Page 30 of Unconditionally With Me
Elle doesn’t respond, just makes her way to the table. I follow her lead and hold my silence, but I do pull her chair back and wait for her to take a seat. I sit to her right, Pritchley down at the other end, Erik next to him. Once everyone has taken their places, I feel Elle nudge my foot. She taps her pen against the pad placed in front of her. I glance at it, and my heart swells.
Three simple words, but they tell me in the end everything is going to be all right.
I love you.
I rest my hand on top of hers to give her the strength she needs before waiting to see what her blowhard ex has to say.
Fortunately, he doesn’t make us wait long. But I don’t think there’s any way—even if we knew he was coming—we could have prepared for what he was going to say.
“I, we, that is—me and Will—are so sorry. For everything, Elle. For what we put you and Trina through. For what we tried to do. For the people we turned into.”
But instead of reacting the way Erik likely expected her to, my Elle growls, “What do you want? Why this sudden epiphany?”
I feel a surge of pride at the way she’s standing up for both herself and Trina, something I wonder if she’d have done before the time we had away and she had a chance to reconnect with the inner core of who she is. And I wait because there’s nothing I can do but support her. This is her Waterloo.
“It wasn’t sudden.” Erik’s voice takes on a note of frustration.
Elle snorts. “Forgive me if I don’t bring out the violin to play for you. While you and your husband were enjoying new parenthood, I was helping to raise his children on literal pennies due to the legal battleyouinstigated, Erik. You wanted a family, and damn you, you didn’t care what that did to Trina. She paid for that emotionally, monetarily, hell, even physically when she had to give up her home and move to the city. Her children paid for that. But it’s the emotional wounds that took years to close. And you think an apology can fix that?”
Both Elle and Jonas told me that Trina’s ex was a piece of shit. Hell, Elle even explained some of the custody battle, but she never explained how her ex was involved. Likely due to her misplaced guilt, I surmise. But the man who started it all is mere steps away. Wrapping my fingers around his neck is becoming more and more appealing. My hand clenches down on Elle’s.
She drags both of them on top of the notepad, reminding me of the words she wrote earlier.I love you. I catch sight of her left hand without my ring on it, and I know that by the end of today, I don’t care if she refuses to marry me. I just need to know she’ll be mine for the rest of our lives—together, unconditionally.
Erik’s voice trembles. “Iknow.” And it’s the way he emphasizes the word that sends off pulsating waves that break through Elle’s righteous fury.
She pushes to her feet, her hand sliding from beneath mine, and she leans toward him. “What do you mean?”
With barely a glance at a pinched-faced Pritchley, Erik’s head bows. “After Aunt Rachel passed, I wanted to make certain you both were fine.”
“Erik!” Elle snaps. I have to turn away to hide a grin because I can only imagine a relationship between these two. She must have steamrolled him. Some of what I was thinking must have been on my face, because Elle’s head whips around, and she blasts me with her eyes that are so furious, they’re closer to plum than violet. Her face softens momentarily, but not for long as Erik mumbles something. Now danger fills the cracks as she whips back to him. “Would you care to repeat that?” Her voice is lethally soft.
“I paid a private investigator to look into you and Trina from the time we broke up.”
“You’re an ass!” she shouts.
“Iknow!” he yells back as he surges to his feet.
Elle jerks backward, prompting me to get to my own feet to steady her. I glare at the other man, warning him without words I will do anything to protect this woman. And this is his only warning.
He regains control. “I know, Elle. What I read, what that investigator told me, what I knew in my heart, which is why I hired the investigator ,sickenedme. I remember what you were like even before we were together. You glowed. A million people smiled at you just because you entered a room. Hell, I was one of them. I wanted to be with you because you brought that spark of light to a world that was so damned dark.”
Like she was this week. When my mother died, someone took her from us. I never confronted the individual because I was too young. Now, standing before this man who essentially stole years from Elle, tides of rage crash over me. Here stands a man who took away a woman’s soul as surely as if he killed her.
And he wants to make excuses. Eternity might not be enough time for him to explain.
“And what did it show you, Erik?” Elle wrenches out of my arms and storms around the table. “Did your investigator tell you about how we work for one of the most popular restaurants in the city? Did they tell you about how, despite the ridiculous cost of living in the city, Trina managed to raise those babies? Fall in love? How I did? I hope that cuts you like a goddamn knife to knowwe did it.” She’s out of breath.
“No, it doesn’t hurt like that, Elle. It hurt because I imagined my daughter, the child of Will and my sister’s blood, coming up against a bastard like me and having to alter the course of her life because of it. And I felt such shame, I couldn’t touch my baby girl. And that’s before I handed the file to Will. Now, I’m not going to lie and say we weren’t overjoyed at the idea of being able to give Willa everything. But how can we live with ourselves? Raise our beautiful little girl to do right, to be a good human? Tell me that, Elle? How do I look at the baby I wanted so badly I almost stole Trina’s and tell her to be a good human when I’m not one myself?” He sits and buries his face in his hands, silent sobs shaking his shoulders.
Elle grabs hold of the table to steady herself. Then she turns and she whispers, “Jules?”
Just my name. But in this moment it means everything. It cuts through every lost moment and binds our souls together enduringly.
And without hesitating, I say, “You moved past this. You finally foundyouagain, Elle. Don’t reclaim this burden, babe. As for Trina, well, she has to decide on her own, but Jonas will be there.”
She nods. Still she takes a moment before speaking. She could take forever and I’d say the bastard in front of her deserves it. As for me, I sink back into my chair, knowing she has this.
When she finally does speak, it’s a good thing I do. Because her words knock me off my feet.
