Page 75 of His Wife

“I told you there was no line I wouldn’t cross to keep you.”

My vision is blurry with tears. All I see is his black Italian leather shoes as he approaches, my cheeks burning and chest aching. I can’t look up. I can’t look at him. It hurts too damn much. And I’m paralyzed, sinking farther and farther down into a sea where there’s nothing. Nothing but pain. Deception. Lies.

Countless nights. A thousand words. A million kisses. Sunsets filled with promises. It’s all gone. In an instant. A split-fucking-second, and it’s just smoke thinning into the air until there’s nothing left of it.

Darkness engulfs me, and I’m weightless, coiled inside a void where nothing makes sense. I’m plunged into a cold emptiness with sharp tentacles piercing my lungs, making it harder for me to take a decent breath.

No matter how many times I go over everything inside my head, it all just comes to this moment, this place in time where I’m on my ass in front of his feet, broken and beaten, exactly where he wanted me when all this started. This was all inevitable.

“Everything is a lie,” I mutter. “You, your promises, your declarations of love.” I look up at him. “It’s all lies.”

“It’s not.” His jaw tics and shoulders square, his demeanor showing no trace of guilt. “I love you more than I ever thought possible, and that’s exactly why I did what I did…becauseI love you.”

A maniacal laugh spills through my tears and taunts his lies. Every ounce of strength in me surges, and I manage I push myself up on my feet, anger giving me the courage to look him in the eye. “Love? Do you hear yourself, Alexius? Do you hear what you’re saying?”

“I’m saying that I love you and did this so you would fucking stay.”

“You switched my birth control, for fuck’s sake. You tricked me into becoming pregnant. You took that goddamn choice away from me.”

“What choice?”

“The choice of becoming a mother! God damn you, Alexius!” I cry, placing a palm on my forehead, forcing myself to breathe so I won’t pass out. “Getting pregnant and having children is supposed to be this beautiful thing when the time is right for both of us. And now…you ruined it. You corrupted it.”

“I did what I had to do,” he bites out between clenched teeth. “I love you, and I couldn’t stand by and wait for the day you decide to walk out my fucking front door.”

“You wanted me in a corner, in a place where it’s impossible for me to leave you. That’s not love. That’s manipulative bullshit. Evil. A fucking obsession.”

“Call it what you want. It doesn’t change the fact that you are mine.Mywife. And I was not about to just stand to the side once our agreement was over and watch the woman I love leave.”

“Love. You keep using the word like you know the meaning of it,” I spit out. “But you don’t. To you, love is control. It’s power. To you, love means you’re the puppeteer and everybody else the fucking puppet. Including me. Including these babies.” More tears stream down my face, but it stems more from anger than sadness as a new reality hits me square in the chest. “Because of your selfishness, your twisted need to fucking control everything and everyone, I’m going to be a mom. We’re going to have twins, Alexius. Two lives born from your fucking lies!” I scream. “Do you understand that? Do you realize the magnitude of what you’ve done? These babies aren’t even born yet, and you’ve already infected their existence with something so ugly.” I bite my bottom lip and choke on a sob. “Every time they laugh, I’ll be reminded of your lies. Every time they cry, I’ll feel the cut of your deception, over and fucking over again. Do you see what you’ve done?”

“What I’ve done, I did because I love you.”

“Bullshit!”

His expression hardens, his face stone as he stares at me. “For one goddamn hour, I lost you and went out of my fucking mind thinking Micah had you hanging from a ledge with a cable around your throat. So, in case you’re wondering whether I regret doing what I did,” he inches closer, and there’s nothing but pure resolve in his eyes, “I don’t. I don’t regret switching your birth control with placebos. I don’t regret getting you pregnant. And if I could go back in time and do it all over again, I would. I warned you, Leandra. I told you I can’t be a fair or rational man when it comes to you. I warned you that with my love comes a heavy burden, one you’ll carry for the rest of your life.”

“I didn’t think the burden would be destructive.”

“Neither did I. But what matters is that we love each other, and nothing can change that.”

He reaches out, and I jerk back, his fingers brushing against my arm, his touch nothing but a searing fire that melts my flesh.

“You’re wrong.” I wipe the tears on my cheeks. “Something did change it.Youchanged it.”

“I know you’re hurt and feel betrayed, but I won’t apologize,” he bites out, his jaw clenched.

I scoff. “Because a Del Rossa never apologizes?”

He cranks his head from side to side like he’s saddled with the world’s weight on his shoulders.

“It’s ironic if you think about it.” I cross my arms. “You lied to me. You deceived and tricked me because you were afraid of losing me.” I suck in a breath, a thousand knives piercing my heart every second I continue to look at him. “And you ended up losing me anyway.”

“Don’t—”

“And not just me,” I sneer, his deception slowly infecting my love for him, deforming it into something unrecognizable. “You lost these babies, too.”

A threatening anger hardens the lines on his face. “What the hell are you saying?”

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