanted, angel. Here’s your chance to be free,” Mitt said as he clicked a pen and held it out for me. “Youmean nothing to me, and you never will, especially when you refuse to listen. I don’t need you. Sign the damn papers.”
Wrong.
Tears burned my eyes, and I whispered with hurt, “What happened?”
“Nothing,” he huffed as he stood up and turned his back to me.
“Did your father say something to you? Did he—”
“No,” Mitt snapped.
“Then tell me what happened,” I pleaded with Mitt as I pushed the bed sheets away and carefully swung my bare feet to the cool floor. “We made love, and you changed back into the man I always knew was inside of you. You even wanted...”
A baby.
The words left me because the thought of a child was so far away. We were right back where we started, and the idea of a family was disappearing into thin air. Our future together hung by a loose thread while Mitt threatened to cut it with scissors. Snip everything away. Only he couldn’t because a baby could be growing in my womb right at this second.
“There won’t be a child,” Mitt hissed as he turned around to face me with dark, hooded, unreadable eyes.
I reached out, took his hand and guided his palm to lie flat on my abdomen. “But we might already be expecting.”
Mitt’s eyes shot down toward my belly as his hand moved on its own, and he rubbed the tender spot. He was careful, gentle, and sweet. His body language had completely changed and for a moment in time, I thought everything would be okay, but he tore his hand away. I gasped from the shock of his mean disregard and how he acted as if he couldn’t stand touching me. Except this wasn’t an act. The man I loved was vanishing before my eyes.
“If you’re expecting a child, I’ll pay to supportit.” Mitt glared at me, and I winced at the wordit. “But nothing more. I want nothing to do with the pregnancy because I don’t want you. It was just sex, Tinsley, and I’d do anything to get in your pants, but you were fucking willing, Wife.”
I slapped him.
The force of my hand caused Mitt’s face to be thrown to the side, and my lower lip trembled. He huffed as he slowly turned to stare me right in the face and all my heart did was ache for the man I knew was gone. Mitt had degraded me again. Used me in the worst way possible and I had let him. Disrespected, embarrassed, and heartbroken, I wanted him to experience the pain searing through me. I wanted him to hurt as badly as I was.
“Fuck you, Mitt Morgan. You’re nothing but a cold, calculated, and ruthless asshole. No better than your abusive father,” I hissed with disgust.
A moment of silence.
“I’m glad we can agree,” Mitt said as he turned his back to me and glanced over his shoulder. “Sign the divorce papers, Tinsley. You got your freedom.”
Mitt left me. He took off without turning back and sobs of loss broke out through me as I shook with anguish. I couldn’t stop the convulsions because the grief of the love I had lost was still there. I loved my husband, and I didn’t want this to end. He was my everything, but I meant nothing to him. I never had, and the sooner I came to grips with the fact he was never mine to begin with, the better.
I grabbed the pen from the bed with a shaky hand and tried to read over the fine print, but tears kept getting in my way. My vision was blurry as wetness streamed down my face and onto the paperwork Mitt wanted me to fill out. Everything was wrong, nothing was right. Yesterday was a far step away, and I’d love to relive those moments for the rest of my life. Evenif those memories were all fake, I’d be with him all over again. Hopelessly in love, a feeling I could get used to instead of this gut-wrenching pain.
“Tinsley?”
It was Holly. She was standing in the room with wrinkles of concern across her forehead, and my heart hurt. Everything ached from barely escaping with my life and Mitt turning back into the asshole he had always been.
“Mitt wants a divorce, Holly,” I whispered through trembling lips. “I got my damn wish, and now all I want is my husband.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Holly said, as she rushed toward me with open arms.
I threw the paperwork down onto the bed, dropping the pen, and I let Holly rock me in her embrace. She held me tight as I wept and snot dribbled from my nose. I was a goddamn mess, but she wouldn’t turn me away. Holly was the one true person I had on this awful planet, and I didn’t know what I’d do without her.
“He used me, Holly. He let me believe we had a future. He told me he wanted a...” my voice trailed off. I pulled back and peered down at my belly.
