Page 95 of The Ruthless and the Strong

“Yeah?”

“Did you feel like you didn’t have a choice?”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Something you said downstairs. You said this marriage wasn’t your mistake, it was your mother’s. Let me be clear with you on this before I continue. A failed marriage is not the end of the world. It is not a mistake. Nor is it a failure. You understand that, don’t you?”

I looked back down at my lap. “It feels like a failure.”

“That’s not true. A divorce is just life, sweetheart. Sometimes people fall out of love with each other, and that’s okay. That doesn’t mean you failed or Sam failed. It just means you weren’t meant to be.”

I kept my eyes downcast so he wouldn’t see. “What if I didn’t fall out of love with Sam?”

“Are you saying you still love him? Then perhaps you shouldn’t be starting anything with Max.”

“No, Dad,” I said, quietly. “I’m not in love with Sam.”

He was quiet for a moment. Then, “Oh.”

I let out a shaky breath. “Yeah. Oh.” To fall out of love with someone, you had to have fallen in love with them first. That was six years of me stringing along a good man and breaking him.

His big body shook next to mine then. My eyes jumped up to meet his, and they widened in surprise when I saw tears in them. “Dad, why are you crying?”

“I failed you. My only daughter, and I didn’t protect you the way I should have.”

“What do you mean?” I asked softly.

“I went along with your mother. She’d said you agreed on this marriage. I never questioned it. Nor did I ask you, because things were just easier if I went along. I wanted to see you protected, and I thought Sam would be the perfect man to do it.”

He cupped my cheeks and wiped away the tears I didn’t even know had fallen.

“I never thought you felt you couldn’t say no to the marriage,” he said. “But that was the case, wasn’t it? You went along to make everyone happy. To make your mother happy. And you did it at the expense of your own happiness.”

I shook my head and my lips trembled, but I didn’t know what to say. I’d wanted my parents to admit their role in this marriage for so long, but now that my dad was doing it and crying in front of me, I didn’t want it. I didn’t want to see him sad or in pain.

“I failed you, a leanbh.”

“No,” I croaked. “I did agree to this marriage.”

“But did you want it?”

I opened my mouth—to say what, I didn’t know. No words came out. But that was answer enough. He pulled me into his arms and buried his face in my neck, and I didn’t know what to do about it. I didn’t know how to comfort him when my heart was breaking as well.

And I didn’t know how to get over the shock at seeing my giant of a father cry.

“I’m so sorry, my little treasure. Forgive me.”

I nodded. “I forgive you,” I said, and I meant it. Problem was, I didn’t know if he heard me or not.

Movement from the doorway caught my attention. My wet eyes moved to it, and the tears fell when I saw my mom standing there. My vision blurred before I could take in the expression on her face, and when I blinked away the wetness, she was gone.

* * *

I didn’t seemy mom again that night.

Dad had clung onto me tightly when I said goodbye at the door. A part of me didn’t want to leave him when he was feeling so raw, but I needed some distance to get my emotions under control, and he probably needed to also, as much as he didn’t want to admit it.

I looked in the rearview mirror at a sleeping Hunter. He had gotten ready for bed at the house again, already in his favorite Captain Marvel pajamas, his favorite toy hanging precariously from his hand.

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