Page 16 of The Anniversary Betrayal
Kingston’s hands clenched. He forced himself to meet her eyes. “You were always enough. More than enough. You are my home, Ashley. The biggest mistake of my life was ever making you think otherwise. This wasn’t about you. It was about me. My weakness. My stupidity.”
“Don’t,” Ashley snapped, her eyes burning. “Don’t make this about weakness. You made a choice, Kingston. Every time you stayed late, every time you answered her call, every time you walked back into our bed after being with her, that was a choice. Yours. You didn’t just make a mistake. You chose her. You chose to leave me waiting at home while you—” her voice broke “while you were with her. That wasn’t a moment of weakness, Kingston. That was a choice. Over and over again.”
The truth of it shattered him. He leaned back, his chest heaving. “I know and I hate myself for it. I don’t expect you to forgive me. I just…” His voice broke. “I don’t know how to live without you. Every second since that night, I’ve hated myself.I can’t eat, can’t sleep because I see your face. I feel your hurt. I feel the weight of what I’ve destroyed. I ruined us, and I don’t know if I’ll ever deserve forgiveness.”
Ashley looked away, staring out the window at strangers passing by, their lives untouched by this storm. “You should have thought about that before you climbed into her bed.”
Kingston’s voice dropped, raw and pleading. “I’ve learned, Ashley. Losing you, having you look at me like this, it’s worse than any punishment I could imagine. I swear, there is nothing in this world that could tempt me again. You are the only one I want, the only one I will ever want. Please… let me prove it.”
She shook her head, torn between rage and grief. “You don’t get to just say that and expect me to believe it. Words are easy, Kingston but when I needed you to remember our vows, when I needed you to remember us, you didn’t.”
The café around them seemed to fade, the quiet hum of conversation, the clink of cups until it was just the two of them, raw and bleeding.
Ashley’s voice softened, though her pain was no less sharp. “I loved you, Kingston. I trusted you. Do you understand what you’ve done? You didn’t just cheat on me. You broke the family we built. You broke me.”
Tears welled in his eyes, his shoulders sagging. “I know and I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make it right. If you’ll let me. If there’s even the smallest chance…”
Ashley shook her head slowly. “I don’t know if there’s anything left to fix.”
The words hit him like a blade. He looked at her and realized the depth of what he’d lost. The light in her eyes, the warmth of her laugh, the quiet comfort of her love that hemight never feel them again. For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Finally, Ashley pushed her tea aside and leaned forward, her voice trembling but steady. “The kids come first. Whatever happens between us, they come first. They deserve to feel safe. They deserve to feel loved.”
Kingston nodded quickly, his voice hoarse. “Of course. Always.”
Ashley took a breath, her chest aching. “As for us… I don’t know. I can’t promise you anything right now. All I know is I can’t keep bleeding for your mistakes.”
He reached across the table, his hand hovering, but she pulled hers back before he could touch her.
“Don’t,” she whispered. “Not yet. Maybe not ever.”
The rejection burned, but Kingston nodded, his throat tight. “I’ll wait. For as long as it takes.”
Ashley gave a bitter laugh. “You don’t get to decide that anymore.”
Her phone buzzed. A reminder of the kids’ pickup. She stood, gathering her bag. “I have to go.”
Kingston rose too, desperation in his eyes. “Ashley, please just tell me there’s a chance.”
She looked at him for a long moment, her heart torn between the love that still lingered and the betrayal that poisoned it.
Finally, she said, “There’s a chance for you to be a good father. That’s all I can give you right now. I don’t know what this is yet, Kingston but it’s not the beginning of us again. Not now. I need time and you need to live with what you’ve done.”
And with that, she walked out, leaving him standing in the café, his world collapsing around him. Kingston sat back down, his chest hollow. For the first time in his life, he realized he wasn’t in control. He couldn’t fix this with flowers, with promises, with time. This was deeper. This was about her heart, and whether he’d broken it beyond repair. He lowered his head into his hands, whispering to himself, “Please, don’t let me lose her.” But for now, all he had was the silence she left behind.
Ashley drove home in silence, her fingers gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles blanched. The café blurred behind her in the rearview mirror, but Kingston’s broken face stayed etched in her mind. The confrontation hadn’t brought the closure she wanted. It hadn’t even brought the release she thought she’d feel after finally laying her pain bare. Instead, it left her torn between the man she had loved for years and the betrayal that now defined him.
She walked into her house, her house now, and stood in the living room. The quiet pressed down on her, the absence of his laughter, his shoes by the door, his arm draped around her shoulders at the end of a long day. Tears slipped down her cheeks, and this time, she didn’t try to stop them. She let herself sink into the ache. “Why, Kingston?” she whispered into the empty room. “Why wasn’t I enough?”
Her phone buzzed with another message from him, unread, joining the dozens she’d ignored. She stared at the screen for a long moment before setting it face down. She needed air. She needed strength. She needed time. For now, she had Leah, Carl, and Susan to lean on. She had herself and as much as her heart still longed for him in some small, foolish corner, she knew she couldn’t rush into forgiving him.
She curled onto the couch, pulling a blanket over her. The tears kept coming, but beneath them was something steadier—resolve. She had survived worse storms before. She would survive this one too but she didn’t know if their marriage would.
Chapter Fourteen
Kingston hadn’t left his apartment in two days. His scrubs hung wrinkled on a chair, dishes piled in the sink, and his phone, his lifeline to Ashley sat heavy in his hand. Every few hours, he typed something, stared at it, then deleted it. Nothing sounded right. Nothing felt enough. By the third day, his phone buzzed not with Ashley, but with Rebecca.
You can’t hide forever. Want company?
