Page 105 of The Accidental Wife

Shayla

Engagement?Oh, my God. He’s engaged to…her.

While I stood there, frozen, looking into the apologetic eyes of the man I love, something inside of me died. I wanted to hit the floor. My knees threateningly shook as if they were about to give away on me. My vision blurs as I stare into his eyes before I shake my head and hurry down the steps of the plane and run away as fast as I could. How many times am I going to keep letting him hurt me before I finally give up?

“Shayla?!” I hear him shouting my name from behind me, but I ignore him and keep running till I feel his hand wrap around my wrist, and he pulls me back against his chest. “Shay, please, let me explain.” He pants, pushing his forehead to the back of my head. I pull away, jerking my hand out of his hold as if his touch burned me before I turn to face him.

“Explain what? Huh? What are you going to explain Cole? How you conveniently forgot to tell me you’re engaged to Sophie while you were declaring your supposed ‘love’ for me? Is that what you’re going to explain?” I question, and he shakes his head, taking hold of my shoulders. He looks into my eyes.

“I didn’t forget Shayla. I was going to tell you. I wanted to tell you so many times, but there wasn’t a right time, and things were going so great between us, I didn’t want anything to jeopardize that.” He explains, stepping close to me. I shake out of his hold and drop my gaze.

“No right time?” I whisper. “We had three whole fucking days together where you could have told me, but you chose not to! Your poor fiancée was so happy she told the whole damn world, but you couldn’t tell me?!” I shout, shoving him away from me when he tried to touch me. “Don’t fucking touch me.” I hiss angrily.

“Baby, I’m so sorry. I swear to you. I was going to speak to her and call off the whole thing. I lov—”

“Don’t!” I shout, shaking my head. My vision blurs as I fight back the tears when I look into his eyes. “Don’t you dare say that to me,” I say with a sob and angrily wipe away the tears that roll down my cheeks, “Don’t bother calling anything off. You two deserve each other,” I tell him and turn to leave, but he wraps his arms around me from behind, stopping me.

“Shayla please…” He pleads, his voice breaking. “Don’t walk away from me, from us, please baby, not again.” I close my eyes and bite the inside of my cheek.

“I don’t have anything left in me anymore, Cole. I’m beaten down and exhausted.” I turn and face him. “I’m done,” I whisper before I turn and walk away from him. I felt so numb. So utterly numb. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t feel anything. I felt dead inside. Was there a limit to how many times someone could get hurt before they just stop feeling? Or was I simply in shock? I just kept walking and walking; the rain was beating down on me. I could hear Cole’s voice calling out to me, but I keep going.

“Shayla, get in the car. You’re going to get sick. Please, baby, get in, and let me take you home.” He begs, following me and getting soaked himself. “Shayla?!” He shouts over the rain; he grabs my arm and pulls me back to him. “I’m not leaving you like this. Please get in the car, and I will take you home. You don’t have to talk or even look at me, please, sweetheart.”

I lift my gaze to him and blink, “How could you do this to me, Cole?” I whimper, fisting my hands in his shirt while I look up at him. “After I poured my heart out to you, how could you do this to me?! What are you trying to do to me?!” I scream at him and push at his chest. “Why do you keep hurting me? What have I ever done to you?” I helplessly sob while gazing up at him. Cole’s eyes well up as he lifts his hands and cups my face.

“Shayla hurting you is the last thing I ever want to do. I made a mistake by keeping it from you. I should have told you, I know, I’m so sorry I didn’t. I was going to end it as soon as I got back home baby.” I pull my face out of his hands and push him away from me.

I wipe the tears away with the back of my hand and look at him, “It’s too late for apologies now, you had every opportunity to tell me, but you chose to lie to my face again and again.”

“I didn’t lie to you!”

“You didn’t tell me, though, did you?! You’re engaged, Cole, and you were having sex with me! Telling me you’re in love with me! All the while, you’ve made a promise to share your life with another girl. How dare you put me in that position!” I shout hotly. “You’re not the man I thought you were.”

Cole shakes his head, shoving his fingers through his hair. “This was all before I knew how you felt about me, Shayla— before I even knew how I felt myself. I made a mistake by not telling you. It’s not like I planned to propose to her. It just fucking happened the night I came looking for you, I haven’t even had time to process it myself yet, Shay.” He explains, reaching out for me, but I swat his hand away.

“It’s a hell of a mistake, Cole. Whether it was planned or not doesn’t change the fact that you’re engaged.” I shake my head. “It’s not entirely your fault. I made a mistake by trusting you and allowing myself to open up to you. I should never have come back. I should have known you’d only wreck me again.” I tell him firmly. “I’m done,” I brush past him as I walk down the road.

“Shayla, please don’t walk away.” He pleads, watching me as I go. I stop and look back at him one last time. The rain was coming down hard, and I was shivering, but weirdly I didn’t feel cold despite being completely soaked.

“I have no reason to stay,” I tell him weakly before I turn and walk away from him—utterly wrecked.

* * *

It wasn’tuntil I got to my apartment and the door clicked shut behind me that I fell in a heap on the floor. My entire body was shaking, my teeth chattering, I couldn’t catch my breath.

“Oh my God, Shayla..” Jo came rushing over to me when she saw me on the floor. “Shayla? Shayla, look at me. Fucking hell, you’re freezing. Aimee!” She shouts out, and her brown eyes look down at me again. “Shay, what’s wrong? Shayla!” She yells, shaking me.

“What? What is it?” Aimee comes rushing out of her room and stops when she sees the state of me. “Jesus…”

“Aimee, she’s freezing,” Jo tells her worriedly, and Aimee comes beside me and pushes my wet hair off my face. “What do we do?!” She shouts at Aimee, who was looking around the apartment.

“I don’t fucking know! What the fuck happened to her?” She retorts, and Jo shakes her head, shrugging.

“I don’t know. I just saw her like this. She hasn’t said a word. She’s not even responding to me.” Jo explains, looking at me worriedly. It was such a weird feeling; they were so close to me, but I could barely hear them through the chaos in my head.

“Of course, she’s not going to respond to you Jo, she’s fucking frozen like an ice pop!” Aimee scolds her. “We need to get her body temperature back up. Let’s get her into a warm shower or something. Help me get her up.”

“Shayla, come on, babe,” Jo mumbles as they help me up to my feet and carry me to the bathroom. “I swear to God, if that idiot Cole has hurt her again, I’m going to go over there and castrate him,” Jo growls as they sit me on the toilet seat while they undress me. “Shayla, come on, babe, say something please.” Jo pleads, wiping away the endless tears that fell from my eyes.